Michael set up Johnson Banks in 1992: his agency specialises in the education, culture, charity and environmental sectors and has gained a global reputation for its unique approach to verbal and visual branding.
Since their ‘World Questions, Kings Answers’ campaign that raised £750 million for King’s College London they have carried out multiple branding and fundraising campaigns, culminating in their ‘Dear World, Yours Cambridge’ work for the University of Cambridge which helped to raise nearly $3 billion over seven years as a public campaign. They have also carried out branding projects for UAL, the Royal Academy of Music, Cancer Research UK, Unicef UK and Columbia University
A key part of their immersive process is to meet the key minds that drive each organisation forward. This has meant that Johnson has developed branding, messaging, films and scripts by working one-to-one with the likes of Nobel Prize winners Venki Ramakrishnan and Paul Nurse, world-famous musicians such as Sheku Kanneh-Mason, and world-leading academics such as Richard Gilbertson, David Spiegelhalter and the late Stephen Hawking.
Johnson himself is a visiting professor at Glasgow School of Art and a visiting lecturer at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. He has written three books on branding and creativity and has dozens of designs in the V&A’s permanent collection. D&AD – the creative industry’s ‘Oscars’ – awarded him its lifetime achievement honour in 2017, adding him to a list that includes Terence Conran, Ridley Scott, Alan Parker and John Hegarty.