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Friday, July 28, 2006
New Raymond Loewy Film Made On Macs; Edited with Final Cut Pro - Loewy/Apple Complimentarity ReduxRelated categories • Hot Topics • News • MooresViews
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Back in 2002, I wrote and posted here a couple of columns on topics related to the man many consider to have been the most influential industrial designer of the 20th Century, the great Raymond Loewy, who has been called “the man who shaped America,� and whose name is forever linked to the paradigm-shattering styling of Studebaker automobiles of the 1940s, '50s, and early '60s, but whose vision lives on in public architecture and countless items of everyday culture from household products, to transportation, to corporate identity. He founded three design companies: Raymond Loewy and Associates, New York; Raymond Loewy International, London; and Compagnie de I'Esthetique Industrielle, Paris.
Loewy's 1953 Studebaker Starliner, or "Starlight Coupe" made the cover of Time magazine, and has been called by some critics best-looking automobile of the 20th century, and is frequently included in lists of the 10 most beautiful cars ever. The Museum of Modern Art acclaimed it as not just a superb piece of automotive industrial design, but as "a work of art."
However, Loewy also designed railway locomotives such as the S-1 Steam locomotive for the Pennsylvania Railroad and the GG1 electric locomotive, aircraft - including the Boeing 707 variant President John F. Kennedy commissioned as the original Air Force 1, the U.S. Post Office logo, art-deco chrome furniture, the Shell, BP, and Exxon logos, the 1947 line of Hallicrafter radio receivers, and the Greyhound bus. The famous Lucky Strike cigarette package bullseye logo was his, as were the 1929 Gestetner document duplicating machine, the slenderized Coca-Cola bottle, Coke can logos and the big red Coca-Cola soda fountain dispensers of the 1960's were Loewy designs, and he also worked on projects for NASA, including the interior of Saturn I, Saturn V, and Skylab.
It was said of Loewy that he was the only American who could cross the country in a car, a bus, a train, or an airplane, all of his own design. I don't doubt for a minute that were he alive today (he died in 1986), he would be designing computers, and it's not terribly fanciful to imagine that he would be a fan and user of the Mac.
Raymond Loewy summarized his design philosophy with the acronym, MAYA - Most Advanced Yet Acceptable. It served as a guiding principle for Loewy and those in his employ reminding them not to push a design, however excellent, beyond the threshold of acceptability to consumers and manufacturers. "The main goal," he maintained, "is not to complicate the already difficult life of the consumer."
Loewy believed that every object, no matter how simple or complex, has an ideal form that expresses its function with economy and grace, and was one of the first designers to understand the link between design and the economy, observing: “Between two products equal in price, function, and quality, the better looking will outsell the other.�
Loewy was also a popular lecturer who spoke at institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and the University of Leningrad. His writings include The Locomotive: Its Aesthetics (1937), the autobiography Never Leave Well Enough Alone (1951) and Industrial Design (1951).
In 2002, referencing the just-unveiled G4 iMac with its hemispherical CPU housing and LCD display mounted on a lamp-style articulated arm, Michael S. Malone, Editor at Large for Forbes ASAP, had suggested that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had become the Raymond Loewy of computer design, and that he could be turning Apple into the Studebaker of PC makers. I replied with a commentary entitled: Steve Jobs May Be The Raymond Loewy Of Computer Design, But that Doesn't Make Apple The Studebaker Of PC Makers, and a follow-up piece based on an interview with Raymond Loewy's daughter Laurence Loewy: Raymond Loewy's Custom 1959 Cadillac
These two articles generated a prolific reader response, and Ms. Loewy tells me that our 2002 interview proved to be "most entertaining and successful," and form which she continues to receive positive feedback. I'm delighted to hear that, as I really enjoyed researching and writing those pieces. I am a Loewy fan from way back. My family drove Studebakers.
Laurence Loewy founded Loewy Design in 1998 to introduce a new generation to the achievements of her father, as well as to promote the high ideals of industrial design and the MAYA principle. She says that "I reopened Loewy Design in 1998 to introduce a new generation to my father's body of good work. My first job was to design some modern area rugs for one of my father's old clients, Edward Fields Rugs. I had every intention of spending most of my days at the drawing board. However, since TIME Magazine's issue of 3-20-00, devoted to Modern Design and my father, I have had to devote the majority of my time to Raymond Loewy related projects such as exhibitions, books, screen projects, product endorsements and the Raymond Loewy Foundation.."
In June, 2004, Ms. Loewy addressed the national convention of Studebaker and Avanti owners in Charlotte, N.C., sharing many memories of her young years growing up with her famous father, along with her father’s personal insights related to the automotive industry. Laurence has commented that the most important lesson she learned from her father was that good design is essential to the soul.
Laurence Loewy's latest projects include promoting the work of her father's foundation, a successful exhibition, a new gallery and plans for a Manhattan museum, as well as anew Loewy documentary entitled "Raymond Loewy Loved Locomotives" which was edited on Macintosh computers using Apple's Final Cut Pro. This fast-paced film was made for the new Loewy Gallery, part of the O. Winston Link Museum located in Roanoke, VA. It will play on a continuous loop in the visitors' center.
The LINK was the former Norfolk & Western train station redesigned by Raymond Loewy in 1949.
Filmmaker Ross Stansfield worked with my Ms. Loewy and her husband on the project with the assistance and counsel of Ross Stansfield, a commercial still photographer and flimmaker based in Washington, DC Metro, whose client work includes Corporate Press, Marriott Corporation, Coca Cola, Vie de France, Apple Computer, City Bank, and the IRS. His film projects include the feature car movie "Streamlined," currently in development, in which three teens build a car for a design contest, inspired by Raymond Loewy and the lost Studebaker of 1964, Ross also wrote, directed and produced OMNIFAX, an
award winning B&W independent art film with Jean Lawrence.
At the time of our interview in 2002, Laurence Loewy was using a Pentium III running Windows '98, but she has more recently had some hands-on experience with Macs and Apple software. Ms. Loewy has a degree in telecommunications from USC, and has had the opportunity to work with several West Coast studios on large projects using conventional film, but this latest documentary was her first venture into digital filmmaking, and she says frankly: "I had my reservations."
However, Ms. Loewy continues, "I soon became hooked when I realized digital technology allows the production stage of movie making to speed up enormously. One must edit a film in the traditional manner, manually splicing and rearranging each frame, to truly appreciate the advantages of Final Cut Pro. Digital editing with Final Cut Pro is easy to learn. I was amazed how fast elements can be changed, even background and foregrounds, without affecting the original video. Having experience with traditional film methods helps today's digital filmmaker produce a high quality product in a timely manner that audiences can immediately relate to. With Apple's Final Cut Pro talented young filmmakers will give the establishment a run for their money."
For more information, visit:
http://www.RaymondLoewyFoundation.com
and
http://www.raymondloewy.com/index.html
and
http://www.raymondloewy.org/
For more information about Ross Stansfield's work, visit:
http://www.rsprod.com/unshock.html
For more information, on Final Cut Pro visit:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/
Particulars of the software and equipment used to produce and edit "Raymond Loewy Loved Locomotives"
Final Cut Pro 4, Soundtrack,
Livetype and DVD Studio Pro 3 for the original version and FCP 5, and DVD Studio Pro 4
Photoshop CS for editing and sizing the photos before importing them into FCP, and CS 2 for photos.
G4 dual 800 and later a G5 dual 2 Ghz
Field work on an Aluminum Powerbook 1.25 GHZ
Video on the Canon XL-1s lit with Dedo heads on location in South Bend.
Sennheiser K6 shotgun.
Created a "Bossa Nova World " soundtrack with Apple Loops and Ross Stansfield personally played the harmonica coming through a M-Audio Mobile Pre usb interface using a AKG 1000S condenser mike.
A three person crew made this entire documentary except for the voice over, which was done at ProComm and then edited into the timeline in FCP 5
Charles W. Moore
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