Heavenly acquires Martin Lambie-Nairn’s ML-N

As part of the deal, Lambie-Nairn joins Heavenly as creative director on 1 December, with his business partner Celia Chapman, who has worked with Lambie-Nairn as a producer, project director and, more recently, as a brand consultant. Chapman will become creative services director of Heavenly.

Heavenly managing director Richard Sunderland says the deal is designed to build the consultancy’s creative strength. ‘We aim to bring more big names in,’ he says. ‘We have only about ten designers in our team and want to attract new talent.’

Lambie-Nairn claims that the move creates ‘a great opportunity’. ‘I am quite inspired by it all,’ he says. ‘As a branding group, we now have experience in all mediums.’

He says Heavenly has ambitions not just in design, but in communications generally. ‘We’ll get the branding bits tickety-boo and expand from there,’ he says.

Lambie-Nairn and Chapman set up ML-N in 2007 following their departure from Lambie-Nairn, the broadcast and branding design specialist consultancy he founded in 1976. Lambie-Nairn became part of the WPP stable in 1999 along with Tutssels, its then partner in The Brand Union.