Duncan Cargill
Garden Design Diploma
Deputy Course Leader
Duncan Cargill has a long career in design that became focussed on garden design in 2017. In this new role he supports the delivery of our leading Garden Design Diploma.
Duncan graduated with Distinction from LCGD in 2018, and soon after co-founded the award-winning Cargill Sykes studio with Tom Sykes. He was awarded a Silver Gilt medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for the Perennial Garden he designed with Colm Jospeh. In 2024 he designed the planting for a Gucci catwalk show at Tate Modern and in 2025 a classic English rose garden for Chanel.
He has taught on the Garden Design Diploma and Planting Design Diploma courses at the College since 2023 and has taught drawing and lectured in the history of garden design, and history of art for over a decade. He has illustrated books and magazines including the bestselling The Modern Professional Planting Designer.
Before working in garden design, Duncan worked as a creative director in London and New York on projects for brands including Tiffany & Co., The Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate, Selfridges & Co., KRUG and Mulberry.
Duncan was born in Norfolk in 1970. He studied fine art at Chelsea College of Art, history of art at Birkbeck. He comes from a green-fingered family who created the celebrated gardens at Elsing Hall, Norfolk.