Design history · Manifestos
First Things First
The 400-word statement that asked designers to choose what they work on.
In late November 1963 Ken Garland drafted a short text arguing that graphic design had put itself in service of consumer advertising at the cost of everything else. The skills of designers, photographers and typographers were being spent on "the high-pitched scream of consumer selling" rather than work that mattered — education, public information, cultural communication. The manifesto was signed by 22 visual communicators and published in January 1964. The Guardian reprinted it in full; Garland appeared on BBC television to defend it. In 1999 a coalition led by Adbusters, Rudy VanderLans of Emigre and Rick Poynor revised and republished the text with 33 signatories across seven design publications at once. First Things First remains the most-cited statement of design ethics in graphic design education, and one of the few historical documents students still argue about.
Design history · Manifestos
First Things First
The 400-word statement that asked designers to choose what they work on.
In late November 1963 Ken Garland drafted a short text arguing that graphic design had put itself in service of consumer advertising at the cost of everything else. The skills of designers, photographers and typographers were being spent on "the high-pitched scream of consumer selling" rather than work that mattered — education, public information, cultural communication. The manifesto was signed by 22 visual communicators and published in January 1964. The Guardian reprinted it in full; Garland appeared on BBC television to defend it. In 1999 a coalition led by Adbusters, Rudy VanderLans of Emigre and Rick Poynor revised and republished the text with 33 signatories across seven design publications at once. First Things First remains the most-cited statement of design ethics in graphic design education, and one of the few historical documents students still argue about.
Key facts
- Published
- January 1964, London (drafted November 1963)
- First reading
- 29 November 1963, Society of Industrial Artists meeting, London
- Author
- Ken Garland
- Signatories
- 22 visual communicators (Garland + 21 designers, photographers and students)
- Reprinted
- The Guardian (January 1964); Garland subsequently appeared on BBC television
- 2000 revision
- First Things First 2000 — 33 signatories; co-published in Adbusters, Emigre no.51, Eye no.33, AIGA Journal, Blueprint, Items and Form (summer–autumn 1999)
Key works & examples
First Things First manifesto document (1964)
1964
The original manifesto as published in 1964. Around 400 words, signed by 22 visual communicators including Ken Garland. It opens by naming the products designers typically work on — "cat food, stomach powders, detergent, hair restorer, striped toothpaste, aftershave lotion, beforeshave lotion, slimming biscuits, fattening biscuits" — and then makes its demand: a reversal of priorities toward education, public service and cultural communication. The document's plainness is part of the argument. No decorative conceit; the text does the work.
Ken Garland (Typo Berlin, 2002)
2002
Ken Garland (1929–2021) photographed at the Typo conference in Berlin in 2002. Garland studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, graduating in 1954 alongside Derek Birdsall and Alan Fletcher. He worked as art editor of Design magazine from 1956 to 1962, then ran Ken Garland & Associates for 47 years — a practice that put the manifesto's priorities into daily use, taking on work for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, science education and public information alongside commercial clients. He also redesigned the CND peace symbol into the simplified version still used worldwide. He died in May 2021, aged 92.
Emigre no. 51 (Summer 1999)
1999
Emigre no. 51, published in summer 1999, was one of seven publications that co-published the First Things First 2000 manifesto simultaneously. The cover typography was designed by Jonathan Barnbrook; the issue also included Rick Poynor's essay "First Things First Revisited." Emigre's co-founder Rudy VanderLans was among those who approached signatories for the 2000 revision alongside Adbusters and Rick Poynor. The cover shows the full manifesto text in Emigre's characteristic yellow-and-black typographic treatment.
Eye magazine no. 33 (1999)
1999
Eye no. 33 (vol. 9, 1999) was among the first publications to print the revised First Things First 2000 manifesto in its final form, alongside a feature by Rick Poynor. The British critical design press — Eye was the field's journal of record in the late 1990s — gave the revision standing beyond Adbusters' activist readership and connected it to a European critical tradition. Its signatories included Gert Dumbar, Jan van Toorn and Irma Boom, figures whose work defined Dutch design in the decades before.
First Things First 2000 — Eye magazine spread
1999
The Eye magazine spread for First Things First 2000 shows the revised manifesto text alongside a background feature tracing how the 1999 update came about. The 33 signatories spanned North America and Europe: Milton Glaser, Erik Spiekermann, Ellen Lupton, Tibor Kalman, Jonathan Barnbrook, Irma Boom, Gert Dumbar, Jan van Toorn, Katherine McCoy, Steven Heller, Jessica Helfand, William Drenttel, Zuzana Licko and Rudy VanderLans, among others. The text updated the original's consumer-culture critique for a world of globalised advertising and digital media, while retaining its core demand: design skills should serve more than product marketing.