In the 1990s, Martin Lambie-Nairn's design company took over responsibility for the BBC's idents. Lambie-Nairn had earlier successfully created the idents for the launch of Channel 4 and had also worked on branding the BBC's 9 O'Clock News. A new look for both BBC 1 and BBC 2 was unveiled on . A new logo for the Open University was seen first, with the new BBC 1 ident being launched by Philip Schofield and Sarah Greene before that morning's Going Live!. This ident was loosely based on the traditional globe and was designed by Daniel Barber. The solid-state devices that had generated the twin-stripe 2 and the COW were decommissioned, as the new globe was played out from modified laserdisc players. On BBC 2, there were a whole load of different idents, all featuring the escapades of a large "2". It was this set of idents that, it is said, have proven the worth of strong branding. Within six months of the new package going on air, the perception of BBC 2 had changed from that of a formal, stuffy channel and the audience had increased, even though the programmes themselves had largely remained the same. Although each channel had a different style, Lambie-Nairn brought back a consistency to the idents - both featured the BBC corporate logo underneath a large numeral, clearly identifying the channels as well as the broadcaster.

Screenshot provided by Sean Hughes