David Simonds was born in Pinner, Middlesex, on 18 May 1961 and after taking a one-year Foundation Course at St Albans School of Art studied graphic design at North Staffordshire Polytechnic, from 1980 to 1983. On graduating he began work as a children’s book illustrator, his first commission being for Gyles Brandreth’s Big Book of Ghosts, published in 1984. He then began drawing caricatures and illustrations for magazines such as Radio Times (from 1985 to 1990), New Civil Engineer (from 1985 to 1988), and Which?
In 1989 Simonds began working regularly as a cartoonist and illustrator for the Economist, subsequently also starting work for the Guardian in 1991, and the New Statesman in 1996. In addition he drew cartoons on Channel 4 for Will Hutton’s TV series False Economy (c. 1995). Influenced by Steadman, Searle, Tomi Ungerer and Heinrich Kley, he works mostly in pen and ink.