Studebaker’s 20-year association with Raymond Loewy and Associates began with the striking 1938 models.

1938 Studebaker Commander Coupe

Born in Paris in 1893, Raymond Loewy came to New York in 1919 after serving as a captain in the French military in World War I. There he worked as a window designer for the department stores and as a fashion illustrator for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar before landing his first important design commission with the Gestetner Cyclograph Company in 1929.

In repackaging the ungainly Gestetner mimeograph copier as a sleek and modern office machine, Loewy demostrated that virtually any product—pencil sharpener, soda bottle, railroad locomotive—could benefit from sound design. In that, he is often called the father of industrial design. Of course, in the ’30s the biggest budgets and greatest commissions were to be found in the auto industry. After styling the radical 1934 Hupmobile Aerodynamic, Loewy and Associates then moved on to a major automaker in 1938: Studebaker.

1938 Studebaker State Commander Coupe

The Studebaker line then consisted of three models: the Commander, the mid-range State Commander, and the flagship President. The base Commander was smooth, contemporary, and conventional—it could be an Oldsmobile. For the State Commander and President, Loewy chose a more distinctive look with shrouded, lantern-style headlamps that Studebaker called cathedral headlights. The unique lamp treatment did two things. It distinguished the base vehicle from the deluxe models for consumers, and it marked the product with an easily identifiable Loewy signature.

With his keen grasp of branding, Loewy also modernized the company’s decrepit logo, which then appeared as the grille badge on the 1938 models. It must be noted that while Raymond Loewy was the front man and sales manager with the final say over design, Loewy and Associates was actually an entire team of talented artists. Among others, on the Studebaker account they included Virgil Exner, Vince Gardner, Audrey Moore Hodges, and Bob Bourke. While the stunning 1953 Studebaker will be forever known as the “Loewy coupe,” in reality it was designed by Bourke.

Loewy operated a complete styling studio for Studebaker and he was never shy about his billing, as the invoices could run into seven figures. In deepening financial trouble, by 1956 Studebaker (then Studebaker-Packard) could no longer afford his services and the two parted ways. But they did join up again briefly in 1962 as Loewy and three of his designers, John Ebstein, Bob Andrews, and Tom Kellog, created the 1963 Studebaker Avanti.