Talia Cotton: “I haven’t seen this before; that’s what makes it excellent” on the Design Next podcast

Three years ago, Talia Cotton left Pentagram, where she’d spearheaded the design and development of data-driven and algorithmic brand identities on two teams, and founded Cotton. It’s a design agency built on a concept that the industry hadn’t caught up with yet: that coding isn’t a separate discipline from design.

Since that moment, Cotton has created incredible things, and some mistakes too.

In this episode of Design Next, the conversation focused on our season topic of creative excellence. Something that definitely seems to come naturally to Talia – but the fact is that she never stops learning, playing, pushing and pioneering.

When we asked Talia what creative excellence means to her, we found her high standards: it takes five things to answer that one.

The first three are the foundation: work has to look good, it has to carry meaning, and it has to have a sense of innovation. That last point matters most to her.

But originlity alone doesn’t carry anything without craft and detail.

And the fifth ingredient? Joy. The joy that went into the work rather than joy as an outcome – and Talia can see it. “I know this person had such a great time making this, and I’m so happy for the team that released this – because it looks good and it feels good and everyone’s happy making it.”

Perhaps joy is the secret ingredient to Cotton’s success, and why their work is pinned up in studios across the globe – their promise is we make what you haven’t seen before, and it shows!

“Technology is not just a design tool. It’s a tool to carry more meaning into things.”

If you’re at the beginning of your design technology journey or are struggling to comprehend how technology acts as a method of innovation, here’s a project Talia highlighted that showcases it…

In the summer of 2020, she was asked to create a brand identity for Guilty by Association, an arts organisation for undiscovered, underrepresented artists. The creative challenge: how do you design for people whose voices you’ve never heard?

Her solution was a generative logo that looked like handwriting, where every iteration was different, because the computer – not the designer – was making the letterforms. Why was that the right thing to do, rather than drawing letters yourself?

It was an ethical choice alongside a creative one. “I didn’t want to make the statement that I, Talia Cotton, was representing how people would sign their name in their art.” The project opened her eyes to how technology acts as a tool to carry more meaning.

Three years in, Talia’s biggest source of pride is the environment she’s built for the people in her team. Her approach to reviews is something every studio should consider… Rather than asking how an employee can better serve the company, she flips it: how can the company be better for them?

She tracks the ratio of project types each person has worked on, asks what they loved and what they didn’t, and builds the next six months around the response. “It is my number one duty, to make sure that they are happy.” Plus, their studio sounds like an absolute vibe.

When Talia started Cotton, there were very few studios she could point to that were solo female-founded operating at the level she aspired to.

If you want to push yourself, it’s okay to question your circumstances. Then create completely new ones.