Video: Raymond Loewy, Father of Industrial Design

Meet Raymond Loewy, the pioneering auto stylist and founder of industrial design, in this excellent 1979 video interview.

 

 

Courtesy of the vast Internet Archive, we have this excellent video biography of Raymond Loewy, originally produced by the CBS television news magazine 60 Minutes in 1979, when the pioneering designer was 85 years old and still sharp as a tack. The 15-minute segment, conducted by Morley Safer of CBS, is titled Father of Industrial Design, and rightly so. Loewy didn’t invent the discipline, of course, but he did originate industrial design as a paid, independent profession, and as much as any one individual, he made product design an essential element in the modern manufacturing and marketing process.

Loewy’s design credits include familiar items like the Coca-Cola bottle, Air Force One,  and a number of automobiles—though the car world seems to have a love-hate relationship with the Franco-American designer. He was known to accept the accolades for work that was actually performed by hirelings and associates (two sterling examples are the 1953 Studebaker and the 1963 Avanti) and his own automotive creations could sometimes be curious if not downright peculiar. Still, his contribution to product design cannot be denied, and his insights and observations in this interview are riveting. Video below.

 

5 thoughts on “Video: Raymond Loewy, Father of Industrial Design

  1. True, Loewy did accept credit for designs not his own with the Bob Bourke Studebaker and the Avanti. But I wonder if he is any different in that regard from Harley Earl, Exner, Bill Mitchell et. al.

  2. The lead photo we used above is rather special. From left: Vince Gardner, Raymond Loewy, Bob Bourke, Audrey Moore Hodges. All made their mark in automotive design.

  3. I was lucky to spend an evening with Raymond :Loewy back in 1980 at John Clinard’s home in Farmington, MI. He detailed his strategy of designing the Avanti with a small group of us Detroit gearheads. What a night……

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