Raymond Loewy came to the United States from his native France in 1919 to make his fortune; he was a penniless World War I vet who spoke no English. He went to work as a fashion illustrator and wound up fashioning the face of America, designing everything from lipsticks to spaceships over the course of a flamboyant, 50-year career in industrial design.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The great American consumer society was in its infancy when Loewy arrived. New inventions like automobiles and refrigerators were going into mass production looking pretty much like the horse-drawn carriages and iceboxes they were replacing. It was Loewy’s genius to know that a revolutionary product that looked revolutionary would have a competitive edge, and to have the guts to pitch good design to industry barons who didn’t give a whit about aesthetics.
As his assignments multiplied, Loewy hired other designers and opened branch offices, including one in Chicago (on East Huron, then on Michigan Avenue). One of the assignments handled by the Chicago office was dinnerware design for Rosenthal, the fine German china manufacturer. For a few years after World War II Rosenthal couldn’t sell its products in the United States under its own name. A new trade name–Continental China–was created for the American market, and Loewy’s signature appeared along with it on the back of the dishes his firm designed.
