Comments on: Pencil Sharpener Is Stream-Lined (Jul, 1934)

By: docca

docca — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:57:01 +0000

“How is it sorely lacking today? I sharpens pencils, and it looks beautiful — what more can it do?”

You bet if it was produced in China it would have some “extra functions”, like a flashlight, a card reader or a bottle opener

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:41:42 +0000

His website:
http://www.raymondloewy.com/

By: Charlene

Charlene — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:42:19 +0000

Streamlining has a functional benefit: smooth surfaces are easier to keep clean than intricate designs.

It’s not surprising that the Victorian and Edwardian ages were times of great detail in art, architecture, and interior design. If you could afford beautiful items in those days, you could also afford a maid to keep them clean. The streamlining of Art Deco and Retro occurred at the same time that the middle classes started doing their own housework, and I don’t think that’s a complete coincidence.

By: galessa

galessa — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:42:08 +0000

The commercial success of the streamlined redesign of many consumer goods in the 1930s points out important aspects of the relationship of design and the market. Although the inner works of this sharpener could be very similar to the victorian ones (but seldom the same), the ones that would get the preference of the public then were the streamlined ones, simply cause they were echoing the aspirations of the consumer of living in an idealized present, away from many restrictions of victorian times and the hard times of the early 30s.
Besides, some designs represented REAL betterments over designs of the period. As an example, one can consider the refrigerator designs of the early 30s and the groundbreaking, trendsetting design of the Coldspot by Lowey, a better design in all aspects one could consider; from symbolic to strictly functional ones. To consider Streamlining as surface design only is a very superficial approach.

By: Odon

Odon — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:15:44 +0000

â€œUntil the Thirties, all pencil sharpeners had looked like pencil sharpenersâ€”your basic Victorian mechanism, perhaps with a curlicue of decorative trim. After the advent of the designers, some pencil sharpeners looked as though theyâ€™d been put together in wind tunnels. For the most part, the change was only skin-deep; under the streamlined chrome shell, youâ€™d find the same Victorian mechanism. Which made a certain kind of sense, because the most successful American designers had been recruited from the ranks of Broadway theater designers. It was all a stage set, a series of elaborate props for playing at living in the future.â€

–From â€œThe Gernsback Continuumâ€ by William Gibson

By: Randy

Randy — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:30:28 +0000

From the mind who designed the Studebaker Avanti! No more needs to be said.

By: Torgo

Torgo — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:14:04 +0000

How is it sorely lacking today? I sharpens pencils, and it looks beautiful — what more can it do?

By: Charlene

Charlene — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:17:28 +0000

I want that pencil sharpener so badly.

By: nevrdull

nevrdull — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:32:11 +0000

wow. now you can sharpen your pencil at 300 miles an hour..

By: Alan Levita

Alan Levita — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:22:44 +0000

Mr. Loewy was also the designer of the colour scheme for the Air Force One.

By: galessa

galessa — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:14:14 +0000

Mr. Loewy surely streamlined the sales curves of this thing.

By: Neil Russell

Neil Russell — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:17:33 +0000

The inventor apparently is an adherent to the concept of “if it looks better it runs better”

Although I do love the streamlined look, it’s sorely lacking today