Martha Ladly

Born 1960. Professor Martha Ladly, AOCA RGD MCSD, is a Canadian academic, designer and musician. She is currently an associate professor of design at the Ontario College of Art and Design.
She started her musical career in 1978 with Canadian new wave act Martha And The Muffins. Originally auditioned to play guitar, she was better on keyboards and backing vocals. Left the band in August 1980 to take up an art scholarship and relocated to the United Kingdom. She also started a short solo career in the early 1980s, releasing two singles: ("Finlandia" and "Light Years From Love").
She concurrently worked in visual arts and design with designer Peter Saville with whom she lived together in the early 80's. One of her paintings was used by Saville for the sleeve of New Order's EP 1981 - Factus 8 - 1982 1981-1982 (US 1983) (opens in a new tab).
She was also associated to the DinDisc label and became friends to Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The band credit Ladly for suggesting the titles of their 1981 hit album Architecture & Morality (UK 1981) (opens in a new tab), and their 1984 hit single Tesla Girls (UK 1984) (opens in a new tab).
In 1982, Ladly provided backing vocals for Roxy Music and joined cult Scottish Post-punk act The Associates, appearing with them on Top of the Pops. She left The Associates in 1985 and subsequently worked with Robert Palmer's band.
Between 1992 and 2001 she worked with Peter Gabriel as the head of Real World Design, editor of Real World Notes and a producer for Real World MultiMedia. As a key member of the Real World MultiMedia team, she was the recipient of numerous international design awards for interactive art and music projects.
After two decades in Britain, she moved back to Canada and pursued her academic career.