[3] After a brief period of National Service in the British army,[2] Hicks began work drawing cereal boxes for J. Walter Thompson, the advertising agency.
[4] An early introduction by Fiona Lonsdale, wife of banker Norman Lonsdale, to Peter Evans initiated business partnership in London as the pair, now joined by architect Patrick Garnett, set about designing, building and decorating a restaurant chain (Peter Evans Eating Houses) in London's "hotspots", such as Chelsea and Soho.
GCB achieved international recognition when it refurbished the George V Hotel in Paris for the Trust House Forte group.
He did projects for Vidal Sassoon, Helena Rubinstein, Violet Manners (who became the Duchess of Rutland), Mrs. Condé Nast and Mrs. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.[2] He made carpets for Windsor Castle and decorated the Prince of Wales's first apartment at Buckingham Palace.
In 1967, Hicks began working in the USA, designing apartments in Manhattan for an international clientele, and at the same time promoting his carpet and fabric collections.
He wrote, in one of his nine practical design books, David Hicks on Living – With Taste,[11] that his "greatest contribution... has been to show people how to use bold color mixtures, how to use patterned carpets, how to light rooms and how to mix old with new."
He designed his own coffin, in which he 'lay in state', according to his precise instructions, in the ground-floor room of his gothic garden pavilion.
Hicks was known for using powerful colours in combination to dramatic effect...he used this blue in the restaurant at the top of the London Telecom Tower in 1962'.