top of page

It had been in my mind for some time to interview John Miles on his design career, as I was aware that he had reached his nineties and represented one of the last of that generation of British graphic designers. He had worked with Jan van Krimpen in the Netherlands and then at Penguin Books in the 1950s before founding the design group Banks & Miles with his partner Colin Banks. I managed to do two interviews with him in the first half of 2023, during which he was on very good form, and clearly enjoyed the reminiscence. This turned out to be more timely than I could have imagined, as he passed away only months later. He had been a long-standing member of the Wynkyn de Worde Society, which asked me to create a keepsake to give to the members, in which I used two extracts from my interviews, and visual material from the Banks & Miles archive at University of Reading. It was great to be able to do a tribute to John, who had been a friend and neighbour, as well as an enormous help in my own design research and writing.

JohnMilesKeepsake3.jpg
bottom of page