Deconstructing Product Design

Coldspot Refrigerator

Raymond Loewy for Sears, 1935

1. In what many consider to be the product that launched “industrial design” as a profession, the Loewy-redesigned Sears Coldspot refrigerator demonstrated that industrial design, done right, could have a swift and significant impact on the bottom line, more than tripling refrigerator sales for Sears in one year. Raymond Loewy comments: “When we started our design, the Coldspot until then on the market was ugly. It was an ill-proportioned squarish box ‘decorated’ with a maze of moldings, panels, and other schmaltz. It was perched on spindly legs high off the ground and the latch was a pitiful piece of cheap hardware. We took care of all that in no time at all. The open space under the box ...