After an education at Skinner’s School in Tunbridge Wells, Farmer spent the War as a volunteer in the RAF training in Rhodesia as an air-gunner and instructor. After the War he attended St Martin’s School of Art (1947-49) and Camberwell (1949-51), a year later (Festival of Britain year) he entered the Royal College of Art as a student of painting. His contemporaries in the art department included the ‘Kitchen Sink’ painters John Bratby and Jack Smith as well as Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff. On graduation in 1954 he began teaching at Camberwell, Hammersmith and Ealing art schools, and became a senior lecturer in drawing at the Architectural Association School. He came to the attention of Misha Black, the newly appointed Professor of Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art who appointed Myers as a full time tutor in 1961. One of his early students was the inventor Sir James Dyson who acknowledged his debt to Myers’ teaching.

Remaining at the college all his long and successful career, until his retirement as the first-ever Professor of Design Education in 1980. His published work included two books on Goya and in 1979 co-editorship of The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Art. Latterly he held the Chair of Design Technology at Brunel University. He served as a Governor to the amalgamated art and design colleges of the ILEA – now the University of the Arts, London – and in recognition of his contribution a hall of residence was named after him.

He exhibited at the New Art Centre and the New Grafton Gallery in London, among many other private galleries, and his work is held in the collections of the Arts Council, the Contemporary Art Society, the National Maritime Museum and the Tate Gallery

He was married to Pamela Fildes, granddaughter of the Victorian figurative painter Sir Luke Fildes.