Nairn

Coordinates: 57°35′10″N 3°52′08″W / 57.586°N 3.869°W / 57.586; -3.869

Nairn (/ˈnɛərn/ NAIRN; Gaelic: Inbhir Narann) is a town and former burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is an ancient fishing port and market town around 16 miles (26 km) east of Inverness. It was the county town of the wider county of Nairn also known as Nairnshire.

The town is now best known as a seaside resort, with two golf courses, award winning beaches, a community centre/mid-scale arts venue ( Nairn Community & Arts Centre), a small theatre (called The Little Theatre) and one small museum, providing information on the local area and incorporating the collection of the former Fishertown museum.

History

King James VI of Scotland visited the town in 1589 and is said to have later remarked that the High Street was so long that the people at either end spoke different languages, Scots and Gaelic. The landward farmers generally spoke Scots and the fishing families at the harbour end, Gaelic. Nairn, formerly split into Scottish Gaelic- and Scots-speaking communities, was a town of two halves in other ways. The narrow-streeted fishertown surrounds a harbour built by Thomas Telford while Victorian villas stand in the 'West End'. It is believed that the Duke of Cumberland stayed in Nairn the night before the battle of Culloden.

Martin Lambie-Nairn

Martin Lambie-Nairn (born 5 August 1945) is a British designer, filmmaker, animator, cartoonist, director, producer, writer, and illustrator. He was the founder of his eponymous branding agency Lambie-Nairn and is currently the creative director of branding agency ML-N. Martin Lambie-Nairn is acknowledged for having redefined television brand identity design, being the first to embrace computer technologies to apply branding to screen-based media.

Amongst his most prominent works are: animations; comics; books; the original Channel 4 logo and idents created in 1982; the batch of 30+ idents for BBC Two that first aired on February 16, 1991; and the 1997 corporate re-brand for the whole BBC. He, in conjunction with his agency, also created launch packages for certain other BBC channels.

Career

Early work

Martin Lambie-Nairn was educated at Canterbury College of Art, later KIAD, now University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury. His career in television began at the BBC in 1965 as an intern. Roles as a graphic designer at Rediffusion, ITN and London Weekend Television followed. Lambie-Nairn set up his own company, Robinson Lambie-Nairn, with fellow partner Colin Robinson in 1976 after leaving LWT, and he went on to develop new graphic presentation techniques for Weekend World. The business expanded and was renamed Lambie-Nairn & Company in 1990.

Lambie-Nairn

Lambie-Nairn is an international branding agency within the WPP Group, headquartered in London with offices in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. Lambie-Nairn works with O2, BBC and Telefónica.

Company history

In 1976 Robinson Lambie-Nairn was established by Colin Robinson and Martin Lambie-Nairn, in January 1993 it was renamed Lambie-Nairn & Company. In 1992, Glenn Tutssel and Martin Lambie-Nairn conceived Brand Union as a cross-platform entity that could allow areas of design beyond their branding and broadcast heritage to work together. Brand Union was the ultimate holding company for Lambie-Nairn & Company and in October 1999 Brand Union was acquired by WPP. Throughout this period the Company's trading name was Lambie-Nairn.

Martin Lambie-Nairn left the company in April 2008.

Awards and industry involvement

The company is also involved with several industry bodies having judged the branding and design categories of the Roses Design Awards, D&AD, and Eurobest. The company is also a member of D&AD’s educational council.