How gratifying to read about this early, great industrial design consultant in Henry Petroski’s The Evolution of Useful Things.

First, of course, Loewy was an early proponent of the argument that good design sells. Few have argued more convincingly since.

Better still, he was a champion of the idea that integrated design sells. By no means did he limit himself to products themselves: His assignments extended to packaging and even messages.

Loewy might also be the grandfather of experience design itself: Petroski recounts how in 1927 Loewy was invited by Henry Saks to appraise the layout of a new, uptown branch of the famous Manhattan department store. Loewy did that and more, commenting as well on the conduct of staff and their role in the customer experience, the design of store graphics, a unified advertising campaign and so on.

In this regard, he’s the direct forerunner of the discipline we practice today.