Ken Garland wrote the ‘First things First.’ Manifesto in 1964, the pledge was backed by over 400 designers. The Manifesto reacted against 1960’s consumerism and favoured a re- radicalised approach to design that has more meaning and context, ‘we have flogged their skills and imagination’, ‘he through down a challenge to communicators that refused to go away.’ (Poynor 1999), therefore Garland believed it was time for designers to take ownership of their work and not undersell ourselves for the sake of commerce.
The manifesto was inclusive to the art world, ‘we the undersigned are graphic designers, photographer and students,’ Garland suggest that designers were selling out their talent in order to be successful, ‘… those who have flogged their skills and imagination’ (Garland 1964). Soar writes that, ‘it is in the mature of manifestos to attempt to speak true to power, therefore the proposal invites designers to stand up to the advertising world and it proposed a, ‘reversal of priorities,’ (Garland 1964), in favour of more effective, valuable design.
Garland’s manifesto was rewritten in 2000 and was launched by Adbusters. It suggests that designers are being misconstrued and that the public perceive designers as commerce, ‘many of us have become increasingly uncomfortably with this view of design’, (First things First Manifesto 2000).
Matt Soar writes the manifesto may, ‘speak above the heads of,’ the revised manifesto’s language is less straight forward than the original,’ helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse,’ (First things First Manifesto 2000).
Therefore the revised document attempted to bring the manifesto up to date, however in doing so it has receive criticism for being too inclusive with a middle class notoriety.
Garland, K. (1964) First Things First, Originally self-published. Looking Closer 3, Pg 154.
First Things First Manifesto 2000, (1999) AIGA Journal of Graphic Design Vol. 17, no.2
Poyner, R. (1999) First Things First, A Brief History, Originally published in Adbusters no.27