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Martin Lambie-Nairn has died

(December 2020)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
PF
PFML84
Hey, lookit! Prototype Channel 4 logos! [image comes from a friend of mine]

*

From the ML-N book mentioned earlier... "Brand Identity for Television... with knobs on"

The second one in from the left also has a similar look to the supposedly unused first draft of the BBC TWO logo before the 2 numeral was used.
SH
Sh1ruba
A stunning tribute to MLN from Bintro:


Though there were some things he forgot to include.

TVI ident from 1993


Informação 4 intro from TVI that same year


And the ITN News Channel


Also the S4C dragon idents from 1993 (with the 1995 logo)
Last edited by Sh1ruba on 30 December 2020 1:00pm
BR
Brekkie
Didn't realise he did the early 90s 9 o'clock News look - when the intro into the news was suitably terrifying.
SH
Sh1ruba
Didn't realise he did the early 90s 9 o'clock News look - when the intro into the news was suitably terrifying.

The TVI news intro from its launch in 1993 really gives me those early 90s BBC News vibes, especially with the abstract-ness of both intros.
ToasterMan, DE88 and Roger Darthwell gave kudos
WH
Whataday Founding member
My favourite Lambie-Nairn ident:



30 years later it still stands the test of time.
RI
Richard
There’s loads on “Lambie-NairnTube” at https://youtube.com/user/LambieNairnTube
If you look at
you’ll see a never broadcast widescreen version of the ITN News Channel titles.
VM
VMPhil
It's taken me a few days to get around to this, I know nobody's thinking 'Where is VMPhil with his tribute?!' but I still feel a bit bad so sorry.

Immensely saddened at hearing this news. I kind of can't believe it, especially as he'd just appeared in the Sound of TV programme, though I know that would have been recorded ages ago.

Martin Lambie-Nairn influenced TV design greatly in the 80s and 90s and all for the better. Virtually every other TV company tried to copy his Channel 4 identity during the 1980s with their own flying computer graphics (which were never as good). Naturally, when he and his design agency made the 1991 idents for BBC1 and BBC2, they avoided using computer graphics as much as possible, and came up with probably the only set of TV idents that were loved as much as the programmes with the 2s.

For me, as I have probably blathered on about a bit too much over the years, I remain a huge fan of his work for the BBC's 1997 rebrand. Taking on a huge organisation with a hundred million different logos for channels and departments, coming up with a new master logo, a new brand template, that needed to work on TV, in print and online. All of which worked and looked good. (And still looks good).

The philosophy behind it, and for I think all of his work, was 'It's not all about the logo!' - you don't have to try and stuff all the brand personality into the logo. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that was the prevailing thought back then, at least not with the clients he was trying to impress this idea upon.

Thankfully I don't have to bore you too much with my love of that particular rebrand since I wrote a whole post about it: BBC Corporate Identity 1997: 20 Years On - An Appreciation.

It's hard to think of any idents that Lambie-Nairn (the company) designed during the 90s that I don't like. I mean, they even managed to make Carlton look good, who during the 1999-2002 era had far better looking idents than the generic ITV look we had to put up with in Granadaland.

One of the lesser known examples of Lambie-Nairn's work is The Business Channel, which only existed on Sky for a couple of years in the late 2000s, but once again they designed a cracking identity for it, avoiding the usual business cliches and somehow managing to make a channel with the name 'The Business Channel' look fun. I really recommend watching his short talk on it, from a video I saved from Google Video before it was shut down, and here is a playlist of the idents.

I only wish he had done more talks or interviews over the years, as the ones available with his stories of working on these projects are incredibly informative, some of his anecdotes about certain channel controllers are quite amusing! I kind of wish I'd emailed him like Gluben did just to say thanks for being responsible for some great graphic design over the years, but I always found the idea a bit too embarrasing. I mean, it's not often you hear somebody saying 'I'm a big fan of TV idents!' out loud.

Anyway, if you managed to read all of that then you get a star.
GO
gottago
Can only echo what's already been said. A true legend of TV design and a name that I really came to know and love over almost two decades of browsing here and TV Ark and the like.

Some sort of Lambie-Nairn entrance exam would be a great way of gaining TV Forum membership actually to sort out the riffraff!
harshy, DE88 and Roger Darthwell gave kudos
MP
MatthewPrower
It's hard to think of any idents that Lambie-Nairn (the company) designed during the 90s that I don't like. I mean, they even managed to make Carlton look good, who during the 1999-2002 era had far better looking idents than the generic ITV look we had to put up with in Granadaland.


weeellll, it DID take a while:

but once they hit the ground running into the millenium, they did darn good

(honestly as a yank, i am a bit more welcoming of the 1993 and 1996 packages, due to their use of simplicitity)
SH
Sh1ruba
My favourite Lambie-Nairn ident:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y98pedYT4as

30 years later it still stands the test of time.

The music is still amazing to this day. So majestic and magical
JO
Jon
(honestly as a yank, i am a bit more welcoming of the 1993 and 1996 packages, due to their use of simplicitity)

Interest in ITV regional presentation is really taking off in the US lately. Wink
VM
VMPhil
I think for most people on here, his work would've been a colossal part of what inspired our interest in presentation design, whether it was the Channel 4 logo, the 1991 BBC identities, the balloon or the various iterations of BBC News over the years. Hard to think of anyone who's done more to make the bits in between the programmes look so good.

Love this quote, sums up his work in TV branding better than anything.

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