Devising the 2

How 麻豆社 Two and Lambie Nairn changed their audience perception from 'Dull and Worthy'.

In February 1991, in response to research that found 麻豆社 Two's on-screen look was considered "dull and worthy" by audiences, channel controller Alan Yentob called in brand specialists Lambie Nairn to produce a new look for the channel. The idents they developed were hugely popular with the public, and Celia Chapman, Executive Producer at Lambie Nairn said: "麻豆社 Two was probably the first ident that got its own fanmail!"

Initially all the logos appeared in the colour viridian with atmospheric soundscapes. Over the next few years, more quirky character idents were introduced to the series. These were replaced by computer-generated 'Personality' twos on a yellow background from 2001-2007 and latterly as a cut out 'Window on the World' design (2007-2014), but still using the same '2' shape. For the channel's 50th anniversary in 2014, a number of the original 1990s set returned to the screens by popular demand and stayed for four years until a successor series ('Curve') was introduced in late 2018.

Devising The 鈥�2鈥�: Celia Chapman, Co-Designer of the legendary 1991 set of 2 symbols talks about how she and Martin Lambie-Nairn created them for the 麻豆社. Symbol clips courtesy of Lambie-Nairn and Channel 4.

麻豆社 idents

Early Identities
The Television Service's visual branding, 1936-1953
Abram Games and the Television Symbol
The story of the bat's wings logo used between 1953 and 1960
Global Ambition
麻豆社 One's visual identity 1960-1997
Into the New Millennium
麻豆社 One idents from 1997 to the present day
麻豆社 Two 1991
How 麻豆社 2 was rebranded in 1991
麻豆社 Two 2018 idents
The first new identity for 麻豆社 Two in 20 years
麻豆社 Christmas idents
40 years of Christmas idents on 麻豆社 One and 麻豆社 Two