Streamlined Tractor Design: Raymond Loewy and Henry Dreyfuss

American industrial design leaves lasting influence on tractor lines.

By Sam Moore
Updated on August 4, 2022
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The Farmall F-22 in 1938 when it was beginning to look more like the subsequent production Farmall H. Courtesy Wisconsin Historical Society, image ID: WHi-27595.

In the 1920s, American designers such as Henry Dreyfuss and Raymond Loewy established the first important industrial design studios in the U.S. They emphasized the beauty in functionalism, elimination of unnecessary decoration and simplified rearrangement of components. Among the first products to reflect this aesthetic planning were automatic refrigerators designed by Loewy, and telephone equipment and clocks designed by Dreyfuss.

Raymond Loewy was born and educated in France and served as an engineering officer in the French army during World War I. After the war, he immigrated to the U.S., where he became an industrial designer with a reputation for a flamboyant lifestyle.

At the 1937 International Exposition in Paris, Loewy won awards for his designs for the Coldspot refrigerator and the legendary streamlined GG-1 electric locomotives that served the Pennsylvania Railroad for many years. He was responsible for the radical 1934 Hupmobile with headlights that were streamlined and made part of the fenders. Loewy continued his futuristic automobile designs with the 1939 Studebaker Champion and the revolutionary 1947 Studebaker Starlight Coupe, as well as the 1961 Studebaker Avanti. Even the familiar pinched-center Coca-Cola bottle is a Loewy design.

Designing the “man on the tractor” logo

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