In 1991, after being told by his tutors at Chelsea College of Art and Design that he ‘wasn’t good enough’ to become an artist, John Dowling realised he needed a change of direction. When someone encouraged him to pursue Graphic Design, he went for it although does admit to not knowing exactly what it was at the time. In the years since then he’s learnt in no uncertain terms what it means to be a graphic designer and has honed his skills at some of the most prestigious agencies around.

Starting his employment at the now defunct Area (a studio established by two former designers from Peter Saville Associates) John went on to stints at the almighty Pentagram, SEA and Frost before setting up Dowling Duncan alongside his former Pentagram colleague Rob Duncan. They’ve used their wealth of experience to produce a great body of work for clients such as AIGA, Apple, The British Museum, Google, John Lewis, Microsoft, The Serpentine Gallery… This list goes on.

John kindly agreed to get involved with our regular Ten Questions series. Here’s what he had to say…

1. How do you describe what you do?
I’m a designer who draws and colours in all day (according to my four year old son).

2. What made you want to do what you do?
I found from an early age that I was very good at drawing. I was guided through my school years by great teachers who encouraged me to pursue a career in art and design. Through my college and university years I began to understand how I could make a living out of what I loved doing. This seemed like an added bonus.

3. How would you describe your workplace?
A small, bright, open space with white walls, wooden floors and thousands of books. Located in a former Victorian oil seed mill and warehouse on the banks of the river trent in Newark, directly above a bar, next door to a museum, down the road from a castle.

4. What is your favourite colour?
Red, Yellow and Cyan. You’ll find they’re the colours on the Pantone coated, uncoated and matt chip books which I designed at Pentagram back in 2000.

5. Who is your favourite artist or writer?
Without a doubt, Simon Patterson. A truly inspiring artist and friend.

6. What was your previous job?
Intern at Roundel (exciting), designer at Area (amazing), designer at Pentagram (exhausting), designer at SEA (frustrating), designer at Frost (inspiring) and lecturer at the Lincoln School of Art and Design (educating).

7. Do you work within a team? If so, how many people do you work with?
In the UK it’s me and I do everything, absolutely everything. Maybe this is why I’m always stressed, exhausted and fall out with people.

8. Do you listen to music whilst working? If so, what do you listen to?
Loose Ends, Big Daddy Kane, Eric B & Rakim, Madness, 2Tone, Kenny G, Gerald Albright, Bernard Wright, Curtis Hairston, Vivienne McKone, Dayton, Lenny White, Tom Browne and Kashif. Mostly old school Hip Hop, Soul, Pure Groove etc. as you can probably tell.

9. Who inspires you to do what you’re doing?
My two boys – Joseph and Harry.

10. Which advice has helped you the most?
I tend not to seek much advice – it just confuses matters. I make things up as I go along.

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Massive thanks to John for taking the time out to answer our questions (and giving us a legitimate reason to feature a tea towel on our blog for the first time). You can check out plenty more of Dowling Duncan’s great work here and follow his wise words on Twitter here.

As always, thank you for reading.

Mat