Talia Cotton

Any hilarious stories about you as a kid being creative?

Both my parents were musicians with no money, and I was homeschooled in my younger years, so our household was just oozing with creativity. We wrote stories, built forts, invented games, painted, sculpted, visited art museums, wrote songs, made clothing, played music…

I recently came across a stack of creativities from my childhood and found a list of my summer goals after third grade. Between collaging, practicing piano, “making up dreams” and, yes, even teaching, central to the list is my goal to “create new things”. Not only does it give a glimpse at the mind of Tiny Talia, but it also amazes me how similar my goals are today.

Give us the elevator pitch on what you do.

I am a graphic designer specializing in the intersection of brand identities and technology. Brand development is often designed without digital opportunities in mind, even though today the primary point of interaction with brands is on digital applications. This is where I come in. I am a designer first-and-foremost, so I know how to make a great-looking and logical system. But I'm also a coder, and with this intersection, I am able to build fresh brands and applications that are optimized for the digital world and stand out.

What's the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Words I live by are: very few things are actually impossible. And it works for, like, everything in design. Need something printed on some crazy weird surface? Not impossible — but it might take some research and planning. Wondering if your website can do something? It’s not impossible — coding can pretty much do anything now. Have a dream job that you have no idea how to get? Not impossible! Work really hard and make decisions that are driven by your dream. And you will get it. For everything that seems impossible, the harder you want it the closer it is to become possible.

Are you involved in any teaching and if so how it shapes your practice?

Teaching is the primary driver behind my practice. When I do the work that I do, I constantly find myself asking, “Ok, how would I explain this to someone? What questions would someone ask me about this, and would I know the answer to those? If my student were the one making this, how would I push him or her more?”

I often meet designers who are turned off by coding, and most of the time it’s just because they didn’t have a good enough teacher who got them excited or showed them what’s possible. So not nearly enough creatives know how to code… and that’s a problem! You may not be able to teach creativity, but you can teach coding to creatives. The magic happens when you see what those creatives can do once they’ve been given this new coding superpower.

I think designers have only hit the tip of the iceberg in terms of what coding can do for the design world, and I think it’s up to teachers to make sure we keep collectively pushing the boundaries of design by giving our students this ability, making sure to cover not just the how of coding, but also what you can do with it.

I currently teach the Intro to Coding for Designers six-week workshop at XXXI in the East Village, and I teach one-on-one coding to designers on the side.