16.01.19 in inspirations
Raymond Loewy
The most complex things to draw are the ones with the simplest aesthetic. Each LE GRAMME object applies this rigor in its range of forms, whether they are worn or functional objects, from a simple clasp to the monolith for presenting its collections.
“My only regret is not having created the egg, this perfect shape.” Why does the man who designed President Kennedy's Air Force One make this bitter observation in his memoirs? A genius designer, a true Mad Man, Raymond Loewy nevertheless touched on everything that flies, rolls or floats, designing the identity of the American way of life and leaving a legacy of many logos that we still encounter on a daily basis*.
Born at the end of the 19th century, at just fifteen years old he designed a plane powered by a simple rubber band, which he marketed the following year. Ten years later, Loewy flew to the United States with only forty dollars in his pocket.
Loewy hates the expression of complexity and he strived throughout his career to make objects with very questionable aesthetics beautiful. He was first fired from Macy's for daring to offer a window display with visionary simplicity and far too disruptive for the time: a single model in an evening dress, a mink lying at her feet...
“My only regret is not having created the egg, this perfect shape.” Why does the man who designed President Kennedy's Air Force One make this bitter observation in his memoirs? A genius designer, a true Mad Man, Raymond Loewy nevertheless touched on everything that flies, rolls or floats, designing the identity of the American way of life and leaving a legacy of many logos that we still encounter on a daily basis*.
Born at the end of the 19th century, at just fifteen years old he designed a plane powered by a simple rubber band, which he marketed the following year. Ten years later, Loewy flew to the United States with only forty dollars in his pocket.
Loewy hates the expression of complexity and he strived throughout his career to make objects with very questionable aesthetics beautiful. He was first fired from Macy's for daring to offer a window display with visionary simplicity and far too disruptive for the time: a single model in an evening dress, a mink lying at her feet...
“Born at the end of the 19th century, at just fifteen years old he designed a plane propelled by a simple rubber band, he put it on the market the following year. »
For ten years, Loewy agreed to work as an illustrator for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar to survive, but his final interest was elsewhere and his passion for the object remained.
The first industrialist to benefit from the talent of the man who also said that “ugliness does not pay” was Sigmund Gestetner. To the complex and smelly workings of the ancestor of Gestetner's photocopier, Loewy contrasts a grille with a futuristic aesthetic for the time. It conceals the workings, the object appears easy to use and sales take off as does Loewy's career as a designer.
He has just invented a style: streamlining or aerodynamic forms: achieving beauty through function and simplification. A vision shared by LE GRAMME which strives to express the essence of the object and the material in each of its creations.
At the same time designer, engineer, decorator, psychologist, architect, advertiser, Loewy will approach each of his projects through the prism of this formal aerodynamics: the Coldspot refrigerator, the Lucky Strike package, the Studebacker automobile...
The first industrialist to benefit from the talent of the man who also said that “ugliness does not pay” was Sigmund Gestetner. To the complex and smelly workings of the ancestor of Gestetner's photocopier, Loewy contrasts a grille with a futuristic aesthetic for the time. It conceals the workings, the object appears easy to use and sales take off as does Loewy's career as a designer.
He has just invented a style: streamlining or aerodynamic forms: achieving beauty through function and simplification. A vision shared by LE GRAMME which strives to express the essence of the object and the material in each of its creations.
At the same time designer, engineer, decorator, psychologist, architect, advertiser, Loewy will approach each of his projects through the prism of this formal aerodynamics: the Coldspot refrigerator, the Lucky Strike package, the Studebacker automobile...
“He has just invented a style: streamlining or aerodynamic forms: achieving beauty through function and simplification. »
And the Holy Grail of aerodynamics - for the man who designed the emblematic Coquelle casserole dish - is ironically the egg: simple, functional, beautiful; an elementary form with absolute simplicity that we find in the outline of the first object imagined by LE GRAMME: the ribbon bracelet.
Like many other Loewy creations, the Pennsylvania Road locomotive designed for the Universal Exhibition was inspired by the egg, its unique ovoid shape which allows any force exerted to be distributed over the entire shell. A distribution of forces already noted by the architects of the Middle Ages and which had generated the ribbed windows in churches. Although a believer, Loewy did not draw a church, nor did he draw coffins or pomegranates, which according to him were the only two objects that could not be redesigned.
Like many other Loewy creations, the Pennsylvania Road locomotive designed for the Universal Exhibition was inspired by the egg, its unique ovoid shape which allows any force exerted to be distributed over the entire shell. A distribution of forces already noted by the architects of the Middle Ages and which had generated the ribbed windows in churches. Although a believer, Loewy did not draw a church, nor did he draw coffins or pomegranates, which according to him were the only two objects that could not be redesigned.
“A distribution of forces already noted by the architects of the Middle Ages and which had generated the ribbed crossings in churches. »
