'At what age did you decide you wanted to be an illustrator and why?'

 

‘I went into an art studio, commercial art studio and this was in London. When I was 26 we left England to come to New Zealand, that was in 1960 and I joined an advertising agency. I was with an advertising agency in New Zealand until I retired in 1990 just before then I had my first book published and when I retired I went onto writing and illustrating articles and that sort of stuff, and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.’   

 

 

 

'Was being in illustrating your first choice of career?'

 

‘I didn’t choose a career I fell into a career. I wanted to do something graphic, I didn’t quite know what it was as a fifteen year old, but as I said I went into an art studio and things developed from there so really it was only by finding out what was there that I moved onto a career path. I went where my career lead me, I never had a goal in mind I just went where an opportunity took me.’

 

 

 

'Who has been your greatest influence on your illustrating career and why?'

 

‘There are a couple of artists/illustrators. There are probably three who have influenced me most. One was John Piper who was an English artist who died 5-6 years ago, whose work I have always enjoyed very much. Then there was another fellow called Paul Hogarth who was a great illustrator and a beautiful draftsman,  and the third was a chap called David Gentleman, they were all English artists but it was their work that I was particularly interested in when I was developing my illustration work.’    

 

 

 

'How important have your friends and family been in terms of realising your dreams?'

 

‘Supportive, I think friends and family have always been supportive. Certainly my wife particularly, she has helped me to develop my working life, she has always been there to give advice and give support and I guess friends are mainly friends because they do support you. Don’t ask me about enemies because I don’t really know too much about them but as one would expect. One has had great support from friends and family.’  

 

 

 

'What three attributes do you think you require to succeed in today’s competitive world of Illustrating?'

 

‘It’s not a competitive world. You need acceptance of your work; my illustration workings have mainly been for books, books about New Zealand particularly.  I’ve done one on New Zealand country churches, not because I am religious but because I am interested in architecture. I have done a book on the old stores of New Zealand 'Open 7 days' about country stores and that sort of thing, another one on houses and cottages in New Zealand. Another one about pubs, mainly country pubs, which are interesting bits of architecture and now all of those have been put into book form and they’ve been accepted, they’ve sold and have therefore succeeded. So one basically needs acceptance by the people who you want to place it in front of. I think one has to stick at it; I am not a passionate person. I’m basically if you like a commercial fairly hardworking person. I have been in the past, you’ve got to recognise that I’m pretty old now! My career lies in my past, not in my present. But certainly when I did my very first illustrating book called New Zealand Odyssey, I did over 700 illustrations for that book and finally used 150 but I was working at the time, I was running an advertising agency at the time. So every morning I would get up at five in the morning and do a couple of illustrations, I would go and do my days work and then come home in the evening and do a couple of illustrations and by sticking to that regime, I accumulated over 700 illustrations. So it’s a matter of application, dedication and a bit of hard work. Well they say genius is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration, you’ve got to get on with it! ‘   

 

 

 

'What one piece of advice would you give to a young person embarking upon a new career path?'

 

‘I think you’ve got to stick at it, you’ve got to realise the harder you work the luckier you get with a career. You’ve got to do the very, very best you can,  that might not be as good as the best people, but as long as you are doing the best you can, then that’s the target to aim at. In my case I really fell into a career, I got lead into a career but I think you’ve got to be prepared to change horses if necessary you might find you are going down a certain track of career and suddenly something else occurs to you or something appeals to you more and you’ve got to be prepared to stop and start again because no matter how old you might feel you are  never that old. I think you’ve got to mix your achievements with being happy, because the most important thing in life is to be happy not to make a lot of money, not to be the greatest success in the world but to be happy, if you find yourself locked into a career that becomes desperation, you’ve got to be prepared to pull back out and try something else.’

 

 

 

'Can you describe the most defining moment of your career?'

 

‘There have been certain points in my life when decisions have been made that became defining moments. On of them came when I changed jobs and I was in the advertising business and was offered a new job where I would become a shareholder of the company, but I would have been paid less than with the previous job but somebody said to me if you are being offered shares in that company that’s substance, if you’re being paid more and given some sort of nebulas title that’s shadow take substance, don’t take shadow. So I decided on that advice to take the new job and become the director of a company at a lower income that lead onto me becoming very successful in that company and becoming a major shareholder in fact a part owner of the company and eventually after a merging with another company, going onto the board of the larger company until we were finally taken over by the Americans and I had a decent sort of payout. I came home.

At which point I started the next career, now the next career in writing and illustrating was another one where someone had asked me to do something and it had changed my life completely. The first book I wrote which I wrote and illustrated in collaboration with a photographer came about because the publisher asked me to do the book and having being asked to do a book, I set about doing it that launched me into the second career of writing and illustrating.

So there were two people who had a profound effect on changing my career path. What characterises me if you like is taking opportunity all through my working life, if an opportunity has been offered to me. I’ve taken it, it doesn’t come around all that often, and it’s a good idea to take it when it comes.’

 

 

 

'What have you had to sacrifice in order for your career to survive?'
 

‘Lets tackle this from a slightly different point of view; the big question is what would you do if you didn’t have to go to work?  Say you had an unearned income, what would you do with your life. If I had an unearned income, I would of worked just as hard, but I would of done a lot of things that can only be done with a comfort of not relying on having a job.

I think one of my big regrets in life was that I started work when I was fifteen because the family there was no money in our family so I had to go to work I very much would of liked to have gone to university and gone on and done something in literature/the arts as a result of that. I couldn’t do that.

 

So if I didn’t have to work for a living I would of probably spent a lot of time writing, travelling, visiting architectural sites of interest and that sort of thing but I had to have the discipline of going to work. So constantly while I was trying to be happy at work and enjoy my job, I was always tugged by the idea of how nice it would be to go and do something else. Well of course once I retired in 1990, I was in that position, which is consequently why I was able to go and do, books, illustration and that sort of thing.’            

 

 

 

'How important was your team in ensuring the success of your career?'

 

‘That goes back to being in the advertising industry. One worked with teams all the time, one was only as good as the other people. The advertising industry comprises of lots of very talented people working with people like that brings you along. The teams were always important.’

 

Don went onto say that in his second career teams weren’t as big and he didn’t work with teams apart from friends and family whom he said were important for his career as mentioned above.

 

 

 

'What is the greatest challenge you have faced and how did you overcome this?'

 

‘In a funny sort of way, being able to illustrate a book was a big sort of challenge, because although I was an advertising designer for a lot of my life. I’d never really done any sort of illustration. Apart from the Heinemann publisher asked me to illustrate a book, and that was a challenge. Because I had to find out whether I was capable of being an illustrator. It was only after I been able to do some work, I found out that I was capable of doing it. I actually came very late in life into illustration I’ve got a feeling that that was probably the biggest challenge.’     

 

Don later went onto say after I finished the recording that going to New Zealand from England was a huge challenge but it was really worth it and that he couldn’t live in England now.

 

 

 

'In your own words, what is the key to success?'

 

‘Persistence, sticking at it and believing in yourself.’ (Here Don gave an example of believing in yourself, check it out in the video, but I thought I would stick to the key to success, so that is why it isn’t here) ‘When you do a bit of work like a bit of writing or a bit of illustration. You do it well. I complete it then put it out there. If someone likes it that’s great, if they don’t then that’s their business not mine. But to change it just because of other people’s opinion starts to adulterate what you’ve done. So I like the idea of doing, something and sticking with it.’