Raymond Loewy – Studebaker Avanti.

1965 Avanti Brochure
via The Old Car Manual Project

Avanti Logotype
Designed by Raymond Loewy

Avanti Logotype Emblem
via Paula Wirth

1963 Avanti Postcard
via Robert McLellan’s automotive

Design Sketches by Loewy & Associates 1961 (above & below)
via The Avanti.com

The Paris office of Raymond Loewy Associates created these preliminary sketches in 1961. They were the earliest drawings submitted by Loewy when the Avanti was still an idea and was not yet named. These renderings are preserved in the Library of Congress. They suggest the Avanti and convey an elegant simplicity often lacking in production models from the period.

Raymond Loewy was a renowned industrial designer (and graphic designer) throughout much of the 20th century. Though he was born in Paris, France, he became an American citizen a few years after arriving in New York. His contributions include such familiar industrial products as the S1 and T1 locomotives, the Greyhound Bus, and Air Force One. From the Hupmobile in the 1930′s to the Lancia Loraymo in the late 1950′s Loewy’s automotive designs were always innovative. From the mid 1940′s and into the 1950′s he designed cars for the Studebaker Corporation. Loewy designed the Avanti for Studebaker in 1961. –The Avanti.com

While Loewy introduced slanted windshields, built-in headlights and wheel covers for automobiles, he also advocated lower, leaner and more fuel-efficient automobiles long before fuel economy became a concern. “He waged a long war against the worst extravagances of Detroit styling,” commented Edward Lucie-Smith a Times Literary Supplement. “He could take a production-line monster and make it an infinitely better-looking ‘special,’ with comparatively minor rebuilding. What he could not do was to alter the industry’s fundamental attitudes. Gas-guzzlers remained gas-guzzlers, and no fancy-pants designer was going to be allowed to change that.”
–Raymond Loewy.com

Loewy’s Logo Sheet
via Raymond Loewy.org

In addition to his achievements in the transportation field, Loewy was undoubtedly among the world’s most talented commercial artists. He began designing packaging and logos in 1940 when George Washington Hill, then president of the American Tobacco Company, wagered him $50,000 that he could not improve the appearance of the already familiar green and red Lucky Strike cigarette package. Accepting the challenge, Loewy began by changing the package background from green to white, thereby reducing printing costs by eliminating the need for green dye. Next he placed the red Lucky Strike target on both sides of the package, increasing product visibility and ultimately product sales. A satisfied Hill paid off the bet, and for over 40 years the Lucky Strike pack has remained unchanged.

“I’m looking for a very high index of visual retention,” Loewy explained of his logos. “We want anyone who has seen the logotype even fleetingly to never forget it.” Among Loewy’s highly visible logotype designs are those for Shell Oil Company, Exxon, Greyhound and Nabisco. –Raymond Loewy.com

Life Magazine recently selected Loewy as one of the 100 most influential Americans of the twentieth century.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

>> Raymond Loewy.com + Raymond Loewy.org
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .