John Miles obituary
Creator with his design partner Colin Banks of corporate identities for clients including Royal Mail and British Telecom
The typographer and designer John Miles, who has died aged 92, had a partnership with Colin Banks that was responsible for some of the most high-profile public sector identity schemes of the 1970s and 80s. Chief among them was that for the Post Office, particularly the alphabet of double line lettering, created in 1972 and still in use by Royal Mail; and the British Telecom identity (1980), with its unabashed modernist style and distinctive blue and yellow livery that was replaced only in the 90s.
Banks and Miles had built an enviable and enduring roster of clients, including the Consumers’ Association, the British Council and London Zoo, who not only valued their imaginative design skills but also their long-term approach to business relationships, many of which lasted decades. This approach sometimes had its drawbacks – the new look that they had painstakingly developed for the Greater London council (GLC) in the 1970s was cancelled at the last minute following a change in leadership.
