Hope McConnell

I come from a very rich background of design and creative people — my mum was an oil painter and graphic artist. Until I was about 10, she did that as a job and really encouraged me. My dad loves poetry and sculpture, and they were always taking us to exhibits and collecting art throughout the years. My nana was an oil painter and florist, and my grandma did a lot of sewing, so I was basically predestined for this.

We didn’t watch much TV growing up as we just had so much craft everywhere, and I was always cooking in the kitchen with my mum. She would paint murals throughout our house: she painted an old-school sun-and-solar system with faces and everything on the roof and the walls, and in our bedroom she painted beach scenes, making our cupboards look like tropical beach huts. She just taught me to always be making and creating things.

Definitely. It’s more my natural skill, but I also loved design, the theory behind design, and was really interested in branding and typography, too — I’ve always wanted to have a foot in both camps.

I was well equipped to think like a designer and create designs and illustrations. I was technically good, but in terms of client briefs, restrictions on work, and time management: no. At uni the sky’s the limit in terms of time and freedom; then you go to work in a studio doing annual reports or branding, and clients are really specific about what they want — there are just way more parameters.

I freelanced a bit, and I had no idea what I was doing in terms of the business side: how to mark up jobs, how to reach out to clients appropriately, invoicing, usage rights, and determining the value of what I was creating. I did logos for $200, and I didn’t realise I had to pay tax. I thought someone told me that unless you get above a certain amount, you don’t have to pay tax, so I had to back-pay about two years of provisional tax from freelancing when I went out, and I thought ​‘Why did no one tell me this before?’

Back then, I spent so much time emailing, quoting, chatting with clients, and getting briefs — even understanding how to question a client to get a proper brief out of them was huge. Now I know that I need them to send me not only references of stuff they like, but also to go to my website and send me examples of things I’ve done that they like. Because if you’re not sending me anything that I’ve done before that you like, then I’m not the right person for you.

After the first year after uni, I actually started working at a church part-time because I didn’t have enough design work. I was contracting with a couple of different local studios, working for a month at a time, and also for Metro Marketing. I felt like I’d been on this trajectory since primary school: levelling up, getting awards, going to uni, leading a bunch of projects — and then I sort of crashed and burned. I really thought it was going to go differently for me.

I ended up back at home, living with my nana and doing a few creative things, and it was a real step back for me. It was Quite a rough time, but it was good because it humbled me. It’s easy to feel like you’re a bit of a hot shot sometimes, but just because you’re good doesn’t mean that other people aren’t good, too. I’m glad it happened, but at the time it was really tough.

I definitely take on jobs to pay the bills. I have a mortgage, and it is definitely a part of my work. But I put more energy into the projects that I do care about, and in turn that attracts that kind of work. 

Recently, I did a Children’s Bill of Rights for Mana Mokopuna (the Children’s Commissioner), which was a dream job. It’s a child-friendly version of the Bill of Rights for children in Aotearoa, and it was great just getting to meet the people who do this work and help create this joyful document that’s going to help young people understand what their rights are.

I want to be doing work that actually helps people: it’s the reason I do design. I don’t have to be paid to do work like that. I don’t have to charge for everything I do; if I’m doing work that pays the bills, then I actually have some time to do work for free or pro bono. You don’t have to be restricted by your job. We all have to work to survive and live, but how can I find those nuggets of time or projects where I put something good out there, even if it’s not for my benefit? I don’t think we can underestimate these touchpoints that we have in people’s lives.

The last year has been a huge one for me, both professionally and personally. 2025 was a massive year in terms of hitting some career milestones that I had been aiming for, completing 2 public murals, taking on my first major project in the Australian market, doing some epic brand collaborations, and I have just recently found out that Hooked won the Industry Awards Aotearoa Children’s Book Prize!

Working with some of my favourite public figures and brands was a fantastic experience. Key highlights include an in person pop up with Whittakers, an illustrated fishing guide with Al Brown, illustrating a suite of brand illustrations for Mana Mokopuna, a collaboration with Spark, and a bat for Women’s Cricket NZ, to name a few.

I also had the joy and privilege of welcoming my baby daughter into the world, arguably my biggest project to date haha. Its rocked my world in the best way and inevitably will change how I approach work in the future!

I feel so grateful for the incredible opportunities that came my way last year, it really felt like a leap forward in many ways. I am curious to see how things go going forward, juggling early motherhood and my career, but I do have some fun projects in the wings that I am looking forward to getting my teeth into. Watch this space!