Modern America: Designed by a Frenchman

“As an Amer­i­can cit­i­zen who still loves his native coun­try, France, it is heart­warm­ing to see that this coun­try appre­ci­ates the beauty and taste that all French­men prize.” Ray­mond Loewy (1893–1986)

What are the clas­sic designs that define Amer­ica? If you com­piled a list, it may include:

• The large Amer­i­can refrig­er­a­tor, as pop­u­larised by the sturdy, alu­minium shelved Sears Coldspot in the 1930s.
• Iconic Amer­i­can motor vehi­cles, includ­ing the sleek Grey­hound Bus, the influ­en­tial S-1 loco­mo­tive, or the “first Amer­i­can sports car”: the Stude­baker Star­liner Coupe.
• The slen­der­ized Coca-Cola bot­tle, or a coke soda fountain.
• The logos of large oil cor­po­ra­tions that power the coun­try, such as Shell, Exxon or BP.
• Some­thing pres­i­den­tial, such as the liv­ery of Air Force One.
• Some­thing from the space race, such as NASA’s Sky­lab space sta­tion.

If you haven’t guessed by now, Ray­mond Loewy had a hand in the design of all of the above. He was born in Paris in 1893, and is undoubt­edly one of the great­est indus­trial design­ers of all time.