RFS MAYA

I have not developed a full opinion on Raymond Loewy, his approach to design and in a larger sense his entire approach to running his business intrigue me quite a bit. I can appreciate his overall marketing approach that prizes the looks of an product, and I can justify his success in relation to the era that he worked in. If the entire world was hideous and technologically new, I would seek to address the aesthetic as well. I can appreciate his adaptations of products to further a particular marketing scheme, and also add function and simple utility to ease of use factors. In most all respects I admire the way he capitalized on dominant market forces to indeed bend America's aesthetic to his will.

Through reading an excerpt on Loewys company marketing observations, I have distinguished some really interesting pieces of obvious but insightful bits.

First, I can readily agree with his observations on certain "design gaps" that exist between teenagers, adults and the elderly. Loewy adds a few interesting observations, namely on the resilience of design changes between these distinct groups. He uses the words conventional and radical to describe design changes that appeal to these groups. The elderly do not necessarily wish to change every piece of their lives as much as a young person, but at the same time "The older age groups are influenced increasingly by the style opinion of the teen age group"

Other pieces of obvious logic exist in his observations of the resilience of large markets against large design, but also that the same large group may be influenced by a small company taking a risk in the market. These notions of design risk in proportion to the company size and market share certainly add another filter to how I interpret design on store shelves, but also add another design target that I have not been fully introduced to.

I suppose this new lens would communicate how to approach the needs of the company in defining a design goal.

Raymond Loewy, I will call on you again....