‘in march, 1940, george washington hill walked into my office unannounced and said, “you raymond loewy?” i said “yes, i’m raymond loewy.” he then took off his jacket, kept his fishing hat on, sat down, and threw a pack of lucky strikes on my desk.

“i’m from american tobacco.” (he was the president.) “someone told me that you could design a better pack, and i don’t believe it.”

“then why are you here?” i asked. he looked at me for a moment, grinned, and we were friends.

- raymond loewy, industrial design, 1979

interview with german furniture designer and producer niels holger moormann at the optimalist.

targeted mostly at web designers, but still useful for others as well, smashing magazine starts a three-part series on color.

“as far as i was concerned, it never was a feud; detroit simply had no use for my ideas as long as the public wanted large cars with all their accessories, which detroit could sell, inducing higher price tags.

and businessmen rarely express appreciation for ideas that may lower their income. in point of fact, they wouldn’t have; while detroit was building gaz guzzlers, the germans and japanese, with their more modest cars, ran away with the world market.”

- raymond loewy, industrial design, 1979

can’t spend the $5000+ on the real thing? download lindsey adelman’s instructions to build your own diy chandelier.

spanish furniture company viccarbe.

german furniture and lighting company dua.

an interview with dieter rams in the financial times.