Raymond Loewy was born in Paris, France in 1893. When WW-I interrupted Loewy's design studies, he joined the artillery. He won the Croix de Guerre in combat, but he had more to say about how he had redesigned his own uniform. After the war he joined his brother, a doctor, who was called to New York to work with poison-gas victims.

At first he did freelance product design for Wanamaker's Store and Condé Nast. In 1929, Sigmund Gestetner, a British manufacturer of duplicating machines, commissioned him to improve the appearance of a mimeograph machine. In three days the 28-year-old Loewy designed the shell that was to encase Gestetner duplicators for the next 40 years. When he was done, something that looked like a piece of industrial machinery had become Art Deco office furniture.

The Gestetner duplicator was the first of countless items transformed by streamlining, a technique that Loewy is credited with originating. Calling the concept "beauty through function and simplification," Loewy spent over 50 years streamlining everything from postage stamps to spacecrafts. His more famous creations include the Lucky Strike cigarette package, the GG1 and S1 locomotives, the slenderized Coca-Cola bottle, the John F. Kennedy memorial postage stamp, the interior of Saturn I, Saturn V, and Skylab, the Greyhound bus and logo, the Shell International logo, the Exxon logo, the U.S. Postal Service emblem, a line of Frigidaire refrigerators, ranges, and freezers, and the Studebaker Avanti, Champion and Starliner.

Unlike many modern designers, his interests were absolutely parallel with those of the corporate bottom-line. His updated versions of everything from automobiles to refrigerators enjoyed increased sales volumes almost immediately; his contributions to the post-Depression economic growth should not be underestimated. Loewy lived by his own famous MAYA principle - Most Advanced Yet Acceptable.

Several years earlier, in 1930, Loewy had been brought on as a consultant to the Hupp Motor Company. He called the Hupp contract "the beginning of industrial design as a legitimate profession," The Hupp contract also marked the beginning of Loewy's long and often frustrating association with American automobile manufacturers.

While Loewy introduced slanted windshields, built-in headlights and wheel covers for automobiles, he also advocated lower, leaner and more fuel-efficient automobiles long before fuel economy became a concern. "He waged a long war against the worst extravagances of Detroit styling."

In 1961, while designing the Avanti, Loewy posted a sign that said, "Weight is the enemy." The Avanti design eliminated the grill, which he argued, "In this age of fuel shortages you must eliminate weight. Who needs grills? Grills I always associate with sewers."

In spite of the differences that Loewy had with Detroit stylists, several of his designs are now considered automobile classics, including the 1953 Studebaker Starliner Coupé and 1963 Avanti. In 1972 a poll of stylists representing the Big Three automakers named one of his works an industry best. Reporting the results, Automotive News announced, "The 1953 Studebaker, a long-nosed coupe, with little trim and an air of motion about it, was acclaimed the top car of all time."

Loewy has also left his mark on the area of store design. One of his early innovations, the first fully climate-controlled, windowless department store, was so well received that the Loewy organization formed a separate division devoted entirely to store design. Under the leadership of Loewy's partner, William Snaith, the company designed for prestigious clients such as Saks Fifth Avenue, J. L. Hudson, Macy's, J.C. Penney, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor.

From 1967 to 1973 Loewy was retained by NASA as a habitability consultant for the Saturn-Apollo and Skylab projects. They needed him "to help insure the psycho-physiology safety and comfort of the astronauts" under the "exotic conditions of zero-gravity." His innovations, including simulating conditions of gravity and a porthole for vision contact with earth, made it possible for three men to inhabit a space capsule for 90 days.

A popular lecturer as well, Loewy spoke at institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and the University of Leningrad. He founded three design companies: Raymond Loewy and Associates, New York; Raymond Loewy International, London; and Compagnie de I'Esthetique Industrielle, Paris. His writings include The Locomotive: Its Aesthetics (1937), the autobiography Never Leave Well Enough Alone (1951) and Industrial Design (1951). 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."

Loewy and Viola moved to France several years later, where they enjoyed leisurely travel and a more relaxed lifestyle. On July 14, 1986, after a period of poor health, Raymond Loewy died in Monte Carlo, Monaco. He was 92 years old.