Martin John Lambie-Nairn (5 August 1945 – 25 December 2020) was an English designer. He was the founder of his branding agency Lambie-Nairn and was the creative director of branding agency ML-N. He is recognised for having redefined television brand identity design, being the first to embrace computer technologies to apply branding to screen-based media.
Lambie-Nairn was also a co-creator of 1980s satirical puppet show Spitting Image.[1] Amongst his most prominent works are the original Channel 4 logo and idents created in 1982, the batch of over 30 idents for BBC Two that first aired on 16 February 1991, the 1997 corporate re-brand for the whole BBC, and the 2008 BBC Regional News titles. In conjunction with his agency, he also created launch packages for certain other BBC channels.
Lambie-Nairn's career in television began at the BBC in 1965, where he worked as an assistant designer.[2] Roles as a graphic designer at Rediffusion, ITN and London Weekend Television followed. At ITN, he worked on the on-screen graphics for the Apollo space missions and later designed the ITN corporate logo and title sequence for News at Ten.[3] Lambie-Nairn established his own company, Robinson Lambie-Nairn, with partner Colin Robinson in 1976 after leaving LWT,[2] and he went on to develop new graphic presentation techniques for Weekend World.[4] The business expanded and was renamed Lambie-Nairn & Company in 1990.[2]
Computer animation enabled him to produce what became regarded as a revolutionary identity[5] for Channel 4, the "Blocks" logo.[5] This identity launched the fledgling TV channel on 2 November 1982 and remained at the heart of the channel's on-air presentation for 14 years. In 1981 he created the original idea for the UK TV series Spitting Image which ran for 11 years. He received the credit that the show was "based on an original lunch with Martin Lambie-Nairn."[6][7]
Following Channel 4 and Spitting Image, he worked as a director of computer-animated commercials, producing the first ever 30-second computer-generated TV advertisement in the UK, which was a commercial for Smarties.[8]
Corporate identities
In 1990, Lambie-Nairn became consultant creative director of the BBC brand, a position he held for 12 years. During this period[9] Lambie-Nairn and his company rebranded the BBC and all of its outputs, across all media. The best known channel identity was for BBC Two,[10] commissioned by then-controller Alan Yentob in a bid to make the channel appear less stuffy.[11] All of the idents in the first series employed traditional live action. Later, with the change of target audience, a new generation of idents was commissioned and produced using CGI.[11] The idents were highly popular, even receiving fan mail.[11] For BBC1, Lambie-Nairn and Daniel Barber redesigned the globe identity, a well-recognized icon of the BBC, having been introduced in 1963.[12]
Later, Lambie-Nairn again redesigned the identity for BBC One – creating the red hot air balloon that was used for a new series of idents aired on BBC One from 4 October 1997. This aimed to capture the idea that the channel brought the whole world to every corner of the United Kingdom. This was part of a wider corporate rebranding which included a redesign of the BBC blocks logo and also a new package for BBC News which utilized a warmer color palette for the first time.[13] As the BBC's primary external agency, Lambie-Nairn also oversaw the design of channel identities for emerging digital properties BBC News 24 (now called BBC News),[14]BBC World, BBC Choice,[15]BBC Knowledge, CBeebies,[14]CBBC, BBC Four[16] and BBC Three.[15]
In 1997, he wrote Brand Identity for Television: With Knobs On.[17] He used the book to reveal how he and his colleagues achieved key identities.
Lambie-Nairn also co-conceived the Rhythm & Movement idents for BBC One first shown on 29 March 2002. In 2001, he created BBC Two's 2001–2007 Personality 2s series of idents, which featured robotic figure 2s, each displaying individual personalities, which went on the air on 19 November.[18]
In 2008, he directed the creation of a new unified red-and-white branding for BBC News.[28][29] The red and white template had videos of local landmarks, transport and people together.[30] Components of the 2008 identity continue to be in use.[31]
Later years
In 2009 Lambie-Nairn left the practice he founded to join Heavenly as creative director, leaving in 2011.[32] At Heavenly, he devised the launch identity for Sky Atlantic[33] and also for BBC Entertainment.[34] He subsequently had his own consultancy, ML-N, based in London.[32] In 2011, he worked as a creative consultant in creating a new identity for the Royal Opera House.[35]
Through ML-N, he was appointed consultant creative director for the research company, TNS.[32] In 2016, he had joined Red&White as a non-executive chairman and creative director,[36] where he worked to create a new logo and brand identity for his alma mater, the University of Northampton.[37] In 2020, Lambie-Nairn was interviewed for the BBC Four programme The Sound of TV, which debuted a few weeks before his death.[38]
Personal life and death
Lambie-Nairn died on 25 December 2020 at the age of 75. His death was mentioned during a junction on Channel 4 alongside an original channel ident which Lambie-Nairn oversaw the development of in the 1980s.[39]
He was survived by his wife Cordelia (née Summers) whom he married in 1970.[40]
Awards
Lambie-Nairn was an RDI (Royal Designer for Industry),[41] Fellow of the Royal Television Society,[42] and an ex-president of D&AD. He received the D&AD President's Award, Prince Philip Design Prize, Promax Lifetime Achievement Award[43] and Promax Hall of Fame (USA). He also received a Gold D&AD for his work for Channel 4, multiple Silver D&ADs, a BAFTA[44] for his work for BBC2 and multiple Promax Awards.
Lambie-Nairn held an honorary doctorate of Arts from the University of Lincoln,[6] and was a visiting professor at the Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design. He also held an honorary doctorate of Arts from the University of Northampton.[45]
^Administrator, System (16 June 1995). "S4C unveils Tutssels logo". Design Week. Archived from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
