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 status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

, and he grew up in

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...

, north Devon. In 1945, he enrolled at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol and served in the Parachute Regiment after graduation where he was sent to

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

, 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 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 School ...

, graduating in 1954. His classmates included Derek Birdsall, 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. 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 research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

(1971-99), Royal College of Art (1977–87) and University of Brighton, 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, from pebbles and street graphics to Mexican windows. He died on 20 May 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, Abbatt Toys, Race Furniture, the Butterley Group, Dancer & Hearne, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Barbour Index, the Labour Party,

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

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, Robin Fior 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 Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. 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 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