Who designed the original Neighbourhood Watch logo?

Mellor&Scott, which is working with Neighbourhood Watch is appealing to the design community to help find the designer of the original logo. So far there are several clues.

Neighbourhood watch

Consultancy Mellor&Scott, which has worked with Neighbourhood Watch for several years, is trying to track down the designer of the original Neighbourhood Watch logo pictured.

Partner Paul Mellor says: “We have recently been focusing our attention on the original Neighbourhood Watch logo – yellow roundel, with black type and four characters depicted in the centre. The mark has become one of the organisation’s most recognised brand assets.”

Mellor – who says the identity has stood the test of time since its design in 1982 – is hoping to meet the designer “to discuss the original brief and rationale.”

Several leads

Despite uncovering a few leads Mellor is still in the dark so he is appealing to the design community to help find the designer.

He does know the first Neighbourhood Watch scheme was launched in 1982 and understands that the logo was designed for a pilot scheme in Hurlington, Fulham, prior to this date.
Mellor believes that the Centre of Information (COI) probably commissioned the design. This government department handled all design, marketing, ad and creative work up until 2011, when it was disbanded.

This means it was designed by either an in-house designer at the COI, a design studio on the COI’s roster, a freelancer, or Mellor believes someone within the police force connected to either the Metropolitan Police or Cheshire Police.

Trademark application in 1989

Mellor says: “An interesting twist is the discovery of a trademark application in 1989 by Ann Gulliver, granted in 1991. However, in 2003 the Government successfully claimed the roundel was Crown Copyright, which might support the theory that it was designed by COI. But who is Ann Gulliver?

“Was she a design supplier commissioned by the COI who applied for the trademark when Neighbourhood Watch started to take-off? It wasn’t unusual back in the 80’s and 90’s for terms and conditions of a Government design contract to state all copyright vested in works produced, rests with the commissioning government body – Crown Copyright.”

Do you know who designed the original neighbourhood watch logo?

Leave your comments below and contact Mellor&Scott.

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Comments
  • Kevin Payne August 18, 2015 at 10:28 am

    It is strange – I have seen this logo around for years and years but I have never really studied the people in the image before (apart from the policeman). Maybe it’s because the stickers/signs out on the street are always worn.

    • Paul Mellor August 18, 2015 at 2:06 pm

      Yes Kevin, I think your experience will match many others. It would be great to find out who the original designer was? It’s rare for a logo to last 30+ years so would love to speak to them

  • Maxine Horn August 18, 2015 at 2:01 pm

    To obtain the original trademark, Ann Gulliver must either be the designer or registered by her under the original NW not-for-profit organisation or even as the in-house designer at the C.O.I. A Freedom of Information Act inquiry to IPO for the original application and contact details (as they would have been public record in 1991) should provide some answers.

    If it’s hard to even track a registered design right record, imagine the future difficulty of tracking unregistered design rights or unregistered copyright owners when no formal record exists. Research suggests that worldwide nearly 7 million unregistered 3D designs are launched worldwide per annum – unregistered copyright must run into billions per annum.

    The situation would be helped if designers used embedded IP Rights live tags in their work displayed online so when it becomes divorced from their web site, the owner and IP status is known and can be tracked instantly.

    Which is actually what Mellor & Scott now do for some of their work – example IP Rights>> http://c-b.me/1hu

    This find the designer case is a great illustration of why designers should take steps to identify their work.

  • Michael Smith August 23, 2015 at 10:09 pm

    I’m sure you’re already aware but the image shown isn’t the original design. That design had an older woman (clutching a handbag) and the policeman looking, most longingly into the eyes of the black man (who had a hand on his hip); it always used to make me chuckle. I have a few photos of that sign if that’d be helpful.

    • Angus Montgomery August 24, 2015 at 9:47 am

      Thanks and yes please!

  • Paul Mellor August 26, 2015 at 1:01 pm

    Hi Michael – yes the version you are referring to is likely an earlier version. However tracking down the design of the version sighted in this article is tough enough so we have tried to find the designer of this version as it may lead to the designer of the version you are referring.

    Do you know who designed either?

  • Katherine Heaton August 27, 2015 at 10:20 am

    An address for Ann Gulliver is given in the trademark application she made:
    https://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmcase/Results/1/UK00001393682
    However, she attempted to register the trademark for a board game (class 28) so perhaps this is unrelated?

    Good luck with the search!

  • Mike Dempsey August 28, 2015 at 10:26 am

    No idea and I would think that whoever did design it would rather not be discovered. But I do know that Michael Wolff was involved with a redesign a few years back. It was rejected, but it cleverly used the ‘our’ in Neighb’our’hood. Silly of the client not to go with that.

  • Tony Bryant February 12, 2020 at 4:17 am

    As a Londoner and keen TV Watcher, I suspect that the original version of that logo may even originate from the times of the `Dixon of Dock Green’ TV serial.
    Much was made of Community Policing in the late 60s with things like Panda Cars and the `Softly Softly’ approach, and the Copper in the background does look a bit like Jack Warner to me.

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