Colin Banks

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Colin Banks (1932-2002) co-founder of Banks & Miles, designers and typographers, founded in London in 1958 with partner John Miles. Major clients included the Consumers Association, the Post Office, British Telecom and London Transport, for whom they redesigned Edward Johnston's famous Underground Sans (as New Johnston). Banks would later design a limited edition book for the organisation as a tribute to Johnston.

An influential designer, his Telecom (T) identity, created for British Telecommunications when it was instituted in 1981, spawned many imitators. Its replacement by Wolff Olin's BT 'piper' was received with much derision in 1991. He received a prestigious RSA/BBC Design Award in 1990, for the paper-saving redesign of the UK's Phonebook. Banks designed the UK Post Office's distinctive 'double-line' alphabet.

He was married to Caroline Grigson, daughter of the poet Geoffrey Grigson and his first wife.

[edit] References/obituaries

• The Guardian's obituary by James Alexander
• The Independent's obituary by Jeremy Myerson
• http://www.tdc.org/news/banks.html
• http://www.looksmartcrafts.com/p/articles/mi_qa3992/is_200301/ai_n9173934
• http://www.myfonts.com/person/banks/colin/

• John Miles Biography: http://www.penguincollectorssociety.org/studyday2005_biographies.htm

[edit] Publications

• Bank's article "Pleasures of design" for Linotype co-written with John Miles:
• Design for Desktop Publishing, John Miles
• Banks and Miles: Thirty Years of Design Evolution, Monty Shaw, Publisher: Lund Humphries Pub Ltd (February 1993), ISBN 0-85331-572-8