Ken Garland (19 February 1929 – 20 May 2021) was a British graphic designer, photographer, writer and educator. Garland is known for his writing on design and the prolific work of his studio Ken Garland & Associates.

Early life and education

Garland was born in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, and he grew up in Barnstaple, north Devon. In 1945, he enrolled at the

Royal West of England Academy The Royal West of England Academy (RWA) is Bristol's oldest art gallery, located in Clifton, Bristol, near the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Situated in a Grade 2* listed building, it hosts five galleries and an exhibition progr ...

in Bristol and served in the Parachute Regiment after graduation where he was sent to

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...

, Germany in 1948. He later studied design at London's

Central School of Arts and Crafts The Central School of Art and Design was a public art school, school of fine arts, fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central ...

, graduating in 1954. His classmates included

Derek Birdsall Derek Birdsall, (born 1 August 1934) is an internationally renowned British graphic designer. Early life Birdsall was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1934 and attended The King's School, Pontefract, Wakefield College of Art and Central Schoo ...

, Alan Fletcher, Colin Forbes, Peter Wildbur and Philip Thompson. That same year, he married Wanda Wistrich.

Career

After graduation, Garland became the art editor of ''Furnishings'' magazine. In 1956, he became art editor of ''Design'' magazine, the trade journal of the Society of Industrial Arts, until 1962. This period was a foundational for Garland’s future work and was commissioned to go to Switzerland to survey Swiss graphic design. In 1962, he left ''Design'' to form his own studio, Ken Garland & Associates. Garland was politically active throughout his career, notably as a member of the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuc ...

. Garland produced material for the CND from 1962–68. It was during this time that he redrew the peace sign to the simplified, bold graphic widely used today. Garland taught throughout his career at the Central School of Art and Design (1986–91),

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

(1971-99), Royal College of Art (1977–87) and

University of Brighton The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achiev ...

, among other institutions. Garland was a prolific writer. His work has been published in '' Baseline'', ''Blueprint'', ''Creative Review'' and ''Eye'' magazine. He is the author of five books on design, including ''Graphics Handbook'' (1966), ''Illustrated Graphics Glossary'' (1980), ''Mr Beck’s Underground map'' (1994) and ''A word in your eye'' (1996). In 2008, Garland founded Pudkin Books with his wife, artist Wanda Garland (Wistrich). Pudkin is known for a series of picture books each on the theme of "A Close Look at..." a particular subject. He died on May 20, 2021 of cancer.

Garland & Associates

Garland established Ken Garland & Associates in 1962. Ken Garland & Associates employed a rotating group of designers over its 47-year period including Robert Chapman, Ray Carpenter, Trilokesh Mukherjee, Gill Scott, Patrick Gould, John O'Neil, Norman Moore, Frank Hart, Daria Gan, Colin Bailey, Peter Cole, Ian Moore, Paul Cleal, Richard Marston and Anna Carson. Garland insisted that work made at the studio was a team effort. The studio's clients included

Galt Toys Galt Toys is an international educational toy company. It is responsible for a number of high-profile games and its designs by Ken Garland are often cited as classics. History Galt Educational In 1836, Ayrshire-born, James Galt set up Jam ...

, Abbatt Toys, Race Furniture, the Butterley Group, Dancer & Hearne, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Barbour Index, the Labour Party, Paramount Pictures and the Ministry of Technology and Keniston Housing Association.

First Things First manifesto

Garland's most famous piece of writing about the ethics of graphic design is the First Things First manifesto, published in 1964. This text argued for a return to humanist design, positioned against mainstream advertising: "in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication". Garland recalled first scribbling it down during a meeting of the Society of Industrial Arts: "I found I wasn't so much reading it as declaiming it ... it had become ... that totally unfashionable device, a Manifesto." The manifesto was signed by other designers including Edward Wright,

Anthony Froshaug Anthony Froshaug (1920–1984) was an English typographer, designer and teacher, born in London to a Norwegian father and English mother. Influenced by ideas of European modernism, particularly the work of Jan Tschichold, Froshaug is considered ...

Robin Fior Robin Fior (27 January 1935 – 29 September 2012) was a designer closely associated with radical and libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that uphold ...

and Ken Briggs. The text was widely circulated, reprinted several times in design journals and even ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. In 1999, the manifesto was re-signed by 23 prominent graphic designers and critics, and republished as the First Things First 2000 manifesto. It appeared in

Adbusters The Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia. Adbusters describes itself as "a global network of artists, activis ...

magazine. Both manifestos have been widely written about and republished. In 2012, Garland published "Last Things Last" in ''Eye'' no. 83, vol. 21, which, among other things, refuted the division between designers and clients, of "us and them", in favour of designer / client partnerships.

References

External links