A Design for Life is a single by Welsh band Manic Street Preachers from their fourth studio album, Everything Must Go (1996).
A Design for Life was written by James Dean Bradfield, Sean Moore and Nicky Wire, and produced by Dave Eringa and Mike Hedges. Released on 15 April 1996 by Epic Records, the song debuted and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. The accompanying music video was directed by Pedro Romhanyi. The title was inspired by the debut Joy Division EP, An Ideal for Living. The opening line of the song, Libraries gave us power, was inspired by the legend Knowledge is Power engraved in stone above the top floor central window of the library in Pillgwenlly, Newport, 15 miles from the band's home town of Blackwood. The next line, then work came and made us free, refers to the German slogan Arbeit macht frei that featured above the gates of Nazi concentration camps and which had been used previously by the band in their song The Intense Humming of Evil on the album The Holy Bible. The song explores themes of class conflict and working class identity and solidarity, inspired by the band's strong socialist convictions. Speaking in 2017, Nicky Wire explained that he was sick to death with the patronisation of the working class. We’re not just Jeremy Kyle – we did build libraries. My dad was a miner. Its video exemplifies this theme further. Various slogans promoting compliance and domesticity clash with scenes of fox hunting, Royal Ascot, a polo match and the Last Night of the Proms representing what the band saw as class privilege. On 18 June 2009, the band were invited to officially open the new £15m Cardiff Central Library, unveiling a plaque inscribed with the words to the opening line of the song. At the event, Wire spoke about how his experience with libraries had partly inspired the song. The Cardiff Arms Park Male Voice Choir performed a version of the song, in front of the band, which Wire described as spine tingling. Wire later said in an interview with The Guardian that the occasion had been a great honour for the band: For us, it seemed like a chance to give something back to Wales. Seeing one of our lyrics – Libraries gave us power – inscribed on the opening plaque was in its own way as affecting as playing the Millennium Stadium.
