Featured Project: Beefing Up the Bulldog
Allen Industries was founded as a neon sign company in 1931. Today, descendants of the founder run the business.
Greensboro, North Carolina, has been the home of one of the country’s largest sign companies, Allen Industries, since 1931, when it was founded by Thomas R. Allen as Allen Neon Display.
Today, descendants of the founder continue to run the business, which has grown exponentially through acquisitions and through building a solid reputation over the decades. For this particular project, it was a neighboring company in Greensboro that led to this installation and hundreds of others like it in multiple countries. From the company’s blog:
“Although the headquarters of Mack Trucks and Allen Industries are located less than a mile apart near Interstate 40, the two had never worked together until Allen Industries was invited to bid for Mack’s re-imaging and signage contract.
“Allen Industries’ staff sprang into action, holding an internal contest among its designers over a four-day period. The competition led to several innovative designs that were presented to Mack for consideration. After presentations from Allen and other vendors, Mack chose the Allen design, which Allen then made into a prototype for Mack’s review. …
“Allen Industries updated Mack’s bulldog logo to a prouder, stouter and more muscular image that conveys the strength and reliability of the company and its products. The new design program is being implemented at Mack’s 300 plus sites across North, South and Central America. During the day, the robust architectural-grade signs portray the bulldog in what appears to be black outline with light accents. At nightfall, LED lights reverse the image so that the bulldog is outlined in white light and its features are accented by black. “The sign makes use of an aluminum frame, thin sheets of high-density aluminum carbonate material (ACM), and innovative DayLite technology to accomplish this striking transformation.”
