Garland was born in Southampton, and he grew up in Barnstaple, 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, Germany in 1948. He later studied design at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts, graduating in 1954. His classmates included Derek Birdsall, Alan Fletcher, Colin Forbes, Peter Wildbur and Philip Thompson. That same year, he married Wanda Wistrich. 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 (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. He died on May 20, 2021 of cancer. His outlook was distilled in the manifesto he delivered at a meeting in 1963 of the Society of Industrial Artists (SIA). Sitting at the back of the hall and frustrated by the discussions taking place, he wrote out the first draft of what was published the following year as First Things First. The document called on designers to question their role in the new burgeoning consumer culture that was monopolising the profession: “We are proposing a reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication. We hope that our society will tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders, and that the prior call on our skills will be for worthwhile purposes.” It was signed by a small band of like-minded practitioners – none from the big design groups of the period. First Things First came to the attention of the Labour politician Tony Benn, who as Anthony Wedgwood Benn was postmaster general in Harold Wilson’s first government. Benn reprinted the manifesto in a column in the Guardian, adding: “The responsibility for the waste of talent which they have denounced is one we must all share. The evidence for it is all around us in the ugliness with which we have to live. It could so easily be replaced if only we consciously decided as a community to engage some of the skill which now goes into the frills of an affluent society.”