Raymond Loewy (leader of AMC designs) and his custom 59 Caddy

Ray was very important in American design, he'll be remembered as one of the most important industrial designers for his contributing work iconic contributions to modern life were the Shell logo, the Greyhound bus, the Lucky Strike package, Coldspot refrigerators and the Studebaker Avanti.

At 15 he designed an aircraft that won an award, and was immediately put into production, after being wounded in action (WW1) and decorated with a medal, he boarded a ship for America with only 50 bucks.

During World War II, American government restrictions on in-house design departments at Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler prevented official work on civilian automobiles. Because Loewy's firm was independent of the fourth-largest automobile producer in America, no such restrictions applied. This permitted Studebaker to launch the first all-new postwar automobile in 1947, two years ahead of the "Big Three".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy