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94-776: In 1944, along with Raymond Loewy and eight others, Stevens formed the Industrial Designers Society of America . Upon his death in 1995, The New York Times called Stevens "a major force in industrial design". Stevens was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin , on June 7, 1911. Stricken with polio as a child, he was encouraged by his father to practice drawing while confined to his bed, perhaps motivating his career in design. He studied architecture at Cornell University from 1929 to 1933, and established his own home-furnishings design firm in 1934 in Milwaukee. His son, Kipp Stevens, ran

188-474: A Habitability Consultant for design of the Skylab space station, launched in 1973. One of NASA's goals in hiring him was to improve the psychology, safety, and comfort of manned spacecraft. Due to long duration confinement in limited interior space in micro-g with almost non-existing variability in environment, the comfort and well-being of the crew through the use of aesthetics played high importance. Loewy suggested

282-560: A London office in the mid-1930s that continues to operate. in the early 1930s, Loewy did comprehensive design work for the Pennsylvania Railroad in providing a deeply modern Art Moderne design for the railroad's flagship electric locomotive, the GG1 . The engines would operate into the 1980s under a variety of paint schemes, some of them reflecting ownership changes, and one of them - 4935 - would be restored to its original appearance all

376-623: A backer and established the Evinrude Motor Company in 1910. The business was an instant success—its market included not only recreational boaters but also the Scandinavian fishing fleets operating in the North Sea. Friction between the partners forced Evinrude to sell his share to his backer in 1914 and depart, after signing a guarantee restricting him from the outboard motor industry for five years. The company continued without him, becoming

470-579: A dip to $ 304.5 million in net sales. This was partly due to the unprofitable boat line, and partly to a line of tent campers that had never fulfilled expectations after the 1967 acquisition of their manufacturer, Trade Winds Campers. The company discontinued the line in 1971, and immediately saw the improvement in their net sales figures, which soared to $ 394 million by 1972. There were other disappointments. Golf cart sales sank to 2 percent of overall revenue by 1974, and were discontinued in 1975. Chain saw sales totaled $ 19.1 million in 1976, resulting in losses for

564-622: A fashion illustrator for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar . In 1929, he received his first industrial-design commission to contemporize the appearance of a duplicating machine by Gestetner . Further commissions followed, including work for Westinghouse , the Hupp Motor Company (the Hupmobile styling), and styling the Coldspot refrigerator for Sears -Roebuck. It was this product that established his reputation as an industrial designer. He opened

658-525: A first step towards larger outboard motor markets in Asia, the move was also encouraged by a Hong Kong government program designed to attract specific, technologically advanced industries. Assembly operations began in the plant in 1975, with the manufacture of electronic outboard motor components following two years later. In 1974, Charles D. Strang succeeded W. C. Scott as president. Strang's interest in powerboats, beginning in boyhood, had lasted through college and

752-478: A fiscal 1974 operating loss of $ 13.9 million. Fuel shortages were another downside. Coming to an OPEC-inspired zenith in 1973, they brought fears of a buying slowdown in the peak spring quarter. An OMC environmental executive warned of possible gasoline rationing by the petroleum industry, and outlined steps for fuel conservation among boaters. In the same year, OMC purchased a five-acre site in Hong Kong. Intended as

846-576: A five-year philanthropic program in 1961. In response to a request to benefit the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 's freedom-from-hunger campaign, OMC contributed several hundred outboard engines each year to be used in fishing, part of a program to increase food production in underdeveloped countries. Also in 1961, the company established the OMC Boats Division to produce and market 16- to 19-foot boats featuring both outboard and

940-467: A floating gasoline-powered compressor, the unit supplied air to two masked divers at the same time. Another breakthrough was the loop-charged outboard, devised after the company went back to powerboat racing for the first time since World War II. By October 1967, OMC's fiscal year-end sales had reached $ 233.4 million. Of this amount, 10 percent came from power mowers, with golf carts and utility vehicles sharing second place at 7 percent, and with snowmobiles,

1034-758: A halo car for Studebaker. Studebaker opted out of the program in December 1963 after shuttering US car production. Stevens continued development of the Excalibur and would introduce the car at the New York Auto show in April of 1964. In the mid-1960s he and his sons began production of the retro-styled Excalibur, modeled on the 1920s-era Mercedes-Benz SSK roadsters. Stevens modernized the Aero-Willys sedans that were offered in Brazil in

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1128-459: A new generation, through design exhibitions, publications, and documentaries. In October 2017, the documentary, "Raymond Loewy: designer of American dreams", originally conceived by Laurence Loewy, premiered to Paris audiences. The film has aired on the French Arte channel. On November 5, 2013, Loewy was honored with a Google Doodle depicting a streamlined locomotive bearing a resemblance to

1222-401: A number of improvements to the layout, such as the implementation of a wardroom, where the crew could eat and work together, the wardroom window, the dining table and the color design, among others. A key feature of Raymond Loewy's design for the sleep compartments was that the floor plan for each of the three was different to create a sense of individual identity for each compartment. Elements of

1316-413: A post as a research associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During a later period of employment with the makers of Mercury outboard motors, interest had deepened into vocation. In 1966 his experience in the powerboat industry had brought him to OMC. Eight years later he rose to the presidency. An environmental question was one of his first challenges. It began in 1976, when OMC was cited by both

1410-451: A result of the merger, the company had to increase its debt to $ 600,000 between 1930 and 1932, when operating deficits totaled $ 550,000. To keep the business afloat, the entire inventory was sold at bargain prices, and Evinrude sacrificed his salary until his death in 1934. Johnson's fate was worse. A too-costly advertising campaign, as well as an ill-timed offering of matched motors and hulls, drained all cash reserves by 1930, when control of

1504-605: A subsidiary of the gasoline-engine manufacturer Briggs & Stratton Corporation in 1926. By 1921, Evinrude was back in business, in a venture he called the ELTO Outboard Motor Company. His new offering was the Evinrude Light Twin Outboard, a motor partly made of aluminum, reducing its weight by a third. Popular with the fishing fleets, this revolutionary engine outstripped sales of Evinrude's original outboard motor within three years. It also attracted

1598-517: A thoroughgoing advertising campaign to strengthen its brand name Evinrude and Johnson outboard engines, and began to develop a new generation of outboard motors that were environmentally acceptable, fuel-efficient, and easily repaired. Bowman's strategy worked. By the middle of 1995, OMC's revenues were $ 1.1 billion. The company faced net revenue losses of $ 7.3 million in the 2nd quarter of 1997 ending March 31 and would have been worse if $ 2 million in dividends were not suspended. The previous quarter loss

1692-645: A young student from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. The team worked in a house leased for the purpose in Palm Springs, California . (Loewy also had a home in Palm Springs that he designed himself. ) Each team member had a role. Andrews and Kellogg handled sketching, Ebstein oversaw the project, and Loewy was the creative director and offered advice. Raymond Loewy worked for NASA from 1967 to 1973 as

1786-500: Is recognized as the originator of the robin's-egg-blue phase of 1950s kitchen appliances, as well as the iconic Skylark laminate design popularized by Formica. He also practiced architectural design and graphic design. Of note is his design of the Miller Brewing logo and he is also credited with convincing the company to switch from traditional brown bottles to clear bottles. As an automobile designer round about 1954 Stevens shaped

1880-584: The Brooks Stevens Design Associates until late 2008, when he stepped down. In 1959, Stevens opened a 12,500sf automotive museum in Mequon, Wisconsin , which became a repository for his own designs as well as others—and became a production facility in the late 1980s for the Wienermobile fleet. The museum closed in 1999, four years after his death. Stevens died on January 4, 1995, in Milwaukee. He

1974-519: The Die Valkyrie based on the Cadillac Eldorado of the same year. The car had a V-shaped bumper. He redesigned the 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk on a minuscule budget. The fast, elegant GT remained until the end of American production. According to Hendry, Stevens also styled "three innovative products for family car use for the 1964-66 period" (which were never manufactured). He designed

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2068-671: The Greyhound Scenicruiser bus interior, Coca-Cola vending machines and bottle redesign, the Lucky Strike package, Coldspot refrigerators, the Studebaker Avanti and Champion , and the Air Force One livery . He was engaged by equipment manufacturer International Harvester to overhaul its entire product line, and his team also assisted competitor Allis-Chalmers . He undertook numerous railroad designs, including

2162-592: The Jeep Wagoneer , which was introduced for 1963 by Willys-Jeep. This model was so popular that it was offered in basically the same form by Jeep's subsequent owners, including Kaiser Jeep , AMC , and finally Chrysler , until 1991. Stevens updated the design of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile , an American pop-culture icon, using modern fiberglass methods to "put the wiener in the bun" in 1958. He designed engines for Briggs and Stratton . He also designed

2256-556: The Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 , S-1 , and T1 locomotives, the color scheme and Eagle motif for the first streamliners of the Missouri Pacific Railroad , and a number of lesser known color scheme and car interior designs for other railroads. His career spanned seven decades. The press referred to Loewy as The Man Who Shaped America , The Father of Streamlining and The Father of Industrial Design . Loewy

2350-429: The shroud design of K4s Pacific #3768 , using the wheels of the train to form the word Google . Work in years or models unknown 1900s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Notes Further reading Outboard Marine Corporation Outboard Marine Corporation ( OMC ) was a maker of Evinrude , Johnson and Gale Outboard Motors, and many different brands of boats. It

2444-555: The 1956 model year. In the spring of 1961, Studebaker's new president, Sherwood Egbert , recalled Loewy to design the Avanti . Egbert hired him to help energize Studebaker's soon-to-be-released line of 1963 passenger cars to attract younger buyers. Despite the short 40-day schedule allowed to produce a finished design and scale model, Loewy agreed to take the job. He recruited a team consisting of experienced designers, including former Loewy employees John Ebstein; Bob Andrews; and Tom Kellogg,

2538-466: The 1960s began, the United States was in the trough of a recession. First-time buyers as well as those seeking bigger and better leisure-time equipment put their purchases on hold. Because its principal markets were tied to leisure-time activities mostly practiced on a seasonal basis, OMC sales sank to a 1961 low of $ 132.3 million. The economic turndown did not, however, prevent the company from starting

2632-708: The 1960s, and there is a very Studebaker Hawk-ish look to the body of these cars. Stevens's design contributions to the recreational boating industry included collaborations with Outboard Marine Corp. to style the Evinrude Lark and Johnson Javelin outboard motor series. He also designed the Evinrude Lark concept boat, eventually produced as the Cadillac Sea Lark. Together with Bob Hammond's 1956 Lone Star Meteor, these designs may be credited with introducing post-world war automotive styling to leisure craft. Other work in

2726-550: The Canadian Cockshutt Plow Company 's new line of agricultural tractors in the squared-off style that was becoming popular.The Cockshutt 540 , 550 , 560 and 570 models were all styled by Loewy. Raymond Loewy's designers influenced the design of Allis-Chalmers crawler tractors. The tractors were described as having stylish panelwork with curvaceous lines. Loewy's first marriage was to Jean Thomson, which ended in divorce. Jean Thomson remained employed by

2820-609: The ELTO Company, whose annual net profit rose to $ 300,000. Ole Evinrude merged ELTO with Stephen Briggs the following year when he and Harold Stratton disagreed over diversifying Briggs & Stratton into the outboard engine market. Mr. Briggs became chairman of the brand-new Outboard Motors Corporation with Mr. Evinrude as the President. Outboard scarcely had time to find its feet before the stock market crash of 1929 tested its staying power. Already responsible for $ 500,000 in bank loans as

2914-818: The Fishing Boat Group, the Recreational Boat Group, and the Aluminum Boat Group. Each group was responsible for all manufacturing and marketing efforts associated with its line of products. The Fishing Boat Group included Stratos, Hydra-Sports, Javelin and Quest by Four Winns. The Recreational Boat Group produced 80 models under the brand names Chris-Craft, Donzi, Four Winns, Seaswirl and Sunbird. The Aluminum Boat Group included Duranautic, Princecraft/Springbok, Suncruiser, Lowe, Sea Nymph, Grumman, and Roughneck. Many of these same brands are still in production today. As OMC continued to lose money, Harry Bowman,

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3008-560: The Gale division contributed its carburetors and ignition systems. Export sales of all items surged ahead during the 1950s. Seeing a 215 percent gain in exports between 1949 and 1956, OMC expanded its export department in 1956, gaining a new subsidiary called Outboard Marine International S.A. By 1960, taking the next logical step of overseas production, the company was manufacturing and assembling motors in Brugge, Belgium. All these developments showed in

3102-542: The Johnson helm. He instituted a rigorous cost-cutting regime, and by 1937 the Johnson division's gross sales were $ 4.3 million, as compared with Evinrude-ELTO's $ 2.5 million. By now, Outboard Motors accounted for about 60 percent of U.S. outboard motor production. There were three engine lines, suiting most needs: the ELTO line for the buyer seeking thrift; Evinrude, the prestige line; and Johnson, offering special features. Though there

3196-622: The Loewy firm after the marriage ended. In 1980, Loewy retired at the age of 87 and returned to his native France. He died in his Monte Carlo residence on July 14, 1986. He was raised a Roman Catholic and was buried in the cemetery of a Catholic church in Rochefort-en-Yvelines , a village located 40 km south-west of Paris, where he owned a rural home named La Cense. He was survived by his wife Viola (née Erickson), and their daughter Laurence. In 1992, Viola and Laurence Loewy, with

3290-483: The OMC lineup. In another move, he bought out independent distributors overseas, thus gaining greater control over foreign marketing operations. Threatening OMC's competitiveness was a 1980 Department of Energy proposal that boating be banned on weekends. As a result of this suggestion, public concern about gasoline shortages caused OMC's net sales to plummet to $ 687.4 million in 1980, from $ 741.2 million just one year earlier. It

3384-521: The OMC product line. Besides the Johnson and Evinrude motors then being sold by about 7,000 retail dealers, the swelling list of OMC offerings included Gale Buccaneer motors sold through hardware jobbers, as well as a number of unbranded models sold for retailers. The company's most innovative engine appeared in 1958. The first mass-produced die-cast aluminum engine, it was a four-cylinder, 50 horsepower outboard, completely manufactured by OMC, its V-blocks came from Johnson, its steel parts from Evinrude, while

3478-630: The Outboard product line during the 1950s. The first, in 1952, was RPM Manufacturing Company of Missouri, whose specialty was a rotary power mower that Outboard planned to sell under its familiar Lawn-Boy tradename. Featuring a detachable engine useful as an outboard, the mower was already a best-selling unbranded item in both the Sears and the Spiegel catalogs. Outboard coped with the huge volume of existing orders by completing entire units in one factory, rather than using

3572-522: The Pennsylvania Railroad, including stations, passenger-car interiors, and advertising materials. By 1949, Loewy employed 143 designers, architects, and draftsmen. His business partners were A. Baker Barnhart, William Snaith, and John Breen. Loewy had a long and fruitful relationship with American car maker Studebaker . Studebaker first retained Loewy and Associates and Helen Dryden as design consultants in 1936 and in 1939 Loewy began work with

3666-486: The U.S. and Illinois environmental protection agencies for polluting a drainage ditch and Waukegan harbor with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The company filed suit against both agencies after lengthy negotiations, charging that the federal government had dragged its feet in spending funds authorized for pollution-control use. Company attorneys also stated that the PCB-contaminated pipes had been replaced in 1976, but

3760-672: The United States. In 2006, the Loewy Gallery opened in Roanoke, Virginia through the supportive efforts of the O. Winston Link Museum , the local business community, and art patrons Laurence Loewy, David Hagerman, and Ross Stansfield. Laurence died of natural causes October 15, 2008, and is survived by her husband David Hagerman. Hagerman is the representative for the Estate of Raymond Loewy, which remains dedicated to reintroducing Loewy's design philosophy of MAYA, or "most advanced, yet acceptable", to

3854-522: The agencies likewise filed suit, asking that the company be ordered to remove the contaminants from the harbor, and to pay a maximum penalty of about $ 20 million, reflecting a $ 10,000 fine for each day the PCB sources had been in place. This suit was to dog OMC's footsteps throughout the 1980s. Reorganizing his domestic operations was another Strang priority, with bringing together the Evinrude and Johnson divisions at

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3948-454: The annual net sales, which soared from $ 27 million in 1950 to $ 171.5 million by 1959. During the 1950s, OMC's main objective had been acquisitions to broaden basic product lines. In the 1960s, the company's aim was to improve all these products and find growing markets for them. Ensuring its industry leadership by constant innovation and improvement to existing products, OMC allocated more than $ 7 million annually to research and development. As

4042-571: The attention of a competitor, Johnson Motor Company , which brought out its rival lightweight engine in 1922. Johnson gained market share, snatching the lead four years later with an updated model weighing a trim 100 pounds, costing a thrifty $ 190, and able to drive a boat at a zippy 16 miles per hour. Neither the Evinrude Company nor ELTO could match this. Now far ahead, Johnson produced a net profit of $ 433,000 in 1927, far outpacing Evinrude's $ 25,000 and ELTO's $ 30,000. A new engine in 1928 restored

4136-583: The boat market peaked and then went into a tailspin. Although Chapman decided to purchase 15 boatmakers to assure OMC of captive customers for their outboard engines, the company did not develop a comprehensive or well-designed strategy to manage its growing operations efficiently. In the middle of the worst downturn in the industry's history, Chapman reduced staff, closed factories, and eliminated whole product lines, such as Chris-Craft engines and boat models—all to no avail. Between 1990 and 1993, OMC suffered losses totaling $ 440 million. In 1989, OMC purchased some of

4230-425: The brand names of Four Winns, Seaswirl, Trade Winds, Sunbird, Stratos, and Hydra-Sports include fiberglass runabouts, cruisers, performance boats, and craft for offshore fishing. Outboard Marine also marketed clothing for boating, and resort wear. Unfortunately, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Outboard Marine had a difficult time keeping up with the competition, notably archrival Brunswick Corporation , currently

4324-703: The buying patterns of consumers in favor of manufacturers), he did not invent it but rather popularized the term. Stevens defined it as "instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary". His view was to always make the consumer want something new, rather than create poor products that would need replacing. There is some debate over his role in this controversial business practice. http://wisconsinology.blogspot.com/2009/02/brooks-stevensthe-designer-of-20.html Raymond Loewy Raymond Loewy ( / ˈ l oʊ i / LOH -ee , French: [ʁɛmɔ̃ levi] ; November 5, 1893 – July 14, 1986)

4418-425: The closure of their Milwaukee , Wisconsin and Waukegan, Illinois plants over the next two years. OMC released the 1997 FICHT fuel injected motor in 1996 to meet stiffer EPA guidelines. This motor used gasoline direct injection developed by Ficht GmbH Germany. This motor had problems due to the transition phase of operation being exactly at the same trolling speed of many fishermen and had problems early on, and

4512-552: The company and reflecting a flattening of future market potential. OMC discontinued them the following year. Snowmobiles, constituting about 4 percent of sales volume in 1972, were offered in 1973 with an optional Wankel engine costing about $ 235 more than the conventional motor. Though this was the United States's first introduction to the revolutionary rotary engine, OMC's hopes of success were dashed by heavy competition from other snowmobile brands, as well as by two winters of sparse snow. Snowmobile production came to an end in 1976, after

4606-847: The company passed to its bankers. Next came an attempt to lessen its reliance on seasonal sales by entry into the refrigerator-compressor market. This last-ditch effort did not revive the business, and shortly thereafter Johnson was for sale. In 1935, the Outboard Motors Corporation bought the Johnson Motor Company. Its $ 800,000 price tag brought Outboard a well-known line of outboards and plant and equipment worth $ 1.5 million. It also brought Outboard established overseas markets in China, Burma, Iran, and Albania, to broaden Evinrude's array of dealers in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Another plus

4700-453: The company presidency after his father's death in 1934. These longtime staff members were all on hand with the return of peacetime, when the company converted its facilities back to the production of Johnson and Evinrude outboard motors. Spending $ 8 million on plant expansion and improvement by 1952, Outboard then offered models ranging from one-cylinder, 3 horsepower engines to two-cylinder, 25 horsepower models. Several acquisitions broadened

4794-472: The company subsidiary list in 1957. Well known in the utility vehicle field, Cushman had manufactured the Airborne, a motor scooter dropped by parachute for ground transport of paratroopers. Later the company's lightweight vehicles became popular for agricultural, industrial, and recreational use. Costing 114,000 shares at 30¢ par, the new acquisition added three-wheel mail carriers, golf carts, and motor scooters to

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4888-425: The company through the hectic war years were Outboard oldtimers. In addition to Briggs, there was Joseph G. Rayniak, director of manufacturing research, whose career dated back to the Johnson brothers' 2 horsepower Light Twin, unveiled in 1922. There was Finn T. Irgens, holder of 92 patents, who had risen to be director of engineering from a start with Ole Evinrude, in 1929. There was Ralph Evinrude, who had succeeded to

4982-623: The competitors themselves. Chief among these were the Japanese firm Yamaha, eating into OMC's European market, and Brunswick Corporation, makers of premium-priced Mercury outboards. A joint venture between Yamaha and Brunswick had produced a low-cost engine called Mariner; thus Brunswick then had an engine at both high and low ends of the market, leaving OMC sandwiched in the middle. With his newly united company behind him, Strang cleared this hurdle by slashing prices by 25 percent and also by making sure that all products offered by competitors were available in

5076-489: The crew quarters included sleep restraints, storage lockers, privacy partitions, lighting, a light baffle, privacy curtains, mirrors, towel holders and a communication box. The table was designed by Loewy in order to avoid creating hierarchical positions for crew members during long missions. Food was eaten using forks, knives and spoons, which were held in place on the table by magnets. Liquids were drunk from squeezable plastic containers. The International Harvester company

5170-492: The dealers. In addition to the engines, selling mostly in seasonal markets, there were other items broadening the product lines. The Lawn-Boy lawnmower had been an Evinrude staple since 1932, along with pumps for drainage, firefighting, and lawn spraying. Offerings from Johnson included small generators, a gasoline engine for washing machines, and refrigerators. In combination with the motors, all these produced net sales of $ 6.8 million by 1937, generating profits of $ 945,000. In

5264-500: The early 1940s, Outboard's facilities were all converted to the production of war materials. Bomb fuses, aircraft engines, and firefighting apparatus flowed from the Outboard factories, along with landing-boat motors for the Navy. Evinrude four-cylinder engines carried troops across the Rhine. Net sales for 1945 reached $ 1.8 million, topping $ 2.5 million the following year. The personnel who steered

5358-507: The engine with fresh water while it was running. The Spitfire and Silver-Star models also used an infra-red sensor system called Optical Ignition System (OIS 2000). This system automatically advanced the engine timing to eliminate unwanted timing changes. Other advancements in 1991 included smaller, more fuel efficient diesel stern drive models. The OMC Cobra Diesel was a 970-pound, 3.2 liter, six-cylinder monoblock inline powerhouse that produced 205-hp at 4300 rpm. Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI)

5452-568: The experimental duplex engine Q1 which was his last work of streamlining PRR's steam engine. In 1946, at the Pennsylvania Railroad's request, he restyled Baldwin 's diesels with a distinctive " sharknose " reminiscent of the T1. While he did not design the famous GG1 electric locomotive , he improved its appearance with welded rather than riveted construction, and he added a pinstripe paint scheme to highlight its smooth contours. In addition to locomotive design, Loewy's studios provided many designs for

5546-456: The fastest-growing segment of the business, also at 7 percent. Chain saw sales accounted for 4 percent of the final figure, while a full 70 percent came from marine products. The only failure of the decade was the boat-building enterprise; initially small operating losses grew each year, until the line was sold to Chris-Craft in 1970. Otherwise, the 1960s had been lucrative, as the 1969 net sales figure of $ 327.1 million showed. The 1970s began with

5640-526: The former CEO of Whirlpool Corporation , was hired to replace Chapman. When the boat industry finally rebounded from its economic downturn in 1994, OMC did not have enough of the right kind of product for its customers since much of it had been sold by Chapman. Bowman immediately formed a joint venture with Volvo to consolidate two engines into one brand name, finalized a contract with a German firm to bring in new technology for high-pressure fuel injectors so that OMC engines could be more fuel-efficient, initiated

5734-445: The holdings of Murray Industries, Inc., makers of Chris-Craft boats. That same year, OMC sold off Lawn-Boy, a popular lawn mower company, and Cushman to The Toro Company and Ransomes respectively. The sales netted a much needed $ 248 million in cash for OMC. One portion of the money was used for capital improvements for its boatbuilding facilities while another portion was invested in building a new Suncruiser aluminum pontoon boat. Despite

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5828-537: The large expenditures, OMC's decision to focus on boatbuilding proved to be a good one. OMC was able to pair boats with appropriately powered outboards and sales of boat packages doubled within a one-year timeframe. Smaller and quieter V-6s were introduced in 1991 in the form of the Evinrude Spitfire and the Johnson Silver-Star series. These outboards featured a new flushing device that could be used to flush

5922-518: The marine industry include designs for Owens Yacht Company and Cutter Boats as well as a line of stainless steel marine hardware for the Vollrath Company . Stevens is credited with restyling the front end of the Volkswagen 411 , marketed as the 412 . Though he is often cited with inventing the concept of planned obsolescence (the practice of artificially shortening product lifecycle to influence

6016-451: The more time-consuming method of piecemeal assembly in several locations. In 1956, the company changed its name to Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC). The same year, OMC purchased Industrial Engineering, Canada's largest chain-saw manufacturer, for C$ 2.55 million plus 40,000 shares. OMC moved this new subsidiary to Peterborough, Ontario, and changed the name Industrial Engineering to Pioneer Saws Ltd . Cushman (company) of Nebraska joined

6110-499: The most beautiful cars ever made", was radical in appearance, as radical in its way as the 1934 Airflow . However, it was beset by production problems. To brand the new line, Loewy also contemporized Studebaker's logo again by applying the "Lazy S" element. His final commission of the 1950s for Studebaker was the transformation of the Starlight and Starliner coupes into the Hawk series for

6204-618: The new engines. During the 1960s, public interest in novel sports offered new market potential. Alert to novel trends, OMC entered the snowmobile industry with enthusiasm, introducing the Evinrude Skeeter and the Johnson Skee-Horse in 1964, each sure to thrill riders with speeds of more than 30 miles per hour. Another innovation was the Evinrude Aquanaut for skin diving, also sold under the Johnson tradename Air-Buoy. Consisting of

6298-403: The newer stern-drive engines. Production began the following year, helping to raise sales to $ 151.9 million by 1962. The stern-drive, or inboard-outboard motors, were available both as separate units for boat-builders, or as components of boats produced by OMC. Built to give the fuel economy and dependability of inboard engines, they were nevertheless as versatile as outboards. By 1965 the company

6392-517: The outboard market. OMC filed for bankruptcy 22 December 2000 and laid off 7,000 employees. The Johnson and Evinrude brands were won by bid in February 2001 by Bombardier Recreational Products and the boat division by Genmar Holdings of Minnesota. The former OMC plant #2 in Waukegan, Illinois is now a Superfund cleanup site. Outboard Marine Corporation sometimes referred to as Outboard Motor Company

6486-469: The presidency of the company, succeeding Robert F. Wallace, whose short tenure had lasted from January 1982. Like his predecessors, Chapman grappled with the Waukegan Harbor question. This issue was finally laid to rest in April 1989, when the U.S. Department of Justice ordered OMC to fund a trust to remove the pollutants from Lake Michigan. This was just the beginning of OMC's problems, however. In 1988,

6580-477: The principal designer Virgil Exner . Their designs first began appearing with the late-1930s Studebakers. Loewy also designed a new logo to replace the "turning wheel" that had been the Studebaker trademark since 1912. During World War II, American government restrictions on in-house design departments at Ford , General Motors , and Chrysler prevented official work on civilian automobiles. Because Loewy's firm

6674-535: The rear seat. In addition to the iconic bullet-nosed Studebakers of 1950 and 1951, the team created the 1953 Studebaker line, highlighted by the Starliner and Starlight coupes. (Publicly credited to Loewy, they were actually the work of Robert Bourke. ) The Starlight has consistently ranked as one of the best-designed cars of the 1950s in lists compiled since by Collectible Automobile , Car and Driver , and Motor Trend . The '53 Starliner, recognized today as "one of

6768-504: The smoking and knocking of these engines, along with many pistons and rods exploding out the sides of the engine block, created an aura of doom to potential new customers. Some outboard motor industry insiders have speculated the rush to meet EPA standards helped with the undoing of OMC. OMC press release 22 December 2000 WAUKEGAN, Ill., Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC) Outboard Marine Corporation and several of its subsidiaries today filed for voluntary reorganization under Chapter 11 of

6862-715: The support of British American Tobacco , established the Raymond Loewy Foundation in Hamburg , Germany. The foundation was established to preserve the memory of Raymond Loewy and promote the discipline of industrial design. An annual award of €50,000 is granted to outstanding designers, in recognition of their lifetime achievements. Notable grantees include Karl Lagerfeld , Philippe Starck and Dieter Rams . In 1998, Loewy's daughter, Laurence, established Loewy Design in Atlanta , Georgia, to manage her father's continued interests in

6956-539: The top of the list. Complete separation of the two since the company's beginnings had fostered an intense rivalry between them, along with disregard for competition by manufacturers outside the company. To unite the company against outside competitors, in 1978 Strang centralized all domestic manufacturing operations at the corporate headquarters in Waukegan, Illinois, charging vice president James C. Chapman with responsibility for their coordination, as well as for manufacturing policy. Next came long-range plans for dealing with

7050-516: The university logo for the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) in 1978 as a part of "The Diamond Jubilee" celebration. The logo remains in use today. Stevens designed the post-war Skytop Lounge observation cars for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad 's Hiawatha passenger trains. He also designed a series of Excalibur sport cars for Studebaker. Originally intended as

7144-652: The war in 1918. Loewy served in the French army during World War I (1914–1918), attaining the rank of captain. He was wounded in combat and received the Croix de guerre . After the war he moved to New York, where he arrived in September 1919. In Loewy's early years in the United States, he lived in New York and found work as a window designer for department stores , including Macy's , Wanamaker's and Saks in addition to working as

7238-462: The way down to paint colors. He designed other passenger locomotives for the firm, including a streamlined shroud for K4s Pacific #3768 to haul the newly redesigned 1938 Broadway Limited . He followed by styling the experimental S1 locomotive, as well as the T1 class. In 1940, he designed a simplified version of the streamlined shroud for another four K4s . In 1942, he designed the streamlined shroud for

7332-472: The way for a new stern-drive engine, to supersede previous models. After reviewing the stern-drive market, the company sent interviewers to dealers and service department personnel, gathering information for the ideal stern-drive engine. The result was the OMC Cobra, introduced in 1985. Designed for both boat builders and consumers, its 7.5 liter engine delivered 340 horsepower. In 1984, James Chapman stepped into

7426-437: The world's largest manufacturer of powerboats. Motorized transport was just becoming an everyday part of life in 1907, when Ole Evinrude first mass-produced a practical outboard engine for boats. Evinrude placed an advertisement in a motor magazine to introduce his motor, drawing so many inquiries from U.S. and overseas readers that he decided to try large-scale production. Needing financial help with this undertaking, he found

7520-401: Was $ 14.3 million even after selling assets such as the corporate jet. In April 1997, OMC hired Salomon Brothers to explore future option such as a buyout or merger. In 1997, Detroit Diesel made a $ 16 a share bid for OMC. They were outbid at $ 18 a share by Alfred Kingsley who previously owned 2 million shares purchased at $ 17 a share and had no experience in the outboard industry. The deal

7614-550: Was Johnson's niche in the refrigeration market; Outboard established the Gale Products Division at Galesburg, Illinois , to manufacture this new line. Expansion brought changes. No longer devoted to purely marine interests, the company changed its name in 1936, to the Outboard Marine & Manufacturing Company. Stephen F. Briggs resigned his Outboard chairmanship temporarily—he had held this position since 1929 to take

7708-466: Was a French-born American industrial designer who achieved fame for the magnitude of his design efforts across a variety of industries. He was recognized for this by Time magazine and featured on its cover on October 31, 1949. He spent most of his professional career in the United States, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1938. Among his designs were the Shell , Exxon , TWA and the former BP logos,

7802-467: Was a manufacturer of agricultural machinery, light and heavy duty trucks, construction equipment and appliances. In 1935 it engaged Loewy to overhaul the product line, from the company's logo to operator ergonomics. The first new machine to reflect Loewy's design aesthetic, a crawler tractor known as the International TD-18, was launched in 1938. For the 1958 model year, Loewy was engaged to style

7896-457: Was a multibillion-dollar Fortune 500 corporation. Evinrude began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1907. OMC was based in Waukegan , Illinois . They also owned several lines of boats such as Chris Craft , Lowe Boats , Princecraft, Four Winns, SeaSwirl, Stratos, and Javelin. OMC was also a parent company to Lawn-Boy and Ryan, which made lawn mowers. OMC sold 100,000 motors in 2000 and had one third of

7990-571: Was backed by George Soros . Carl Icahn , a corporate raider who bought TWA in 1988, is said to blame Kingsley his lieutenant during the 1980s for the ensuing TWA bankruptcy a few years later. David Jones, former Mercury Marine Division president until August 1997, was hired by Kingsley in September 1997 to become the President and CEO of OMC, but resigned in August 2000 due to financial turmoil at OMC. In March 1998, OMC laid off 200 employees after earlier laying off 348. In September 1998, OMC announced

8084-842: Was born in Paris in 1893, the son of Maximilian Loewy, a Jewish journalist from Austria, and a French mother, Marie Labalme. Loewy distinguished himself early with the design of a successful model aircraft , which won the Gordon Bennett Cup for model airplanes in 1908. By the following year, he had commercial sales of the plane, named the Ayrel . He graduated in 1910 from the University of Paris . He continued his studies in advanced engineering at Ecole Duvignau de Lanneau in Paris, but stopped his studies early to serve in World War I, eventually graduating after

8178-416: Was cooperation, operations were largely independent. This left each division to award contracts to outside bidders as well as those sharing a place under the Outboard umbrella. Even export sales operations were handled differently; although they were all routed through the Waukegan headquarters, Johnson tended to sell directly to its dealers, while most Evinrude sales were passed through distributors and then to

8272-433: Was designed to specialize in one manufacturing function. In addition, overseas plants were refined to reduce operations costs and provide more efficient handling and storage. Streamlining made product innovation easier. Power steering, variable-ratio oiling—delivering exact mixtures of gasoline and oil to the engine—and saltwater protection were new features appreciated by powerboat buyers. Starting in 1983, OMC began to prepare

8366-442: Was formed in 1929 when ELTO was merged with Lockwood-Ash Motor Company. They began using the name OMC in 1956. Outboard Marine Corporation was the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of outboard motors and second largest producer of powerboats. Based in Waukegan, Illinois the company had become famous for its brand-name Johnson and Evinrude outboard motors, as well as its Chris-Craft and Grumman powerboats. Other products under

8460-542: Was independent of the fourth-largest automobile producer in America, no such restrictions applied. This permitted Studebaker to launch the first all-new postwar automobile in 1947, two years ahead of the "Big Three." His team developed an advanced design featuring flush-front fenders and clean rearward lines. The Loewy staff, headed by Exner, also created the Starlight body, which featured a rear-window system that wrapped 180° around

8554-480: Was introduced on some OMC drive systems in 1993, representing the first time that EFI was available to recreational stern drive customers. With the previous carbureted systems, boaters had to endure a nine-step starting sequence. With the EFI, boaters had only to turn the key and shift into gear. By 1993, OMC had more than 20 brands in the marketplace, ranging from canoes to cruisers. Operations were divided into three groups –

8648-446: Was not easy to maintain the company's competitive edge against the Japanese at this time, but Strang slashed budgets, reducing his work force by one-third, to save an annual pretax amount of $ 47 million. The reward for this effort showed at the end of fiscal 1982, when net sales reached $ 778 million. OMC was now in a position to spend $ 100 million on the construction and tooling of nine new plants. Contrary to previous practice, each plant

8742-606: Was selling only about 20,000 stern drives a year, however, and sales of the outboards were still outpacing them tenfold. The problem stemmed from the engine's state-of-the-art technology; many dealers did not know how to repair these motors, and owners were often ignorant of maintenance needs. OMC met this challenge by developing computerized week-long repair and maintenance classes for dealer training. Four schools, two permanently stationed in San Francisco, California, and Waukegan, Illinois, and two mobile units familiarized customers with

8836-512: Was survived by his wife Alice, children and grandchildren. Stevens is credited with styling the late 1940s Modern Hygiene cannister vacuum cleaners, and designed Harley-Davidson motorcycles including the 1949 Hydra-Glide Harley , one of his first, helping create the new suspension forks in the front, bucket headlight, and the streamlined design. All Harleys since, including models in production now, are based on Stevens's body designs. His designs in home and kitchen appliances were popular, and he

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