A Brooklyn wagon trade, a bus and a move to Allentown.

Mack Trucks began in Brooklyn, New York, with a family of brothers who came to motor vehicles through the carriage trade. English Wikipedia says John M. “Jack” Mack took a job in 1890 at Fallesen & Berry, a Brooklyn carriage and wagon company, and that the brothers went on to build their own vehicles. The article dates the company in two ways: its summary says it was founded in 1900 as the Mack Brothers Company, while its timeline places a “Mack bus” ordered by a sightseeing company in 1900 and the establishment of the Mack Brothers Company in 1902. The company itself says on its website that Mack was “born in Brooklyn more than a century ago.”

The brothers did not stay in New York for long. Wikipedia says Allentown, Pennsylvania, was chosen in 1905 as the home of the main manufacturing operations, the year a fourth brother, Joseph Mack, became a stockholder, and that the company also built rail cars and locomotives in that period. Its timeline records that the brothers sold vehicles under the brand name “Manhattan” from 1904, before the family name became the brand.

The business grew through a merger. Wikipedia says that on 23 September 1911 the Saurer Motor Truck Company, which held rights to build and sell heavy trucks under the Saurer name in Plainfield, New Jersey, merged with the Mack Brothers Motor Car Company of Allentown to form the International Motor Truck Company, which kept using the Saurer name until 1918.

The modern name arrived in 1922. Wikipedia’s timeline says the company was renamed Mack Trucks, Inc. that year and that the bulldog was established as its corporate symbol at the same time. It ties the animal to a story from the First World War, which it presents as a legend: that British soldiers facing adversity would call for “Mack Bulldogs” to be sent. The company’s defence arm repeats the line “Send in the Mack Bulldogs” on its website, and Mack titles its own customer publication Bulldog.

Signal, Renault, Volvo and a move to Greensboro.

From the late 1960s Mack changed hands several times. Wikipedia says Mack Trucks became part of the Signal Oil and Gas Company in 1967 through a share exchange, and that Signal renamed itself The Signal Companies later that year. The French carmaker Renault bought a minority stake in 1979 and increased it over the following years; in 1987 Renault moved its Mack shares to its truck arm, Renault Véhicules Industriels, and in 1990 Mack became a wholly owned subsidiary of that company.

The current owner arrived with Renault’s trucks. Wikipedia says Mack became part of Volvo together with Renault Véhicules Industriels, with Renault taking a stake in the combined company; the article’s summary dates Volvo’s ownership to 2000 and its timeline to 2001. Renault Véhicules Industriels became Renault Trucks in 2002, according to the same timeline. Mack now describes itself on its website as “part of the Volvo Group”.

Allentown was Mack’s home for more than a century. Wikipedia says the company moved into a new Allentown world headquarters in 1970, announced in 2008 that it would move its head office to Greensboro, North Carolina, where Volvo’s North American truck business was already based, and has been headquartered there since 2009. WFMZ, the Allentown television station, reported on 19 August 2009 that the gold bulldog statue that had greeted employees at the Allentown headquarters for nearly 40 years was being moved to Greensboro, and that Mack officials said the large illuminated bulldog sculpture on the front of the Allentown building would stay as a symbol of the company’s history in the Lehigh Valley.

Manufacturing stayed in Pennsylvania. Wikipedia says Mack trucks are built at its Lehigh Valley Operations plant in Lower Macungie, near Allentown, and in Salem, Virginia, with powertrain products made in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Design and documentation.

A truck maker’s identity lives in places a car badge rarely reaches. The mark on a heavy truck usually sits on or above the grille, where it has to read from a distance, from a mirror and from the cab of the vehicle behind, so badges on this kind of vehicle tend to be large, simple and often three-dimensional, in chrome, brushed metal or moulded plastic rather than in print.

Truck brands can also carry a nameplate or wordmark across the front of the cab or the hood, and a model name on the doors or the sleeper. On fleet vehicles, though, the maker’s mark shares the cab with the operator’s livery: the haulier’s colours, name and fleet number usually dominate the paintwork, and the manufacturer’s badge becomes the one constant from fleet to fleet.

The third surface is the dealer network. Pylon signs, service-bay fascias, parts counters and workshop uniforms repeat the mark at a scale closer to retail signage, and they are where a change of logo or owner tends to show first. For a designer, these three settings — grille, cab and dealership — are the useful test of any truck identity: does the mark hold up in metal, alongside someone else’s colours, and on a sign seen from the road?

A surname, a bulldog and a bulldog on the hood.

Mack’s identity rests on a short family surname and an animal. Wikipedia says the bulldog became the company’s corporate symbol in 1922, and that in 1932 the company’s chief engineer, Alfred Fellows Masury, carved a bulldog hood ornament while recovering from an operation, applied for and received a U.S. patent for the design, and saw it placed on Mack trucks from then on.

The bulldog has also been built into the company’s buildings. WFMZ reported in 2009 that a gold bulldog statue had stood at the Allentown headquarters for nearly 40 years before Mack moved it to Greensboro, and that an illuminated bulldog sculpture was mounted on the front of the Allentown building. Wikipedia says that for Mack’s 100th anniversary in 2000 the company built a limited edition of its Vision truck in black paint with custom gold stripes and stainless badges.

Mack trucks have also appeared on screen. The Morning Call of Allentown reported on 22 April 2006 that Mack trucks had appeared in films ranging from Convoy (1978) to Bad Boys II (2003), and in Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive (1986), and that the Disney/Pixar film Cars included a truck character named Mack, voiced by John Ratzenberger and based on a 1985 Mack Super-Liner. The newspaper reported that the city’s mayor proclaimed a Mack Trucks–Disney/Pixar “Cars” Day when the film’s promotional tour stopped at Mack’s Allentown headquarters.

For a design guide, Mack shows how one animal, adopted as a symbol a century ago and then carved into a hood ornament a decade later, can hold a brand together through owners from Signal to Renault to the Volvo Group. Compare it with Volvo, whose name Mack’s parent group also carries, and Peterbilt, whose bird has sat on its hood since 1965. For this guide we use bulldog gold, coal black and gunmetal with a condensed sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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