We caught up with Luke Tonge, a Birmingham-based designer and co-founder of the Birmingham Design Festival, to learn more about his journey into the creative industry.
Luke Tonge’s journey into design was anything but conventional. Raised in an innately creative household – his father was a doctor with a passion for woodworking, and his mother was naturally crafty – Tonge spent much of his childhood drawing, exploring, and immersing himself in visual culture.
“Because I was the youngest, I had to occupy myself,” he recalls. “I kind of lost myself in that world.”
Growing up in the ’90s had a profound effect on Tonge, as it was a time of loud, countercultural, and bombastic design. He developed a fascination with ephemera, like stickers, album covers, and skate graphics, and realised he had an obsession with visual culture that surpassed that of his peers. “I always got told I spent longer illustrating my schoolwork than actually doing it,” he laughs.
By the time he reached his A-Levels, it was clear that design was his calling. He took Graphic Design alongside Art and Psychology, immersing himself in magazines, posters, and music packaging. Working in independent record stores during his teens only fuelled his appreciation for physical design objects.
This hands-on love for print and branding carried him through a foundation year at Lincoln and eventually to Falmouth University, where he found a community of like-minded creatives. “Falmouth was formative for me. It instilled in me the belief that good ideas are at the heart of everything,” Tonge explains. “Design can be surface decoration, but the best work has a clear idea behind it.” He found a supportive community there, which remains almost two decades on.
Carving a path through print and branding
Upon graduating, Tonge entered the industry at a precarious time – in 2008, in the midst of a financial crisis. Landing a role at Linney, a Nottingham-based design agency and printers, turned out to be pivotal and helped him grow into a designer who really understood print. The connection to the physical and tactile nature of design would become a defining feature of his career.
Despite working on high-profile brands such as Bupa, Yamaha, and Mars, Tonge soon realised that he wasn’t a typical ‘big brand’ person. His interests lay in smaller, more tactile projects, which initially led him to dive into the world of independent print.
It was through early magazine projects like Boat Magazine and The Monotype Recorder that he developed a love for holistic design. “Print, especially magazines, is the ultimate design project because it encompasses so many facets of design,” he says. “It’s not just about one image – you have to think about the whole piece, its purpose, pace, flow, and contrast.”
These experiences laid the groundwork for his creative leadership. As the driving force behind several print projects, Tonge became adept at managing content, relationships with printers and art direction. This hands-on experience later informed his approach to the Birmingham Design Festival (BDF), where he applies the same level of holistic thinking alongside co-founder and co-director Daniel Alcorn.
Finding the balance between specialisation and adaptability
Over the years, Tonge’s career has spanned branding, print, and events, but despite his multidisciplinary background, he acknowledges that his expertise lies in a few key areas. “When you’re starting out, I always recommend prioritising adaptability – you should aim to be able to turn your hand to most things,” he explains. “But ironically, I quickly realised I was really only good at a couple of things, namely brand identity and editorial design.”
His approach to the industry now focuses on bringing the right people into projects, the Birmingham Design Festival being a perfect example. Covering animation, illustration, product design, and more, it requires a broad understanding of creative disciplines plus a willingness to collaborate – knowing when to step back and let the many specialists lead who make up the BDF team.
“It’s about knowing enough to bring a vision to life without dictating how things should be done,” he says. “One of the most rewarding aspects of my career has been trusting others and seeing them excel.”
Influences and inspirations
As you can imagine, Tonge’s influences are as eclectic as his career. His father’s collection of National Geographic magazines provided an early appreciation for editorial design, while his love for punk and DIY culture gave him a natural affinity for bold, independent aesthetics. However, it was his teachers and mentors who played the biggest role in shaping him as a young designer.
At Falmouth, he was guided by three key tutors – Andy Neal, Bryan Clark, and Jon Unwin – who encouraged him to think critically and conceptually. “I’m still friends with them all today,” he says – having recently caught up with the trio while running a BDF Symposium on PLAY at the Uni.
His first creative director at Linney, John Kay, also left a lasting impression. “At the end of the day, he’d personally thank us for our work,” Tonge recalls. “That really stuck with me, and no doubt has influenced my approach to encouraging emerging designers.”
Beyond formal education, his career has been shaped by the people he surrounds himself with. Over the past decade, he’s sought out collaborations with talented women in the industry, from fellow design educators to mentees, challenging his own perspectives and broadening his approach to leadership.
“As a white man in my near forties, I’m absolutely riddled with privilege, and I’m very aware of that,” he admits. “I’m increasingly trying to do things that make a difference in small ways – having difficult conversations, challenging things, helping people where I can.”
Advice for emerging designers
For many designers, carving out a niche is the ultimate goal, but Tonge advises against forcing one too soon. “I push back on the idea of specialising early on unless you’re truly a genius at something,” he says. “It’s good to have a broad skill set at first and figure out how to be as useful as possible – there’s nothing more valuable than being a do-er.”
If he could give emerging talent one piece of advice, it’s to be patient. He says: “It took me ten years to figure out what I wanted to do and turn my career into a balance I’m proud of. Now I get more joy from nurturing placement students than I do delivering work or getting paid!”
“I’ve learnt to appreciate the different seasons of a career—sometimes you’re learning, sometimes you’re giving back, sometimes you’re just paying the bills… But if you love the industry and discipline, you’ll figure out how to stick with it and evolve.”
He also encourages young designers to focus on what excites them, whether that’s a particular medium, an issue they care about, or simply something they loved as a child. “Think about what made you weird and unique as a kid, what excites you, what problems you want to solve,” he suggests. “If you do good work and share it, opportunities will eventually find you.”
At the heart of Tonge’s career is a love for design that remains as strong as ever. Whether through print, branding, BDF or the local design community, his passion for meaningful design continues to shape his work and drive him to keep ‘doing’.
