Lock Guy, a history

Back in 1992 our ‘Lock Guy’ first made his appearance to support The Lock People®, lock specialists at Hodge Products, Inc. Originally developed for use as a marketing service mark, Lock Guy was meant to be a conceptual creation while projecting a nice and friendly attitude with the goal of helping customer recognition.  Lock Guy was just a little drawing to be a simple reminder of who to call when you need to order padlocks. What better reminder of who to call than a Padlock sitting at a Desk, ‘I need to order padlocks, time to call The Lock People®’. This was the underlying identity behind Lock Guy, a way to associate ordering padlocks over the phone.

In 1994 Lock Guy became a Registered Service Mark ‘Padlock and Desk Design’. From there on Lock Guy found his way onto packaging materials, letter head for faxes, as well as return address labels and envelopes for direct mail.   To quote Lock Guy’s creator, “Email wasn’t even a thing [in business] back then, it was the 90’s”. You might notice that there is just a phone, and no computer, on the desk. Chances were that most customers would be sitting at their desk when they realized that they needed to pick up the phone to place an order.

For our customers, Lock Guy was waiting to help them with all their padlock needs. Just a little humanization of the product they need to help make him more appealing. From his soft eyes, gentle smile and receptive position on the phone, Lock Guy is here to be welcoming and accommodating for your padlock needs from The Lock People®. Or, simply the more literal assumption of The Lock People® being 'lock people'. Either way, Lock Guy is friendly and accommodating, just like the brand and company that he represents. Although we may still call him Lock Guy, the drawing has become much more that just that these days.