The challenge
New York is the safest big city in the world. But after the death of Eric Garner, the NYPD faced an uphill battle keeping and building trust with the communities it serves. Neighborhood Coordination Officers were being deployed across the five boroughs to meet residents where they live — but the program needed a brand and a launch campaign that could open doors instead of close them.
The identity had to signal a different kind of relationship between officers and the neighborhoods they patrol. It had to feel like the NYPD without feeling authoritative — and it had to work across every surface a citywide campaign touches, from subway cars and bus shelters to social feeds and community-meeting flyers.
Our approach
We branded and launched the Build the Block campaign end-to-end — identity, visual system, environmental graphics, digital, and a video series that carried the message.
On the identity, we advised against a badge logo. Badges convey authority, and authority was exactly the barrier the program needed to lower. Instead, we built the mark around three ideas already in the name: the map pin to denote location, a square lock-up to convey 'block,' and the outline of the five boroughs to make it unmistakably NYC. The result reads as civic, not enforcement — an invitation to a meeting, not a symbol of a patrol.
From that mark we built a full campaign system: bold color, straightforward typography, and photography focused on the residents and officers actually in the room together. The system rolled out across out-of-home placements, digital ads, print collateral, and a three-part video series — Relationships, Humanity, and a launch anthem — that put the program's premise on screen in the words of the people living it.
The result
Build the Block launched as a coordinated citywide effort with a single voice. The identity gave NCOs a recognizable banner to organize community meetings under, and the video series gave the campaign an emotional anchor that no static ad could carry alone.
The work reframed what a police campaign could look like — leading with partnership, geography, and neighborhood rather than authority — and gave New Yorkers a clear invitation to show up to the block meetings that make community policing real.