In 1999, Adbusters in essence redrafted First Things First 2000, a manifesto originally drafted by British design superhero Ken Garland (Founder of Ken Garland & Associates) in 1963 calling for the exploration and development of new meaning in the world of design. Commercial work, once a means of supplementing a designer’s existence, had become the designer’s primary purpose. In turn, the world began to perceive design as little more than the language through which marketers communicated product. The manifesto challenged designers to turn the tide against this perception. It urged them to reconsider their place in the world, to regain their footing as artists and visual communicators. They were encouraged to begin a new dialogue, one that focused less on the production of consumer need and more on the creation of awareness and action. Designers were asked to temper their commercial pursuits with efforts on behalf of the larger social good. They were called upon to be activists. In all, 33 members of the international design community signed their names.
First Things First Manifesto 2000
We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it.
Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.
Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this view of design. Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse.
There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.
We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication - a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.
In 1964, 22 visual communicators signed the original call for our skills to be put to worthwhile use. With the explosive growth of global commercial culture, their message has only grown more urgent. Today, we renew their manifesto in expectation that no more decades will pass before it is taken to heart.
The Original 33 Signatories:
Jonathan Barnbrook, Nick Bell, Andrew Blauvelt, Hans Bockting, Irma Boom, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Max Bruinsma, Sian Cook, Linda van Deursen, Chris Dixon, William Drenttel, Gert Dumbar, Simon Esterson, Vince Frost, Ken Garland, Milton Glaser, Jessica Helfand, Steven Heller, Andrew Howard, Tibor Kalman, Jeffery Keedy, Zuzana Licko, Ellen Lupton, Katherine McCoy, Armand Mevis, J. Abbott Miller, Rick Poynor, Lucienne Roberts, Erik Spiekermann, Jan van Toorn, Teal Triggs, Rudy VanderLans, Bob Wilkinson
You can read Garland’s original draft, proclaimed at the
Institution of Contemporary Arts on an evening in December 163, and see the original 22 signatories
here as well as view the printed version as published in 1964, below.
What an unbelievably forward and on target piece of literature, both the new and the old. We’d be honored to have our names on that list.
Wes Winship of 
Royksopp x The Knife - 
Hit it! 
New 
