How Ken Garland's Manifesto Impacted Generations of Designers

We celebrate the British designer, writer, photographer, and teacher who wrote the legendary First Things First manifesto in 1964

As the world mourns the loss of Ken Garland (1929–May 20, 2021)–an influential talent who famously took a stand against consumerist culture–we look back on his legendary First Things First manifesto, which spoke about the importance of making a difference.

Published in 1964, First Things First had 22 signatories and called for “a reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication”. The designer wrote that using one's talents to sell trivial things like cat food, slimming diets, and striped toothpaste, “which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity”, was wasteful.

For Garland, “the high-pitched scream of consumer selling” was “no more than sheer noise;” he believed that designers should dedicate themselves to more worthwhile activities that promoted “our trade, our education, our culture, and our greater awareness of the world”. Garland’s chief concern was the betterment of society, and he believed designers had something to contribute.

Garland first wrote First Things First after giving an impromptu speech at a meeting of the Society of Industrial Artists, during which he made his opinions clear. The entirety of First Things First was later published in The Guardian newspaper, which led to the designer making an appearance on a BBC news program and the manifesto being published in various journals, magazines, and newspapers.

In Ken Garland: Structure and Substance, Adrian Shaughnessy has written that Garland’s manifesto was “eagerly embraced by students and young designers rebelling against the idea of graphic design as no more than the compliant handmaiden of consumerism and glossy corporate branding strategies.” Decades later it would be rewritten and republished as First Things First 2000 by the magazine Adbusters.

Born in 1929, Garland grew up in Devon before moving to London to study at the Central School of Art and Design (now Central St Martins). After graduating in 1954, Garland taught at his former university and many other renowned institutions, as well as speaking at conferences and seminars all over the world, for decades. He was art editor of Design magazine until he left in 1962 to set up his own firm, Ken Garland & Associates.

“The choice of the trading name ‘Ken Garland and Associates: Designers’ was in order to signify that the outfit didn’t consist merely of one designer plus odd helpers who knocked off paste-ups, took phone messages or ran errands. Those who worked with me between 1962 and 2009 have always been designers designing – no secretaries, no typists, no donkey-workers. There were never more than three of them at any one time. I intend no criticism of larger, probably more illustrious design groups when I say that, for me, an increase in size would have meant fruitless to-ing and fro-ing, more unexplained and unacceptable overheads, and less fun.”
– Ken Garland

Garland considered many of the relationships he had with his clients–including Galt Toys, CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), Paramount Pictures, Which? magazine, the British Labour party, and many more–among the most rewarding relationships in his life. Just last year, Garland was awarded the lifetime achievement medal from the London Design Festival, celebrating his contributions to the design world. His work has been published in Baseline, Blueprint, Creative Review, and Eye magazine. He was the author of five books on design, including Graphics Handbook, Illustrated Graphics Glossary, Mr Beck’s Underground Map, and A Word in Your Eye, and, in 2008, Garland founded Pudkin Books with his wife, artist Wanda Garland.

He had a keen interest in technology and was known as a charismatic character, full of surprises, who often wore an embroidered hat. "Ken Garland conforms to no stereotype. Just when we think we have him labeled–angry political agitator; crusading anti-commercialist; card-carrying modernist; conventional client-focused designer–he confounds us by revealing an aspect of his character that is wholly unexpected,” wrote Shaughnessy.

Garland’s rebellious spirit no doubt lives on in younger generations of designers who are determined to use their talents to make a difference. Discover more of his work here.

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