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Westinghouse Sign (ca. 1967)

The Westinghouse Sign captured the attention of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania residents for over thirty years—with a perfect blend of art and science. In 1966, Richard Huppertz, manager of design coordination at Westinghouse, developed an advertising concept intended to increase awareness of the company mark, without relying on words. The idea was then presented to graphic designer Paul Rand who created a sign using nine iterations of his ‘circle w’ logo. Completed in 1967, the sign was described in Westinghouse promotional materials as follows: “Look over at the North Side across the Allegheny River any night and see a Westinghouse computer at play. It’s this country’s first computer-controlled sign. “In the daytime, it is just a series of nine encircled W’s, spanning a 200-foot aluminum background. But after dark, the fun begins. “Each figure contains nine elements and each element is an individual electric circuit. That makes 81 in all. The sign is programmed for five-minute performances of lighting acrobatics. Programs can be varied endlessly. “Somebody figured out that it would take 8,000 years to show all the possible combinations. How many are there? 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. “Why a computerized sign? Well, Westinghouse computer systems already run ships and steel mills, power plants, utility networks and mass transit systems. So, why not a sign—here in Pittsburgh—to dramatize the role Pittsburgh plays in today’s new technologies? “You can be sure…if it’s Westinghouse.” The Wesco Building on which the sign stood was demolished in 1998 when the site was cleared for the construction of PNC Park. This 16-mm film, with the original optical sound track (a tune called “Mock Minuet”), is one of the few surviving reels showing the venerable sign in action. Location notes: The first scene of the film was shot in front of Gateway Center, looking east down Fort Duquesne Boulevard. The red neon HORNE’S sign in the center of the frame sat atop their flagship department store on Stanwix Street. In the second scene, the camera was rotated ninety degrees to the left for a view across the Allegheny River. The white sign near the Westinghouse display marks Allegheny Center, a mixed use office and retail complex built in the 1960s by Alcoa Properties. The final scene of the film captures the Westinghouse sign from the southeast, with the iconic red and white Clark Bar sign in the distance. In 2001, the Clark sign was removed from the D.L. Clark Building, stripped of its neon, and relocated to the parking lot of the Clark Bar & Grill. Detailed information about the Westinghouse Sign is available on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westingh... This film was made available through the courtesy of Richard Huppertz.