By the middle of the twentieth century, American product design with regard to theory and practice differed greatly from the European. While Europe’s population (especially after the Second World War) suffered from a lack of industrial commodities, Americans were enjoying a rich range of products.
The increasing oversaturation of the American domestic market and the resulting pressure of competition among companies made design an important marketing factor along with advertising. Changing the appearance of the product in short cycles was to stabilize or even increase sales. This caused many American designers to focus their design objectives solely on the object’s shell. The word styling defines this application of the discipline. It describes the pure aesthetic surface design of products, which reveals design’s departure from technical or ergonomic considerations.
This sometimes created a wide gap between the external appearance of the object and its function, as well as formal arbitrariness. Styling characteristically applies existing styles and formal elements from other areas, without developing the relevant object in its own essential formal language, or without optimizing it with regards to function or production. A typical example here is the “dream cars” of the 1950s. The various car models differ very little or not at all from their predecessors, either functionally or technically. Yet they were donned with a new metal suit every year, since variation in form and product shell were supposed to stimulate customer interest.
The aim was to place the products in a fashion context, to have them look old as soon as possible in order to arouse the desire for the new shape, and in this way, boost product consumption. Under Raymond Loewy (1893–1986), the streamline form, a symbol for dynamics, progress, and freedom, became an icon of American styling, particularly in the 1950s (Streamline Design). Applied in aircraft construction because of its aerodynamic qualities, it was next transferred onto other mobile objects (cars and locomotives), and then onto household and office appliances (like toasters or pencil sharpeners) to connote speed and therefore modernity.
Styling was very successful at this time in fulfilling its job in encouraging sales via the cosmetic styling of shells and surfaces. It was not until the 1960s that manipulating consumers with product aesthetics attracted heavy criticism.
The accusation being that design had been directing its focus purely on corporate profit and superficial gimmickry (Gimmick) while neglecting its sociocultural responsibilities. This changed the meaning of styling from a once positively associated term to a disparaging word for simple formalism.
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