Oliver Elmes (24 October 1934 - 4 May 2011) was a British graphic designer. He designed a number of

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wo ...

s for the BBC, including '' Elizabeth R'', ''

The Goodies The Goodies were a trio of British comedians: Tim Brooke-Taylor (17 July 1940–12 April 2020), Graeme Garden (b. 18 February 1943) and Bill Oddie (b. 7 July 1941). The trio created, wrote for and performed in their eponymous television com ...

'', but is best known for his title designs for '' The Good Life'' and the final three years of the original run of '' Doctor Who'', from 1987 to 1989. ''Doctor Who'' producer

John Nathan-Turner John Nathan-Turner (''né'' Turner; 12 August 1947 – 1 May 2002) was an English television producer. He was the ninth producer of the long-running BBC science fiction series ''Doctor Who''. He was also the final producer of the series' firs ...

commissioned Elmes to design a new opening for the show after the announcement that

Colin Baker Colin Baker (born 8 June 1943) is an English actor who played Paul Merroney in the BBC drama series '' The Brothers'' from 1974 to 1976 and the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series ''Docto ...

would not be returning to the series. Elmes worked with graphic designer Gareth Edwards from CAL Video to produce the new logo entirely on computer. The new design featured a Big Bang and a purple spiral cosmos, overlaid first with the

TARDIS The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension In Space") is a fictional hybrid of the time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. Its exterior a ...

and then by

Sylvester McCoy Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith (born 20 August 1943), known professionally as Sylvester McCoy, is a Scottish actor. Gaining prominence as a physical comedian, he became best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the lon ...

's face. The opening was accompanied with a new version of the theme by Keff McCulloch. The new sequence cost nearly £20,000 and took 3 months to complete. After the series was cancelled, the new logo continued to be used for the

Virgin New Adventures The ''Virgin New Adventures'' (NA series, or NAs) are a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. They continued the story of the Doctor from the point at which the televisio ...

until '' Bad Therapy'' (1996). It also appeared on some of the final

Target Books Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became wel ...

novelizations, published by

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. Elmes died on 4 May 2011.Oliver Elmes – A life in art and design
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References

External links

History of ''Doctor Who'' opening sequences
1934 births 2011 deaths British graphic designers British illustrators Film and television title designers Logo designers {{graphic-designer-stub