Introducing Cotton, an agency specialising in designing with code

Talia Cotton will speak at the SXSW 2027 Innovation Conference in Austin, Texas. She joins John Maeda in the Design track, with the broader conference featuring speakers including AI researcher Timnit Gebru, futurist Amy Webb, poppi founder Allison Ellsworth, and social psychologist Amy Cuddy. 

Drawing on a decade at the intersection of design and technology, Cotton’s talk challenges the question of what technology will do to creativity, asking instead how creatives can shape its possibilities. Through historical examples, a proven methodology, and real-world case studies, she offers a pragmatic perspective on the fear that AI will replace creative work—and how creatives can embrace technology without sacrificing craft, meaning, or authorship. The session explores what makes creative work distinctive and what will keep it irreplaceable.

SXSW takes place in Austin, Texas, on March 15–21, 2027.

Talia Cotton to Speak at SXSW 2027’s Innovation Conference

Talia Cotton has joined Yale School of Art as a thesis advisor in its Graphic Design MFA program. Other thesis advisors listed by Yale are 

Julian Alexander, Alice Chung, and John Provencher

. The Graphic Design MFA centers on independent research and the development of each student’s design practice through studio work, individual criticism, and mentorship. Students present their work in a thesis book and end-of-semester reviews with faculty and external critics.

Talia Cotton joins Yale School of Art as Thesis Advisor

Fast Company’s 2026 Innovation by Design Award

 in Graphic Design and Branding for our work with Eternal Research.

Now in its 15th year, Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards recognize designers and businesses creating some of the most innovative work across design today. This year’s 

 include projects, products, and services from 

, and others. The awards celebrate work demonstrating originality, beauty, sustainability, user insight, cultural significance, and measurable business impact.

Rooted in the intricacy of Victorian ornamentation and powered by generative code, Eternal Research’s identity explores the relationship between craft and technology. At its center is a custom generative system that translates qualities of sound—including timbre, frequency, and intensity—into an evolving visual language. The result is a living identity capable of producing an infinite number of unique compositions while retaining the precision and expressiveness of its historical inspiration.

Fast Company’s feature, “Victorian craft inspired this hypnotic brand identity,” takes a closer look at the unlikely connection at the heart of Eternal Research’s identity: the meticulous craftsmanship of Victorian ornamentation and the accessibility of experimental music-making. The article traces how founder Alexandra Fierra’s collection of Victorian books became the starting point for the brief, and how Cotton studied and decoded the structural logic of these historical patterns to build a computational design system that reacts to sound. It also explores how the generative tool—capable of creating an infinite number of unique patterns—works alongside a customized wordmark and flexible typographic system to create an identity that reframes technology not as the opposite of craft, but as a new vehicle for it.

The Innovation by Design honorees were selected by a panel of leading designers, business executives, and Fast Company editors. As Fast Company editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan described this year’s winners, the awards recognize ideas that “challenge convention” and demonstrate the possibilities of treating design as a strategic force.

We’re incredibly grateful to Eternal Research and founder Alexandra Fierra for trusting us to create something ambitious, experimental, and deeply considered together.

Explore the complete 2026 Innovation by Design winners 

Cotton wins Fast Company’s 2026 Innovation by Design Award in Graphic Design and Branding

Talia Cotton will speak at OFFF Forum Montréal 2026, a new gathering dedicated to design, art, and digital culture that brings together some of the industry's most influential creative voices. Taking place September 4 at Montréal's Société des arts technologiques (SAT), the inaugural Forum extends the OFFF Montréal festival with a day of talks exploring the future of creative practice.

The program features an international lineup of leading designers, studios, and creative thinkers, including 

Building on OFFF's global reputation for championing innovation across design and technology, the Forum creates a space for practitioners to share ideas, process, and perspectives shaping the next generation of creative work.

Talia's presentation will explore how contemporary identity systems can balance precision with adaptability, drawing from Cotton's work at the intersection of branding, technology, and generative design. Through recent projects and evolving methodologies, she'll examine how designers can build systems that remain expressive, resilient, and deeply human as the creative landscape continues to evolve.

As part of OFFF Forum's inaugural program, Talia joins a community of designers pushing the discipline forward—contributing to a broader conversation about the role of design in shaping culture, technology, and the future of creative expression.

Talia Cotton to speak at OFFF Montréal 

Cotton founder Talia Cotton was featured in 

 in an article titled “What happens when the gap between thinking and making closes?” alongside 

, Director of Creative Technology at Instrument.

The article explores how emerging technologies are reshaping the creative process, blurring the boundaries between design and development, and opening new possibilities for cross-disciplinary collaboration. Talia shares her perspective on the evolving role of the designer as both creative and technologist, emphasizing the importance of intentionality, structure, and creative control in generative design. The conversation examines how technology can become an integral creative medium, enabling new forms of expression, interaction, and meaning that would otherwise be impossible.

Introducing Cotton, an agency specialising in designing with code

Talia Cotton to Speak at SXSW 2027’s Innovation Conference

Talia Cotton joins Yale School of Art as Thesis Advisor

Cotton wins Fast Company’s 2026 Innovation by Design Award in Graphic Design and Branding

Talia Cotton to speak at OFFF Montréal

Talia Cotton and Seth Akkerman featured in It’s Nice That on the future of design and technology