\u201cUgliness doesn\u2019t sell!\u201d This is the title of a book by Raymond Loewy and it is also the leitmotiv of the work of this designer who was as elegant in his work as in his appearance. This is how Serge Bellu begins his portrait of one of the Twentieth century\u2019s styling theoreticians. Here are one or two other passages from the article:<\/p>\n
\u201cRaymond Loewy had the profile of a Hollywood hero, and his physique reinforced the image (…). A dashing moustache, exquisite flannels, monochrome grey patterns and cravats. His life read like a novel.
\nA good son, good soldier, and a great seducer before becoming a doting husband, he had all the right attributes for the triumphant \u00e9migr\u00e9 and
\nwas the very embodiment of the American dream\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt fifteen Raymond Loewy had already realised that \u2018industrial design could mean big money while enjoying yourself\u2019.<\/p>\n
In Manhattan, things for Loewy changed. He embarked on a path of disenchantment, he knocked on doors that did not open: in spite of all his technical expertise, General Electric turned him down\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c1929 marked a turning point in Loewy\u2019s career. The Gestetner company asked him to redesign their mimeograph machine. The design revolution had begun. A whole generation of creative young minds, born in the late 1920s, was flourishing under the impetus of economic recession. Loewy drew the most attention of a group that included Walter Teague, Henry Dreyfuss, Norman
\nBel Geddes and Harold Van Doren, rivals who esteemed each other and supported and helped each other(…).<\/p>\n
\u201cOn 16 July 1988 the death of Raymond Loewy made the front pages of the main dailies. An exceptional event for a daily press that was not in the habit of bothering about the life and death of designers, except that this one\u2019s stature was such that it went beyond the bounds of his own microcosm\u201d.<\/p>\n
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 158<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>[images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2308200601_Raymond_Loewy-300×137.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2308200602_Raymond_Loewy-219×300.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2308200601_Raymond_Loewy-300×137.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2308200602_Raymond_Loewy-219×300.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-design-story-en"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 23:08:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}