Martin Lambie-Nairn
Credit: Ashley Bingham at A&M Photography
Martin Lambie-Nairn, who has died aged 75, was one of Britain’s leading television graphic designers, creating memorable logos for the BBC and Channel 4, as well as coming up with the original idea for the Spitting Image series.
Credited with the concept of “an adult Muppet Show”, Lambie-Nairn recalled having a brainwave in the middle of a winter’s night in 1981: a satirical show featuring grotesque caricatures of public figures, politicians, royalty and celebrities, like the Plasticine models made by Peter Fluck and Roger Law he had seen in Sunday newspaper colour supplements but with animated puppets.
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Martin Lambie-Nairn, branding expert who made TV idents sexy , dies aged 75
Tributes for designer s exceptional work for C4 and BBC.
by Gideon Spanier
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Graphic designer Martin Lambie-Nairn dies aged 75
He was also co-creator of the satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image.
Lambie-Nairn was best known for his branding design for TV, which included creating the famous Blocks logo for Britain s Channel 4 when it launched in 1982. In 1990 he also created BBC Two s channel identity, which featured live-action aspects and was later produced using CGI.
A BBC Channel Two identity by Lambie-Nairn
His other television branding work included the hot-air-balloon globe identity for BBC One and ident packages for a number of other BBC channels, including CBeebies and BBC Four. The designer also created the ITN corporate logo and the title sequence for its News at Ten programme.