Raymond Loewy, the sultan of streamlined design

When sleek Studebaker cars still prowled the roads and boomerang-patterned Formica counters were the rage in kitchen decor, industrial designer Raymond Loewy ruled.

Anyone with a nostalgia for mid-20th-century modernism — those irresistibly retro days of juke boxes, Coca-Cola dispensers and streamlined everything — will want to browse through "Raymond Loewy: Designs for a Consumer Culture," at Bellevue Arts Museum, to see the giant fingerprint Loewy left on the world of business and manufacturing. Even if you've never heard the name Loewy before, you've seen his work: Picture the logos for Shell Oil, Nabisco, Canada Dry, Lucky Strike cigarettes or Newsweek.

Some of the products that Loewy designed are included at BAM, but not enough to make this a really juicy show. Most of it is drawn from Loewy's archives and comes in the form of documentation, including magazine spreads, advertisements, drawings, models and photographs. Actual objects include a clock in the form of a skyscraper; a tray setting for the supersonic Concorde passenger jet (complete with Limoge glass casserole dish); and a seductive, shiny metal-faced cabinet that's bleary with the fingerprints of visitors who just couldn't resist copping a feel.

A native of Paris, Loewy was born in 1893 and spent his first 25 years in France. He moved to New York after his parents died in the 1918 influenza pandemic, and with his suave good looks and silver tongue quickly became a successful advertising artist. Loewy leveraged his connections into a career as an industrial designer and trendsetter, creating must-have looks for everything from fountain pens to locomotives. By 1949, Loewy had accrued so much power and money, Time magazine flaunted his picture on the cover and pronounced: "He streamlines the sales curve."

Sheila Farr: sfarr@seattletimes.com