Rem Koolhaas research paper by Kristen S.-B.

In the world of design, Rem Koolhaas is a modern pioneer. Koolhaas is world-renowned for his innovative architectural designs, his architectural theories, and his work as Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Koolhaas was born in Rotterdam on November 17, 1944. Rotterdam is in the Dutch province of South Holland. Nicolai Ouroussoff, critic for the Los Angeles Times, described Koolhaas’s importance like this: “There is little questions that Rem Koolhaas is one of the most influential architects of the last 20 years. As an architectural thinker, his cool analytic approach to design, sprinkle with a healthy skepticism, has informed the profession that his fingerprints can be found on the work of almost any young architect today. Koolhaas has achieved the enviable stature of both cult idol and international celebrity” (May 21st, 2004). Before Koolhaas was famous, he spent a significant amount of time studying and working in other professions.

After high school, Koolhaas studied scriptwriting at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam. Like many young people it is possible that Koolhaas’s professional aspirations were influenced by his environment—in this case the fact that his father was a screenwriter and alternately that Koolhass’s grandfather was an architect. After graduation Koolhaas worked as a journalist and script writer and actor. Years later Koolhaas begins studying architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. Koolhaas graduates again in 1968 and begins working with respected architect O.M. Ungers. In 1972 Koolhaas was admitted to Cornell University where he continues to work with Ungers until 1978, which, according to one source, influenced Koolhaas’ “ideas on architecture and its relationship to the city” (Schrijver). Based on my observations, Koolhaas has been significantly influenced by the Surrealist movement which is most often associated with Salvador Dalí. In Roberto Gargiani’s book, Rem Koolhaas: OMA, The Construction of Merveilles, it was from Dalí’s book Le Mythe Tragique de l’Angelus de Millet, which was published in 1963, that ". . .Koolhaas took the ‘paranoid-critical interpretation’ he was to apply to the study of New York and the invention of other merveilles of architecture./ ‘I have had a longstanding interest in surrealism—he would say later—but more for its analytical powers than for its exploitation of the subconscious of the subconscious or for its aesthetics. […]. I was most impressed by its ‘paranoid’ methods, which I consider one of the genuine inventions of this century, a rational method which does not pretend to be objective, through which analysis becomes identical to creation" (12). The surrealist approach must have appealed to Koolhaas after working as a journalist for years under the artistically restrictive directive of “objectivity.” Koolhaas’s designs and theories as a student would reappear and transform his work in later years.

Koolhaas gained international attention when he co-founded the Office for Metropolitan Architecture with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp in 1975 with offices in New York City, London, and Berlin. The small collective worked in association with Ungers and
". . . confirmed the central importance . . . of the metropolitan phenomenon in the definition of architecture . . . It also indicated consensus with that contemporary cultural orientation that acknowledges the dissolving of the architectural object in the dimension of the metropolis, as theorized for the most part by Italian Marxist intellectuals and radical architecture groups, from Manfredo Tafuri to Archizoom" (Gargiani, 25). Later, OMA established AMO. Specifically, AMO is a think tank focused on social, economic, and technological issues. Koolhaas manages the AMO branches in Europe (Rotterdam), North America (New York), and Asia (Beijing). The OMA entry to the Venice Biennale of 1980 drew attention from critics because it was the only modernist design—all the other entries displayed postmodern classicism of the late 1970s. While OMA was intensely focused on contributing to the world of architectural theory in its first decade (and a half), they eventually broke into the world of physically constructing architectural projects.

The first large project that OMA built was the Kunsthal in Rotterdam in 1992. The Kunsthal was modeled after schemes discussed by Koolhaas in his book Delirious New York, a Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, which was published in 1978. Delirious was written while Koolhaas is a visiting scholar at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City. One of the interesting ideas that Koolhaas explained in Delirious was his perception of New York City’s skyscrapers as having ". . . ideological ambitions, to the extent that they represented in many ways the realisations [sic.] of those European avant-garde movements—such as Futurism, Constructivism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Socialist Realism—that had each in their own way been preoccupied with the invention and subsequent imposition of a completely new way of life. But in Europe, where they had been invented, these movements had considered themselves absolutely incompatible and their conclusions irreconcilable. Each of them therefore sought to impose the hegemony of its doctrines at the expense of others. But in Manhattan, where they lived ‘incognito’ so to speak, they coexisted with the Grid as if they had always been intended as each other’s necessary complement without any tempering of their truculence” (Gargiani, 18). While there has been great criticism of American culture as being a melting pot of once greater cultures, perhaps Koolhaas is so fascinated by New York because of it foreignness. Another difference between European cities and the New York that Koolhaas adores is that of Manhattan’s grid. In an essay published in the book Making the Metropolitan Landscape, Roy Strickland tells readers that, in Delirious, Koolhaas concludes that there can be a “euphoric celebration of the liberation from conventions of hierarchy, scale, decorum, and so implied, if not actually realized, by the Manhattan (and presumably other) urban grids.” For those of us not familiar with European architecture in the most generalized way, Strickland goes on to say that "In this, of course, Koolhaas was only the latest in a long line of would-be escapees from the stuffy aesthetic and social constraints of traditional European towns and town life and, by the early 20th century, their even stuffier reproductions in proliferating garden cities and suburbs—not to mention the post-war reconstructions of Koolhaas’s youth" (121).

Most recently, the big commissions that OMA has won were for the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin, the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, the Prada Epicenter in Los Angeles, the Public Library in Seattle (2004), the Casa de Musica concert hall in Porto (2005), and China Central Television’s cultural center in Beijing (2008). One of Koolhaas’s signature aesthetic choices in his work has been to employ the use of the “void.” In the case of a library Koolhaas designed for the Trés Grande Bibliothéque competition entry, ". . . the library was a solid stack from which volumes are carved: ‘The major public spaces are defined as absences of building, voids carved out of the information solid.’ . . . [Eisenman] argues that the [Jussieu Libraries] conceives the void not only as a critique of modernist precedents, but also . . . [a strategy that] involves creating situations which introduce a voyeuristic gaze and in which the voided space both blocks direct vision and reveals supposedly hidden elements" (Eisenman, 202). One of the modernist principles that Koolhaas worked against was the simplification of exterior and interior spaces that couldn’t possibly excite someone whose mind was as active as his. In creating his unique urban spaces, Koolhaas often employed techniques like bending walls and slanting ceilings so as to give the impression of malleable and continuous surfaces, in part to make the inhabitants aware of the spaces they were in. The two pictures below are of the Educatorium on the university campus in Utrecht.

One of the most interesting spaces that Koolhaas designed was his Prada store in Beverly Hills. When I think of the interior space of a high-end luxury store, I think of bright lights and lots of shiny, metallic surfaces with lots of mirrors and hundreds of delicious colors and textures to absorb. Koolhaas knew this and designed the Beverly Hills store to create an opposite experience wherein the textures in his Prada store absorbed light and looked soft and non-reflective.















The Beverly Hills Prada store also has so few clothes within such a large amount of space that the consumer feels small and as if they were in a museum where the clothes were on display (instead of in a store where the mirrors and other reflective surfaces made them part of the Prada experience). According to author Simone Brott, the purpose of this was to create a feeling of interiority and to experience the architecture of the store (8). Prada hired Koolhaas to be the architect for this store so that they could connect the concept of their store to the avant-garde of the art world.

As someone who has been inside the Seattle Public Library, I can definitely say that the dynamic that Koolhaas created was very visually exciting—I had never been in a building that seemed so open and mysterious at the same time. These conflicting feelings made me want to explore the space, not just check my email as I had originally entered the building to do. The way the interior space was laid out, it seemed like a photographer’s dream: you could get entirely different impressions of the building by positioning yourself on different floors in different directions as the colors, materials, and spaces changed in every direction; the whole thing seemed like a puzzle that would only come together if you could find the right vantage point.



In Essentiial Architecture: The History of Western Architecture, the Seattle Public Library is described this way: "A structural steel and glass skin unifies eight horizontal platforms that are connected by a series of elevators and escalators. These levels, all of different opacities, densities, sizes and shapes, allow for versatile uses of space. The sloping glass ceilings and walls create unusual lighting and views of the urban surroundings" (Borden, Elzanowski, Lawrenz, Miller, Smith, Taylor, 496). However, on the other side of the emotional spectrum, there has been some critique of Koolhaas and OMA’s ethics in regard to building the CCTV in China.

According to Ian Buruma, the CCTV is “ . . . the voice of the party, the centre of state propaganda, the organ which tells a billion people what to think” which is bad when the government is promoting things like the genocide of Tibetan people” (McNeill, 141).

In addition to publishing Delirious, Koolhaas also published the book S, M, L, XL, which summarizes the work of OMA and established connections between contemporary society and architecture. In 2005, Koolhaas co-founds Volume Magazine with Mark Wigley and Ole Bouman. Then in 2008, Time Magazine puts Koolhaas in their top 100 list of “The World’s Most Influential People.”

Koolhaas has also received numerous awards, the most prestigious of which are the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2000), the Chevallier de Légion d’honneur (2001), the Praumium Imperiale (2003), the RIBA Royal Gold Medal (2004), and the Mies van der Rohe Award for the Netherlands Embassy Berlin (2005). The Mies van der Rohe Award is presented every 2 years by the EU and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe (Barcelona) to acknowledge and reward quality architecture production in Europe.

Koolhaas’s work has also been the subject of various exhibits in well-established galleries around the world. The first to mention would be the Content exhibit which was housed in the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 2003 and was later transported to the Kunsthal (which was built by OMA) in 2004. In addition to the Content exhibition, a book of the same name was published in 2003 by Taschen Books. According to Harvard’s Graduate School of Design’s website, “Content illustrates the ways that Rem Koolhaas and OMA-AMO interact with the world and how the world in turn influences their work.” Then, in the summer of 2005, Koolhaas curated one of the exhibitions called 'Expansion & Neglect' for the very prestigious Venice Biennale. The Venice Biennale is one of the most well-respected art exhibits in the contemporary world of fine (high) art. Then in 2008, AMO held an exhibition on the representation in and the perception of Europe to be on display in Brussels and at the Haus der Kunst in Munich.

Presently, at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Koolhaas conducts Project on the City, a research program investigating changing urban conditions around the world.

As anyone who took the time to look over the prolific life’s work of Rem Koolhaas would conclude, Koolhaas is one of the designers of the 20th and 21st centuries who has become a “starchitect” due to his unconventional approaches to architecture and architectural theory.

Bibliography:

Borden, Daniel; Elzanowski, Jerzy; Lawrenz, Cornelia; Miller, Danial; Smith, Adele; Taylor, Joni. Essential Architecture: The History of Western Architecture. London: Herbert Press, 2008.

Brott, Simone. “Close Encounter, Withdrawn Effects.” Journal of Architectural Education (2008): 6-16.

Eisenman, Peter. Ten Canonical Buildings 1950-2000. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2008.

Gargiani, Roberto. Rem Koolhaas: OMA The Construction of Merveilles. Abingdon, Oxford: Routledge, 2008.

McNeill, Donald. The Global Architect: Firms, Fame and Urban Form. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Schrijver, Lara. “OMA as tribute to OMU: Exploring Resonances in the Work of Koolhaas and Ungers.” The Journal of Architecture 13 (2008): 235-261.

Stauber, Jennifer, and Tatom, Jacqueline, eds. Making the Metropolitan Landscape: Standing Firm on Middle Ground. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Monica Barbera
El Lissitzky

El Lissitzky was a Russian painter, typographer, designer, and one of the most influential figures in nonrepresentational and constructivist art. Although he had a relatively short life, dieing at the age of 51, he was a well traveled accomplished artist who is still relevant today.

Lazar Mordukhovich Lisitskii, better know as El Lissitzky, was born on November 23, 1890 in Pochinok, a small Jewish, river side town in the Vitebsk district of Russia. El lived with his grandparents on this mother’s side in Smolensk while he attended secondary school where he began showing an interest in art. El’s family provided him with a board education, including training in art. His father spoke four languages, including Russian, German, Yiddish and English and would translate Shakespeare and Heine for El. After finishing secondary school Lissitzky applied to the St. Petersburg Academy and was rejected because of his Jewish background. After this rejection El decided he needed a profession and began studying architecture in Germany. As a student El traveled to many places studying their architectural significance. During these travels El found himself drawn not only to the architecture of religious buildings but to Japanese prints, crafts, western painting and sculpture. These influences can be seen in some of this surviving works from this time.

With the eruption of World War I Lissitzky was required to leave Germany. He returned to Russia and attended the Riga Polytechnic Institute in Moscow. He graduated as an “engineer-architect” in 1918. El worked in two major architectural firms but did not design. During the war he became involved with a movement focused on the revival of Jewish culture. This sudden concentration was said to be sparked by his earlier travels, interest in religious architecture and the 1917 Revolution, which dissolved the restrictions on Jews. Lissitzky went on to work for several Jewish publishers designing publication covers, illustrating and trademarks.

There have been many rumors as to why El moved to Germany in the early 1920’s. This move proved to be a significant event, shortly after Lissitzky began teaching architecture and design at the VKhUTEMAS at Khudozhestvenno-Praktichesky Institut (Artistic-Technical Institute), his Prouns movement began taking shape and he aided in the formation of the UNOVIS group (Affirmers of the New Art). After this point El’s interests shifted to the use of typography and photography. El used the shapes of printed letters as to symbolize the parts of the human form and the world around them. Lissitzky’s work in photography is not what one would expect when they hear the word photography. El experimented with placing everyday objects on photo paper and exposing them to sunlight. He also double exposed picture to superimpose images. El then journeyed into propaganda for Stalin, specifically in the area of book design. As the events leading to the beginning of World War II took place Lissitzky continued creating from his deathbed creating his last work, a propaganda poster to rally Soviets to build tanks to defeat Nazi Germany.

In looking at El Lissitzky’s works we can see how closely it is linked to the world around him. His earlier works are marked by his commitment to his religion during a time in which he was being persecuted and forced to live as a second class citizen. While his later works show his deep connection to his support for Stalin.

El is best known for his series of works he called Proun a series of abstract geometric paintings. Lissitzky described this work as “the station on the road towards constructing a new form” (Lissitzky, 1976 p.60) Lissitzky shifted axes, used multiple perspectives and his own pension for architecture to take the previously 2D suprematism into a 3D form. Over the five years he spent on Proun his work progressed from paintings and lithographs to 3D installations and exhibitions.

Some have speculated that Lissitzky has remained such an important figure because he was so ahead of his time. Many in the art community consider design to be a modern term, but Lissitzky used it to describe his works in his autobiography in 1926. El considered his giving up painting to be the beginning of the most important work as an artist, although Russia did not agree at that time. Many did not understand the purpose of his works.
In one of Lissitzky’s essays, Do Not Separate Form from Content he writes “Technology offers the most colossal possibilities for design.” In this essay El is specifically speaking about books, both the design and publication, but this quote speaks a great deal about Lissitzky’s general artistic identity. He started in more classical mediums and as technology advanced his works changed to incorporate these advances.

Frank Gehry - Toron Smith

Frank Gehry

Most of us are familiar with at least one piece of Frank Gehry’s architecture. I remember there was this big to do about Paul Allen investing in a new kind of music museum called the Experience Music Project or “EMP” for short. It was supposed to be this huge cutting edge building that put the viewer in the drivers seat in terms of interactivity. The icing on the cake was that Mr. Allen commissioned a world renowned architect to design the building in its soon to be home in downtown Seattle. I never really paid to much attention to the uproar or thought to pay that much attention to the construction process of the museum. Lets just say that when I saw final product I finally understood the cheers and the jeers. That in my opinion sums up the work of Frank Gehry. His work is often praised for its forward adaptation of design, all while criticized because of his against the grain approaches.

Frank Gehry was born on February 28, 1929 to a Polish-Jewish family in Toronto, Canada. As a young boy Frank began to hone his creative impulses by constructing and sketching out his ideas and would often borrow materials from his grandfathers hardware store for inspiration. The Young Gehry moved to Los Angeles in 1947 where he began studying at Los Angeles City College. He took his first architecture classes on a whim and fell in love with the possibilities of design. It should be noted that he was very much under skilled and was not a natural when it came to drafting. With the help of his professors and an early encounter with established architect Raphael Soriano, he won a scholarship to the University of Southern California. In 1954 he earned his degree in architecture.

Gehry’s post undergrad career began as he began work at notable architecture firm Victor Gruin Associates. His work would soon be interrupted by military service where he served one year in the United States Army. It was not soon after he returned that he entered into the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He began studying city planning but returned to Los Angeles before he completed his degree. Upon his return home he worked at various LA architectural firms but it is said that he grew tired and decided on relocating with his wife and kids to Paris were he worked for French Architect Andre Romondet and apprenticed under noted modernist Le Corbusier. This marked the true beginnings of his career.

After his stewardship in Paris, Gehry returned to Los Angeles where he spawned Gehry Associates. It should be stated that in the early stages of his business career he continued to work in the international style as created by Le Corbusier and taught by the Bauhaus school. A change began to take place in his design style as he became closely involved with the sculpting community. It was by this new found interest in sculpting that he began to explore new ways and new uses of material and thought. It was at this point where he broke through and his personal design language began to surface. National popularity was soon to follow after the success of his furniture line called East Edges. The hugely popular line was featured in numerous magazine spreads and periodicals. By the mid 1980’s Frank’s work attracted international attention and world acclaim. His work in the Vitra furniture factory in Basil, Switzerland and the Vitra Design Museum in Weil-amRhein, Germany cemented his status as a star in the design world. His style is known as playful and imaginative, all while complex in thought and construction. Critics placed his style of work in the realm of “deconstructivism.“

Deconstructivism, or Deconstruction, is an approach to building design that attempts to view architecture in bits and pieces. The basic elements of architecture are dismantled. Deconstructivist buildings may seem to have no visual logic. They may appear to be made up of unrelated, disharmonious abstract forms.

Originally, some of the architects known as Deconstructivists were influenced by the ideas of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. For him Deconstructivism should be considered an extension of his interest in radical formalism. Some practitioners of deconstructivism were also influenced by the formal experimentation and geometric imbalances of Russian constructivism. There are additional references in deconstructivism to 20th-century movements: the modernism/postmodernism interplay, expressionism, cubism, minimalism and contemporary art. The attempt in deconstructivism throughout is to move architecture away from what its practitioners see as the constricting 'rules' of modernism such as "form follows function," "purity of form," and "truth to materials."

Gehry’s work is sometimes referred to as Los Angeles School, which is based on the idea that many architects around the Los Angeles area produce postmodern architecture. His work is also known as California funk, which references the 60s and 70s use of inexpensive material to make something grand.

I guess you don’t get to become a Pritzker Prize winning architect without having constructed some amazing pieces of architecture. One of Frank Gehry’s most renowned and some say his best work to date is from his construction of the Guggenheim Museum in Spain. The building itself is designed to be, feel, and appear random. The museum opened in 1997 and was considered by many one of the most immaculate buildings ever constructed in this time and age. The shape itself is said to resemble a ship, which seems quite appropriate since the museum was constructed on the shores of the Nervion River in Biboa. It blends together the world of both the organic and inorganic. While the body of the building flows naturally, the exoskeleton seamlessly blends together titanium flanks to hold together the beautiful composition. In an explanation of the process Gehry explained how he managed to develop the Guggenheim on time and within budget. First he secured the artists in order to maintain his artist vision, then he budgeted a realistic cost or figure, and finally he used a computer-aided system called CATIA along with other time saving software in order to maintain efficiency.

Being from Seattle I think that it would only be in order for me to reference the Gehry piece of architecture that adorns my cities vibrant metropolitan makeup. The building is made up of more than 140,000 square feet of sheet metal and steel. The EMP is very much psychedelic and pays homage in various ways to Seattle bands and rock and roll prodigies such as Jimi Hendrix, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana. The building itself is said to resemble a smashed guitar. "We started collecting pictures of Stratocasters, bringing in guitar bodies, drawing on those shapes in developing our ideas" Gehry stated. The outside of the building features a rainbow of golds, silvers, reds and blues. It definitely is a sight to see if and when one travels to Seattle.

Another wildly famous work of Frank Gehry is the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. In shape it takes after the Guggenheim in my opinion, but on a less grand scale. It seats well over 2,000 occupants. The stainless steel exterior has been said to pose numerous problems according to some Los Angeles residents. In 2005 some of the panels were sanded and dulled in order to counteract the problematic glare.

All in all Frank Gehry’s architecture if not anything is compelling to the eye. He has a flair for pushing the limits of construction and form in the architectural and design world. His non-conformist designs are still today as controversial as ever. I encourage any who has not gotten a change to visit one of his many building to do so. I’m sure you’ll walk away with a strong opinion of your own.

Watch This: Charlie Rose Interview with Frank Gehry: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8650915086454055077

Bibliography

Frank Gehry Biography, Academy of Achievement 2007

Charlie Rose, Frank Gehry, May 2009

Frank O. Gehry: The Complete Works, Phaidon Press, Oct 2003

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstructivism

Raymond Loewy

Art 358 – Karen Zimmermann

Research Paper

By: Asher Karns

Introduction : Raymond Loewy was argued to be the best Industrial Designer of the 20^th century. He came up with almost anything you look at today or have been in. He looked at design differently from the time he was just a child to the day he died, always creating. Designing was something that fascinated him to the extent that he wanted to be the best in the world at it. Loewy always wanted to create something that was new better and more eye appealing. With designs like the model airplane that will be later brought up to cigarette boxes and gas station logos. Raymond Loewy has carved the paths for Industrial Design in the past and will do so into the future with his ideas that we continue to modify today from their original versions. Just like in the movies today, everything is a remake. All the ideas were taken by early greats such as Raymond and in the film industry movies from the 60 and 70’s are seeming to be getting remade just like his design of the same time.

Childhood to Adulthood: Raymond Loewy was porn in Paris, France on November 5^th, 1893 to his father, a journalist, and his mother. He was raised in a middle upper class family. He did not go hungry as a child but then did not have all the toys in the world either. From the time he was only walking his father recollected somewhere that he was building things with the toys that he has accessible to himself at the time. "As a boy I had liked both drawing and physics, and I always abhorred the role of being a spectator. In 1908, when I was 15, I designed, built and flew a toy model airplane which won the then-famous James Gordon Bennett Cup. By 16 I had discovered that design could be fun and profitable, and this lesson has never been lost on me” (Raymond Loewy Father). Raymond talks about he hated being the spectator, from the time he was young he was always getting shown up for things he would try so hard on someone would do better. He did not like that he was not always involved so he decided to enter a competition. This was the first big step for him; he entered a cup for the best design and won with his Model airplane. After coming out of his shell he describes that he noticed what design really was now. He realized that he could make a living off of something that he could just create for fun. The last part of his quote shows the type of person he was. Raymond had the drive that most people can never get for anything, but he got it for something that was profitable to the most maximal extent. I believe this was the shaping to his life because of him just breaking out of his shell and boosting his confidence by winning that cup.

Early Design: Loewy started his life in America depending on how the transition goes. He is living in New York City and is working. “In 1919 he provided popular fashion illustrations for magazines such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Freelanced as a window designer for department stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy's.”(Raymond Loewy Father). When he originally moved to America he was working in a restaurant as a cook and a server. Then he started working as he stated taking photos for fashion. This is where he started to get his name in the business. Working as a photographer then going into some window design sets with his new concepts he got jobs working for large department stores. Department stores having him work on their window design says something about what he does and how he did it. At this young age he was one of the best of the best in his profession. His thoughts on the shaping of design,” when is began, industrial design meant the shaping- usually the reshaping- of the manufactured object, to improve its appearance and strengthen sales.” (Planes Trains and Automobiles). He was doing the same thing that his predecessors did and the same with the people who follow. They take original designs and make them better. He speaks about how when he just started into the industrial design it was just this. Shaping and reshaping to improve functionality along side with the look. Raymond knew that the look, design, would be the money maker when it came down to sales. Knowing what he knew about sales he realized who he could market to know.

Mature Design: He worked for anyone who wanted to hire him; he would just about design anything. Being so eager to work, work rolled in and in. Speaking of jobs that he was hired to design for, he worked for Shell Oil Company, Automobile companies where he built and designed his own vehicle called the Studebaker, cigarette companies, and basically everything in between also. While working for Shell Oil Company he designed the logo that is world re-known. The yellow shell which he designed got him into the automobile ideas. The Studebaker was his dream vehicle that he designed. This car was a car that the motor company made before but he decided that it needed to be re designed. His new design sold like crazy, compared to the old vehicle that the car company made. The new car sold twice as well making him a top designer worldwide. This was an advertisement for his vehicle "spanking new 1950 Studebaker convertible waiting at the curb. That he had designed too—along with all the Studebakers since the war...Loewy and his 143 designers, architects and draftsmen were busier than ever spreading that name & fame on a dozen new projects” (Loewy). Loewy was responsible for many huge breaks in safety and performance with vehicles.

Even before designing the Studebaker he designed the GG-1 electric locomotive for the Pennsylvania Railroad. This was the train that ran all around the country. Also he designed the Grey Hound Bus that we still know to this day. His designs have been around so long and are so good that they stick and will stick forever.

Last 20 years of life: The last years of his life were some of the most influential. He began to start working for NASA or a regular basis and they knew what his designs could take NASA. In 1972 a "Poll of stylists representing the Big Three automakers voted his 1953 Studebaker Starliner Coupé an "industry best." Also named one of the most influential Americans by LIFE magazine" (the father of). Now since he has appeared on the cover of TIME he has done it all. In the last ten years of his life in 1975 the "Smithsonian Institution opened The Designs of Raymond Loewy, a four-month exhibit dedicated to "the man who changed the face of industrial design. (Father of design). He dies in 1986 at the age of 93. In 1991 a Foundation is set up in his honor.

Wrapping it all up: Since Raymond Loewy has been born in Europe and came to America he has been designing and re designing. From the Stream Train to his amazing re designed car that sold off the lots like candy to little kids, his thoughts and ideas are flowing in us today. His designs like the Shell Logo originally had their name Shell in the middle of the yellow shell. But in the 60’s Shell Oil Company realized that the reason it was sticking was just the logo and not the name. The design is perfect and flawless I must say. My family having a background in the Shell Oil Company. The Museum of Modern Art even quotes his Studebaker car design as “a work of art” (Loewy). As Raymond gets older he starts doing bigger designs, he was one of the leading people in charge of the committee for the handicap in order to have more public places be handicap accessible. Two years later in 1967 he began being a constant consultant for NASA. He was responsible for many designs that have helped out in NASA and then have made it to the common world. Loewy didn’t invent Velcro but a NASA designer did and then it eventually found its way out to the world. It’s a common use thing today just as deigns that Loewy has made.

Bibliography

Loewy, Raymond. Never Leave Well Enough Alone. New York: The Johns Hopkins UP, 2002. Print.

Planes Trains and Automobiles. 24.5 (2003): 16-19. Article Linker. © 2009 EBSCO Industries, Inc. Web. 24 July 2009. <http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=a2h&AN=10929529&site=ehost-live>.

Raymond Loewy The Father of Industrial Design. © Estate of Raymond Loewy & Barbara Haberman, 14 Feb. 2003. Web. 26 July 2009. dex.php>.

Time Magazine 31 Oct. 1949. Time Magazine. Time partners with CNN. Web. 25 July 2009. .html>.