Colin Banks

Colin Banks – born 16. 1. 1932 in London, died 2002 in Blackheath – typographer, type designer, design consultant.

1948–53: trains at the Mid-Kent College of Printing; afterwards assistant to Ernst Hoch.
From 1956 onwards: freelance designer.
1958: founds the Banks & Miles company, London.
1975–82: Banks & Miles in Amsterdam.
1979: Banks gives London Transport’s corporate typeface, Johnston, dating from 1916, a facelift for the corporation’s new image.
1990: sets up a branch of Banks & Miles in Brussels.
1990–92: Banks & Miles opens in Hamburg. Acts as a design consultant to various universities and colleges: Portsmouth University (1991), UNO University in Tokyo and Helsinki (1991), University of the South-West in Bristol (1992). Works on logos and designs for various companies, including British Telecom, London Transport, The British Council and The Post Office.

Publications include: “Social Communication&rdquo:, London 1979; “London&rsquo:s Handwriting – a History of Design in London’s Transport System”, London 1991; “The Development of Edward Johnston’s Underground Railway Block-Letter”, London 1995.

Colin Banks and John Miles wrote the short essay “Pleasure of Design” for Linotype.

* TYPOGRAPHY – An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History by Friedrich Friedl, Nicolaus Ott (Editor), Bernard Stein, published by Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH.