Raymond Loewy and the Studebaker Design Team

Writing of design legend Raymond Loewy in Raymond Loewy: Pioneer of Industrial Design, Mercedes styling chief Bruno Sacco, himself a styling legend, said:

"Three projects, all for Studebaker, have earned Raymond Loewy a place in the history of automobile design: the 1947-52 series, the l953-55 models, and the crowning achievement of the 1962 Avanti. Do we miss a continuous thread of design philosophy in the Studebakers? Is that perhaps where Loewy failed? He was never a man to take small steps; it was in his nature to jump several squares at a time on the checkerboard. And, as his association with Studebaker shows, he managed to carry it off, and left his mark on automobile design."

It is for the work at Studebaker that Raymond Loewy and his Studebaker design team are one of two Honored Designers celebrated at the 1995 Eyes on Classic Design.

Raymond Loewy generally worked with a large staff of colleagues, though few would question the dominance of his personality and his design philosophy. He recognized, as have so many others, that automotive design is team endeavor.

Before contracting with Studebaker, Loewy cut his automotive design teeth working with Hupmobile. The 1932 V-8 Spyder Cabriolet was the first car to carry the Loewy imprimatur and to be built to Loewy's satisfaction. His 1934 Hupmobile designs, though elegant, failed to rescue the company and were discontinued in 1936.

"My association with Studebaker started in 1938 and lasted until 1962," Loewy wrote in his autobiography Never Leave Well Enough Alone, in which he also stated, "The keynote of my work was simplification."

Prevailing opinion holds that Studebaker hired Raymond Loewy because it simply lacked automobile design talent of the caliber to be found at General Motors, Ford, or Chrysler.

Into the design vacuum at Studebaker, Loewy took his aims of simplicity, making what appeared to be only minor surface adjustments to the existing Studebaker line. Yet, his work resulted in the clean, simple lines found on late 1930s Studebakers and in the 1938 Studebaker being named "Best Looking Car of the Year" by the American Federation of Arts. Loewy's design for the 1942 Studebaker, production of which was halted by World War II, emerged in 1946 looking anything but dated.

Working at Studebaker with Virgil M. Exner, later design vice president at Chrysler, Loewy spent a part of the war years developing design executions for the post-war Studebaker cars. Launched in mid-1946, these Studebaker designs were the product of a less than happy collaboration between Virgil Exner and Loewy, (Exner resigned before the project's completion) but the cars were stunning.

The 1946 Studebakers differed from previous American production cars in that their shape was dictated by an overall design, or architecture, and not by the car's individual components such as fenders, trunk lid, and hood. These cars presaged the "pontoon" shape soon a to be ubiquitous, and the forward-leaning look of the 1946 Studebakers and those that followed established the marque as a style leader, if only temporarily.

In 1950, Loewy gave Studebakers a slightly smoother look that featured the bullet-nose front end. Viewed from the front, these cars had a definite resemblance to an aircraft. This feature disappeared with the end of the 1952 model run.

Working with Studebaker, located in South Bend, Indiana, the Loewy team found that it could design cars without the "help" of prevailing Detroit styling wisdom.

"Thanks to [Studebaker president] Paul Hoffman, I was given the opportunity to design cars liberated from most of Detroit's atavistic influences. No more inbred, incestuous designs; instead, a fresh new approach for a century-old firm was demanded. The body-styling division which I formed at the plant and that bore my name became known in the profession for its talent, spirit, and sense of mission." Loewy wrote in 1951, prior to the appearance of his statement's best evidence.

As planning progressed for the 1953 models that would be the high-water mark for Studebaker styling, Loewy worked with another designer who would make his mark in Detroit. This was Robert Bourke.

The 1953 Studebakers were, as the design world knows, critical styling successes. Their impact carried them as far as the cover of Time magazine. Sadly, the models were not big enough sellers to prevent the need for a merger with Packard in 1954. As lovely to look at as the Hawks and Starlight coupes of this era were, the Loewy team had one more Studebaker ace up its sleeve. This was the Avanti, introduced in 1962 with a fiberglass body, unconventional plane relationships, and a clean treatment of details.

Years later, Loewy said, "If I were to redesign Avanti today, I would keep it much the same."

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