> "The Thirties had seen the first generation of American industrial designers; until the Thirties, all pencil sharpeners had looked like pencil sharpeners—your

> "The Thirties had seen the first generation of American industrial designers; until the Thirties, all pencil sharpeners had looked like pencil sharpeners—your basic Victorian mechanism, perhaps with a curlicue of decorative trim. After the advent of the designers, some pencil sharpeners looked as though they’d been put together in wind tunnels." A leading figure of this design movement was French-born Raymond Loewy: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/meet-product-designer-who-made-mid-century-america-look-clean-and-stylish-180972270/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/meet-product-desig... Gibson writes that "most successful American designers had been recruited from the ranks of Broadway theater designers", but this is not the case with Loewy. He had an interesting life and career, and his autobiography "Never Leave Well Enough Alone" is a great read. Sadly it seems to be out of print in English.