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Task 2 | Henry Van de Velde [Presentation] - From ? to art nouveau

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Raymond Loewy Presentation

Raymond Loewy from David Pasanen

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presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ykdvqDKhsprueiOc3MIyesjvLg6ioCs8o8mJeyApezo/edit?usp=sharing

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Presentation

Link to Presentation

Raymond first dreamed about building cars and locomotives in paris. he would always be drawing automobiles and airplanes etc that his parents sent him to engineering school. After he graduated he moved to america and started off his career as an illustrator, window dresser and a commercial artist in New York.

In the late 1920’s he stopped doing illustration, window dressing etc, to become an industrial designer. He called himself an Industrial designer and stylist.

He started by redesigning a copier and designing a radio/clock which featured in the hagley exhibition along with his ‘New World Radio’ which he designed in 1933.

His career as an industrial designer really took off when he designed the “Coldspot” refrigerator for sears in 1934. His new design included an all-over smooth surface with rolled edges, he had taken away the four legs and improved the way the fridge opened. This was the first product to ever use clay modelling. Even the technical aspect of the design improved increasing to 210,000 more sales in a year. At the Paris international exposition in 1937 the Coldspot refrigerator won the top design prize

Well known work of his include the new design for the air force one in 1963 for president JFK. Raymond Loewy became friends with the president while he was designing the new look through the consultation and feedback process.

A famous item he design was a cigarette pack called lucky strike. Originally there was green instead of white, but the war had put restrictions on pigments so a year after the original the red and white version came out with the tag line “lucky strike has gone to war”.

Just a note on the war: during the war materials used in many designs became harder to come by, once the war ended skilled labourers, machines and materials became available again. RL and his colleagues resumed their work without any restrictions. from the years of the war they had learnt about the "value of inventiveness and economy of materials." this cause the industry to become more cost effectiveness and efficient. which lead industrial design to be considered a accepted and respected profession.

Here are some more examples of products Raymond designed.

Loewy’s lieutenant Carl Otto said in 1945 “We create beauty for useful purpose...not for museums”

Cosmo magazine said that Raymond Loewy had affected more americans lives than any other man of his time.

The market for objects and products was, during Loewy’s time, considered ‘saturated’, filled with products for every possible need. But that did not necessarily mean that these products were well-designed. With this in mind salesmen/marketers wanted to change their designs to appeal to the whims of their customers, and they did so by targeting the customer’s wants and needs. This is where designers came in to change and enhance the aesthetics of their products.

Loewy, one of these such designers, found that the mass-produced items predominated the market had “Superfluous surface decoration, uninspired colour treatments...inconsistencies which covered rather than reveal the nature of the object.”

Loewy promoted a balance between Aesthetics and the function of an object, reflecting his four design values. (Efficiency, Simplicity, Economy and Ease of maintenance.) He describes these as a ‘philosophy’ that should inform all designers, and we can see this reflected in his work as well as our own designs today. It is this way of thinking, where Raymond- and by extension, any designer, assumes the role and attitudes of a salesman as well as an aesthetic artist. It is also these values which make Loewy an influential and interesting designer.

Loewy’s influences on the designs of his time, as well as ours, were highly significant, as can be judged by the range of items he has designed that are still relevant to us today. His design philosophy influenced his designs to reflect the changing state of his society and industry. J.L Meikle says that “Americans needed signs that the future would be better, smoother, simpler, more efficient.”  After dealing with war this was something that American citizens would have desperately sought. Certain aesthetic principles, such as ‘streamlining’ became very popular. This reduced the design to it’s core form, reducing aspects showcase speed and air resistance. It is a similar principle you might see in a say, a fancy sports car today.

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DSDN 171 PRESENTATIOON

presentation task 2

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ykdvqDKhsprueiOc3MIyesjvLg6ioCs8o8mJeyApezo/edit?usp=sharing