Loewy, Raymond (Fernand)

(born Nov. 5, 1893, Paris, Fr.—died July 14, 1986, Monaco) French-born U.S. industrial designer. After obtaining an advanced degree in electrical engineering, he immigrated in 1919 to New York City, where he worked as a fashion illustrator and designer of department store window displays. He opened his own design firm in 1929, and in the 1930s and '40s he designed a variety of household products with rounded corners and simplified, “streamlined” outlines. A refrigerator he designed for Sears, Roebuck & Co. (1934) won first prize at the 1937 Paris International Exposition. In later years his highly functional designs for everything from locomotives to soda dispensers helped shape U.S. industrial design.

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