Signs, signs, everywhere a sign, and if it’s a service station or a car dealership, chances are good it was designed and manufactured by Knoxville-based ImagePoint.

Since its founding in 1944, the company, formerly known as Plasti-Line, has solidified its place in the $8 billion industrial signage industry, having manufactured the first illuminated signs in America for Pet Milk.

But for a company that prides itself on making its clients’ brands shine, the north Knox County-headquartered facility wasn’t much to look at. ImagePoint’s impressive roster includes all General Motors dealerships (topping 6,500 locations nationwide), McDonald’s, Chase Bank, Sonoco and Rite-Aid, to name a few.

“We’re the experts in image. It was time to take care of our own image,” says Melanie B. Robinson, director of human resources. Robinson spent her first few years with ImagePoint working in a cramped office space near its 50-acre manufacturing plant and campus.

In 2003, Plasti-Line decided to close its local operations after purchases of other, more flexible facilities in Canada, South Carolina and Ohio. This resulted in a “few hundred” layoffs, according to Robinson. “We never want to see people lose their jobs, but it was necessary for the health of the entire company,” she adds.

ImagePoint made its own sign change—a name that spoke more directly to its core service. With the North Knoxville plant location for sale, ImagePoint needed to find a new home for its 300 corporate employees. CEO and majority company owner Jim Martin had no intentions of skipping town.

Several locations were considered, but none was more appealing than Knoxville’s resurging downtown. ImagePoint was coaxed by the City of Knoxville and the Knoxville Chamber Partnership to take over several floors in the old Miller’s Department store (established in 1905), becoming building mates with the Knoxville Utilities Board.

When entertaining highbrow, potential new clients, or even keeping the current ones happy, it certainly has helped ImagePoint to show its new face.

“Clients say, ‘It’s like visiting a real company,’” Robinson says.

It’s unclear what financial incentives may have come into play, as ImagePoint is a privately held company, but having an additional 300 people to eat out, run errands and shop has done wonders for the downtown economy. Has ImagePoint’s move enticed others to follow suit?

“We have definitely used it in marketing to downtown recruitment,” says Rhonda Rice, the executive vice president for the chamber. She admits there’s “not a lot of large contiguous space downtown,” although the vacant, 200,000-square-foot TVA building that anchors Market Square has potential.

Can’t you read the signs?

ImagePoint