"Streamliner" by John Wall

Raymond Loewy left his imprint on this world in a lot of ways. Born in Paris in 1893 and trained as an engineer, Loewy revolutionized 20th-century American industrial design. John Wall explores the Loewy legend in “Streamliner,” tracing the evolution of an industry and the path that Loewy took to becoming a national brand.He created bright, smooth, and colorful logos for major corporations that included Greyhound, Exxon, and Nabisco. His designs for Studebaker automobiles, Sears Coldspot refrigerators, Lucky Strike cigarette packs, and Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives are iconic, noted Wall. Wall told Steve Tarter that Loewy employed a full-time press agent who was almost as skilled as Loewy in the courting of journalists and tastemakers to become the face of a consumer-driven vision of the American dream.In “Streamliner,” Wall makes a point of spotlighting the job that Loewy did for Studebaker, pointing to models in 1947 and 1953 as well as the Avanti in 1964 that initially allowed the automaker to compete with the Big Three. Other examples of Loewy’s legacy include the familiar eagle silhouette logotype of the United States Postal Service and the distinctive look of the President's white Air Force One jet.