- Hardcover: 488 pages
- Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; New Ed edition (4 Dec 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0801872111
- ISBN-13: 978-0801872112
- Product Dimensions: 17.7 x 17.4 x 3.7 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 925,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
A fascinating insight into the birth and growth of the largest consumer society the world has ever seen—and a handbook for how to make technology desirable.
(New Scientist 2008)A great resource for the auto buff as well as aficionados of industrial design.
(Cruise-In.com )Review
An autobiography by one of the leading industrial designers in this country... Mr. Loewy tells of his youth in France, his coming to America after the first war, his initial success as a fashion artist, and the dawn of industrial design and his part in it... The book is instructive, brash, cocksure, occasionally funny, sometimes vulgar, and always honest.
(New Yorker )Whilst displaying an uncommon amount of literary dexterity, modesty, and generosity, Loewy manages to describe the development of his career, his achievements, and the methods and organization of his business... It is the funniest and most lucid success story that the industrial design field has yet produced.
(Interiors )The details in this book are amazing... This book serves well to teach how the designs of everyday objects can have an effect on their usefulness, attrativeness, and even potential sales for businesses.
(Paul Regna Avanti Magazine )
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First Sentence
July, 1914. France is at peace and PFC Raymond Loewy is in the army. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
July, 1914. France is at peace and PFC Raymond Loewy is in the army. Read the first page
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Inspiration
18 Sep 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Raymond Loewy's Never Leave Well Enough Alone occupies a place in my heart for two reasons:
1. Inspiration. When I read it as a high school student in 1951, he gave me permission to be creative to the best of my abilities, a startling concept for me at the time. None of my teachers did that; I doubt whether it ever occurred to them.
2. A backward look. Reading the new edition in 2011 brought back fond memories, of course: the kiss on the train; the melding of his ample ego and with a common touch and practical side; his lifelong fascination with boats and locomotives (always the little boy); his love of food, friends and the good life; his wide-ranging curiosity; his struggle to sell the then-new concept of industrial design to skeptical business executives. This, from an immigrant Frenchman turned enthusiastic American citizen. But most of all it was a backward look at the America I grew up in, an America that, sadly, in many respects, no longer exists. Even the projects he worked on that don't seem so admirable today, his super-successful Lucky Strike cigarette package, for instance, elicit nostalgia.
There's filler and puffery to be sure, along with some anecdotes that don't quite resonate today. Then there are thought-provoking sentences (pg. 375) like this one: "Should the human race decide not to annihilate itself for some cause - most righteous, no doubt - the second half of this century should be a fairly exciting one to live in." Well, it was an exciting fifty years. I know; I lived them. But the twenty-first century is here and we are actually flirting with annihilation in the form of global broiling, something Loewy never imagined. Will this be the price our progeny pay for the "progress" he loved (and we still do)? I wish he were around to comment.
1. Inspiration. When I read it as a high school student in 1951, he gave me permission to be creative to the best of my abilities, a startling concept for me at the time. None of my teachers did that; I doubt whether it ever occurred to them.
2. A backward look. Reading the new edition in 2011 brought back fond memories, of course: the kiss on the train; the melding of his ample ego and with a common touch and practical side; his lifelong fascination with boats and locomotives (always the little boy); his love of food, friends and the good life; his wide-ranging curiosity; his struggle to sell the then-new concept of industrial design to skeptical business executives. This, from an immigrant Frenchman turned enthusiastic American citizen. But most of all it was a backward look at the America I grew up in, an America that, sadly, in many respects, no longer exists. Even the projects he worked on that don't seem so admirable today, his super-successful Lucky Strike cigarette package, for instance, elicit nostalgia.
There's filler and puffery to be sure, along with some anecdotes that don't quite resonate today. Then there are thought-provoking sentences (pg. 375) like this one: "Should the human race decide not to annihilate itself for some cause - most righteous, no doubt - the second half of this century should be a fairly exciting one to live in." Well, it was an exciting fifty years. I know; I lived them. But the twenty-first century is here and we are actually flirting with annihilation in the form of global broiling, something Loewy never imagined. Will this be the price our progeny pay for the "progress" he loved (and we still do)? I wish he were around to comment.
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