Martin Lambie-Nairn unveils new company and new work

Martin Lambie-Nairn has unveiled the first work by his independent company, ML-N.

The consultancy has completed the brand identity, name and logo for c&binet, a new international conference for the creative industries being run by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Lambie-Nairn set up ML-N last year in partnership with Celia Chapman, his former producer, project director and now brand consultant. He sold Lambie-Nairn, the company he founded in 1976, to WPP in 1999.

ML-N is also working on projects for the Royal Opera House and TVNZ in New Zealand.

Lambie-Nairn told Design Week that setting up on his own meant he could ‘continue to work with nice clients – and make a difference for them’.

He adds, ‘I never had a problem with working in a large organisation, but now I don’t have to concern myself with 50 mortgages.

‘I wanted to make sure that I left Lambie-Nairn in a good state – there were a couple of earlier occasions when I was going to leave but the timing didn’t seem quite right. Now Lambie-Nairn is prospering.’

The c&binet conference aims to bring together the best of the commercial and creative worlds. It has been set up as one of the key commitments made by the Government in its strategy document Creative Britain: New Talents for a New Economy.

Lambie-Nairn says, ‘With this project, we felt we needed to define the product in the first place. From that came the creative brief, and from that came the name.

‘The name itself features an acronym (creativity and business), with the ampersand sitting between creativity and business.

‘We hope the ampersand, which is used in visuals to link the creative and business worlds, will become c&binet’s symbol – its Nike tick.’