Talia Cotton on starting an agency after leaving Pentagram

#designinspiration #leadership #design

In this engaging conversation, Talia Cotton shares her journey from working at Pentagram to starting her design studio — Cotton Design. She talks about the challenges of the first year of being an agency founder, the main leadership lessons she learned and insights on building and managing a team.

Watch the full interview to find out:
👉 Three things you must do when starting an agency
👉 How and who to hire during the first year
👉 How to build your network and find new clients
👉 What Talia will never ever do with her team
👉 Where she goes for inspiration

00:00 Hello Hello Hello
01:16 Leaving Pentagram and starting a design studio
03:30 What you need to do before starting an agency
05:58 Winning creative work or how to find clients as a creative agency founder
08:06 How to pitch yourself in the creative industry
09:25 Hiring and Building a Team
12:23 Teaching and how it helps to hire design talent
13:10 How to hire talent during the first year
15:30 Two key lessons on hiring from Michael Bierut, partner at Pentagram
17:35 Inside look into how Pentagram works
22:53 The most important thing in the first year of running an agency
25:53 What you need to consider before you take a project
27:04 Things you need to do to get more clients
28:45 Working from Office VS Remote team
29:15 Where to look for inspiration when you are an agency founder
33:49 If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?


For more leadership insights check our Design Leaders Programme.
Learn more and Apply 👉 https://bit.ly/3wXJox1


#designleadership #leadership