Talia Cotton
Specialist in branding & technology
Exploring and propelling new futures of design
through data and code
Cotton Design
Founder & Creative Director
Contact
Awards & Nominations
- Creative Review Award for Creative Innovation (2025)
- Communication Arts Best-In-Show (2025)
- Communication Arts Award of Excellence (2025 x3)
- Young Guns 20 (2022)
- GDUSA Responsible Designer to Watch (2022)
- TDC Award in Communication Design (2021, 2022, 2023)
- D&AD Pencil Winner (2020)
- Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards (Nominee, 2022)
- Distinguished Teaching Award (Nominee, 2022)
- AIGA Command X (Semifinalist, 2018)
Bio
- Talia Cotton is a designer, coder, and educator, and is recognized as a leading specialist in the intersection of design and technology. In 2023 she founded Cotton, a creative agency pursuing purposeful design work with code. Talia also teaches intro and advanced coding at Parsons School of Design. Before Cotton, Talia led data-driven and algorithmic design on two teams at Pentagram, while running an independent design and code practice. Her clients include Google Arts & Culture, the New York Times, the Gates Foundation, and MIT. Talia was named a "Responsible Designer to Watch" by GDUSA and was awarded the Young Guns Award for creative professionals under 30. She has been recognized by The One Club, TDC, Fast Company, and It's Nice That, and has inspired audiences at the international Google Visual Design Summit, OFFF Tel Aviv, and Future London Academy, among others.
Interviews & Podcasts
Front & Center
Unsolicited Advice: With Talia Cotton
May 2025
Alex Center & Kevin Batory
See No Evil Livestream
On building Cotton, navigating bias as a woman founder, and envisioning the future of creative technology
April 2025
Thiago Maia & James Wignall
Mindful Creative (on Spotify)
Optimism as a strategy for creativity without limits
April 2025
with Radim Malinic
Creative Review
Talia Cotton on Coding and Creativity
May 2024
by Aimee Mclaughlin
Women at Work (on Spotify)
Talia Cotton, designer, coder and educator, on how to merge technology and creativity and break new ground with love and passion
May 2024
by Hey Studio, powered by Automattic
Creative Capes (by Future London Academy)
Talia Cotton on starting an agency after leaving Pentagram
April 2024
with Ekaterina Solomeina
Future London Academy
Talia Cotton on starting an agency after leaving Pentagram
April 2024
with Ekaterina Solomeina
tim rodenbröker creative coding
A conversation with Talia Cotton
April 2024
at Glashaus, Barcelona
TYPEONE Magazine Issue 07
Designer Feature & Interview
October 2023
with Amber Weaver
Envato Meet the Experts
Meet the Experts: Pushing Design Possibilities Through Coding with Talia Cotton
June 2023
by Kelsie Rimmer
Page Magazine
Interview mit Talia Cotton: Code Can Solve the Problem of Design Bias"
May 2023
with Anne Kaiser
The One Club for Creativity
Morning Buzz with Adam Izen: Season 2 Episode 2
April 2023
with Adam Izen
TYPEONE Magazine Issue 06
Designer's List Feature
March 2023
The Brand Identity (November 2022)
Talia Cotton on working at Pentagram, inspiring students and creating meaningful design with code
November 2022
with Poppy Thaxter
GDUSA
Responsible Designer to Watch
November 2022
The One Club
Young Guns 20: Talia Cotton Interview
November 2022
Ladies, Wine & Design
Talia Cotton, graphic designer and coder
November 2019
The Design Kids
Why designers are turned-off by coding, coding course, and the impact automation and algorithms could have on design
July 2019
GDUSA
Students to Watch Feature
February 2018
Parsons School of Design
Alumni Spotlight Feature
February 2018
Speaking
OOO (Out of Office) Jakarta
TBA
September 2025
Jakarta, Indonesia
INTL Festival
TBA
September 2025
Glasgow, Scotland
Typographics
TBA
June 2025
New York, NY
City & Regional Magazine Association
On AI Ethics
June 2025
Denver, CO
Fast Company Middle East
TBA
May 2025
Doha, Qatar
École cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL)
Background, Philosophy, Methodology, Epilogue
April 2025
Lausanne, Switzerland
MICA
GD MFA Spring Lecture Series
April 2025
Baltimore, MD
Paradiso Festival
[Untitled]
March 2025
Mérida, Mexico
Nicer Tuesdays
On coding, creativity, and becoming your own boss
November 2024
New York, NY
Pratt Institute
Guest Lecture
November 2024
Brooklyn, NY
RGD's DesignThinkers Toronto
Designing What Doesn't Exist... Yet
November 2024
Toronto, ON
Kikk Festival
Designing What Doesn't Exist... Yet
October 2024
Namur, Belgium
Basquerville (Closing Speaker)
We Are Clearly the Most Amazing, Capable People in the Entire World The End Go Home
October 2024
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Behind the Scenes by COLLINS & Molly
This Will Be Boring
October 2024
New York, NY
Screen to Screen at Wix Playground
Panel with Rich Tu, Hezi Jacob
July 2024
New York, NY
Bump Festival
On Newness
June 2024
Kortrijk, Belgium
Canva Create
“Branding at Scale” (Panel led by Mark Wilson)
May 2024
Los Angeles, CA
FITC Toronto
Outdoing Ourselves
April 2024
Toronto, Canada
Latin American Design Festival (Closing Speaker)
Designing What Doesn’t Exist... Yet
April 2024
Lima, Peru
OFFF Barcelona
Designing What Doesn’t Exist... Yet
April 2024
Barcelona, Spain
D&AD APAC
On Making Meaning Through Code
January 2024
China (Virtual)
Wix Playground
Why I Code
January 2024
Tel Aviv (Virtual)
ACU Art & Design
Coding: A Design Philosophy
December 2023
Abilene, TX (Virtual)
Geneva University of Art and Design
Designing with Code in 20 Minutes
November 2023
Geneva (Virtual)
Type01 Launch at The One Club for Creativity
Overcoming
November 2023
New York, NY
Parsons MPS Communication Design
What Does It All Mean?
November 2023
New York, NY
MIT Media Lab
Future Sketches Lunch Lecture Series: “The role computation plays in my (various) online typography works, and my recent foundation of design agency Cotton”
September 2023
Cambridge, MA (Virtual)
Carnegie Mellon University Design Lecture Series
Brick Walls
March 2023
Pittsburgh, PA
UIC School of Art & Design
"Embrace the Impossible”, and Other Lessons in Coding
March 2023
Chicago, IL
Mason Gross School of Design (Rutgers University)
A Love Story
February 2023
New Brunswick, NJ
Lightricks
Digital Interface as Brand Expression
January 2023
Virtual
The New York Times
Talia Times Three (Start/End/In-between)
December 2022
New York, NY
Mother Design
Motherloving Code!
December 2022
New York, NY
University of Pennsylvania
Design Senior Seminar: Meet a Designer
December 2022
Virtual
UH Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts
I Hate Technology: A Talk
November 2022
Houston, TX
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)
Talia Cotton and the Incessant Quest for Meaning in Technology
October 2022
Provdence, RI
InScript Experimental Type Festival (TDC)
Coding Typography: A Taxonomy
October 2022
Virtual
Brillo Festival (for illo.tv)
Dearest, Darlingest, Most Wonderful Technology: My Evolving Relationship
October 2022
Turin, Italy
Buzzfeed News
Why I Code
October 2022
New York, NY
OFFF Tel Aviv 2022
Designing With Code
September 2022
Tel Aviv, Israel
F+F School of Art and Design Zurich: Jan Steinbach’s ‘Design for Screens’ class
Why I Code (Abridged)
September 2022
Zurich, Switzerland (Virtual)
Wix Playground Academy (Tel Aviv Outpost)
What Coding Can Do/What Coding Can’t Do
July 2022
Tel Aviv, Israel (Virtual)
EditorX / Dribbble Webinar “Digital design in 2022: How to grow as a creator”
How I became a designer/coder & other common questions I wish I knew the answers to not so very long ago but instead had to figure them out myself because desiging with code literally wasn’t a thing: A Quick Talk
July 2022
Virtual
AIGA Porfolio Development Studio
My Portfolio, What I Do, How I Got Here
July 2022
Virtual
Future London Academy: Future of Branding Week
What Coding Can Do/What Coding Can’t Do
June 2022
London, UK
Wix Playground Academy (NYC Outpost)
What Code Can Do / What Code Can't Do
June 2022
New York, NY
Design Museum Week
The most important coding lesson I’ve ever learned (and the runners up)
April 2022
Virtual
Pentagram Off-Duty Talk Series
A talk on algorithmic music visualization
April 2022
New York, NY
Prophet Visiting Designer Talks
The 8 Methodologies of Algorithmic Design (Abridged)
April 2022
Virtual
Google Visual Design Summit (2021)
Why We Do What We Do
November 2021
Virtual
Parsons Communication Design Lecture Series
Why We Do What We Do
October 2021
Virtual
Verizon Adfellows Internal Introduction
Hello
June 2021
Virtual
AIGA ModMag Conference 2018
The Print/Digital Crossover
June 2018
New York, NY
Workshops
École cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL)
Audioreactive Concert Poster Series
April 2025
Lausanne, Switzerland
MICA
Audioreactive Animated Spotify Playlist Covers
April 2025
Baltimore, MD
Paradiso
Think Like a Coder (No-Code Workshop)
March 2025
Mérida, Mexico
Basquerville Festival
Interactive Typography
October 2024
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Latin American Design Festival
Interactive Typography
April 2024
Lima, Peru
Typographics TypeLab
Creative Coding/Interactive Posters
Summer 2023
New York, NY
Wix Playground Academy Summer 2023 Bootcamp
Creative Coding/Interactive Posters
Summer 2023
New York, NY
UIC School of Art & Design
Interactive Posters
March 2023
Chicago, IL
Wix Playground Interactive Letterforms (Creative Coding Series)
Interactive Letterforms
February 2023
New York, NY
Mason Gross School of the Arts (Rutgers University)
Constructing an Interactive Valentine's Card
February 2022
New Brunswick, NJ
UH Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts
Coding Typography/Interactive Letterforms
November 2022
Houston, TX
Buzzfeed News
Interactive Headlines
October 2022
New York, NY
Google Visual Design Summit
Making the Generative Form
November 2021
Virtual
Project Press
Visuelle
Backslash by Cotton Design
September 2024
Backslash
Creative Review
Art organisation Backslash gets an appropriately slanted identity
September 2024
Backslash
Fast Company
This brilliant font is made entirely out of backslashes: A new branding system by Cotton Design for Cornell Tech’s art organization uses a single shape.
September 2024
Backslash
The Brand Identity
Defying norms at -21°: how Cotton Design weaved technology and art into Backslash’s visual language
September 2024
Backslash
Brand New (Under Consideration)
You Take That Back
September 2024
Backslash
GDUSA
Cotton Creates Generative Brand ID For Creative Week
June 2024
Creative Week
Brand New (Under Consideration)
Data Mining
May 2024
Boundary Analytics
The Brand Identity
In Boundary Analytics’ data-driven identity, Cotton Design ensures that the concept is king
May 2024
Boundary Analytics
It’s Nice That
Talia Cotton departs Pentagram to launch Cotton, an agency specifically for coding and design
February 2023
Cotton
The New York Times
The Year in Illustration: The most memorable New York Times illustrations of 2022
December 2022
NYT Illustration
Fast Company
This unreal website embraces the most notorious UX design trend
October 2022
The Last Agency
The Brand Identity
The Edit: five projects including Talia Cotton’s generative identity for Guilty by Association
May 2022
Guilty By Association
Fonts In Use
Wyth (Feature)
May 2022
Wyth
Fast Company
This logo constantly redraws itself
April 2022
Guilty By Association
It's Nice That
Can design be unbiased? Possibly, with Talia Cotton’s infinite logo identity made using code
April 2022
Guilty By Association
GDUSA
Infinitely Generative ‘Unbiased’ Logo
April 2022
Guilty By Association
Logo Lounge
In Search of Non-Biased Design
April 2022
Guilty by Association
Creative Bloq
This awesome hand-drawn logo changes every time you see it
April 2022
Guilty By Association
CommArts
Pentagram updated this iconic New York cultural center with a new identity that eliminates confusion and opens possibilities.
June 2022
92NY
Grafik
An Interactive, Audio-Centric Website And Updated Brand For Vig Bar
September 2022
Vig Bar
Mindsparkle Mag
Vig Bar (Feature)
May 2022
Vig Bar
Admire The Web
Vig Bar (Feature)
May 2022
Vig Bar
Hover Stat.es
Although visually charming, this interactive project highlights the serious problem of airborne microplastics
December 2021
Plastic Air
Print Mag
‘Plastic Air’ is an Interactive Experience Showing Just How Prevalent Airborne Microplastics Are
April 2021
Plastic Air
Fast Company
Drink lattes? Order takeout? You're breathing in invisible toxins
April 2021
Plastic Air
It's Nice That
This website visualises the tiny, invisible bits of plastic floating in the air around us
April 2021
Plastic Air
What Design Can Do
New interactive website visualises the microplastics in the air we breathe
April 2021
Plastic Air
EditorX
2020 in review: A year in web design
December 2020
Dear New York
The New York Times
The T List: Five Things We Recommend This Week
July 2020
Dear New York
SiteInspire
Intro to Coding for Designers (Feature)
2020
Intro to Coding for Designers
The Next Web
10 web design trends that will dominate your screen in 2020
December 2019
Intro to Coding for Designers
Google Design
Google Design’s Best of 2019
December 2019
Recursive Minisite
TypeWolf
Site of the Day
2019
Portfolio Site 2019
TypeWolf
Top 40 Favorite Designer Portfolio Sites
2019
Portfolio Site 2019
Critic & Judging
OCAD
External Examiner
April 2025
Toronto, Canada
Creative Review Annual Awards
Judge
April 2025
Global
Young Ones
Judge
April 2025
Global
ADCC Awards
Design Jury
Fall 2024
Toronto, Canada
Yale School of Art
Year-End Critic
Spring 2024
New Haven, CT
University of Pennsylvania
Senior Thesis Visiting Critic
Spring 2023
Philadelphia, PA
Latin American Design Awards
Jury Member - Digital
March 2023
Virtual
Society for Publication Designers - SPD 58
Digital Jury
February 2023
Virtual
Wix Playground Academy (Tel Aviv Outpost)
Portfolio Review
Summer 2022
Virtual
Wix Playground Academy (New York Outpost)
Portfolio Review
Summer 2022
Virtual
Mason Gross School of the Arts (at Rutgers University)
Thesis Critic
May 2022
New Brunswick, NJ
Teaching
- Next Level Coding
- Core Interaction: Coding
- Algorithmic Print Design
- Intro to Coding for Designers
Years of Gratitude...
- ... to Alon Krausz, my high school math teacher who cultivated my love for math, and made it possible to pass it on to others... to Brendan Griffiths, a former coding teacher who taught me good design is more important than good coding... to E. Roon Kang, one of the most brilliant and humble designers I’ve ever met... to Justin Bakse, the best teacher at Parsons and an absolute gem, and has undoubtedly changed hundreds of students’ lives and still going... to Kevin Brainard, a former teacher who designs with wit, brilliance and chutzpa, and always an advocate... to Michael McCaughley, one of the most talented designers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with... to Mohamed Elhawary. Lol. He’s my ex! It didn’t work out, but we spent many late nights designing side-by-side... to Nikki Makagnasar, a bright designer and coder and genuinely a lovely human... to Michael Bierut. Some people ask, “What Would Jesus Do?” I ask, “What Would Michael Bierut do?”... and to all my students, and my incredible team at Cotton.
