Designing for others begins with trust in and curiosity for each other.
Language Dept. was founded to build agency for everyone at the table, and to evolve who gathers there. We are design researchers, strategists, and communicators from diverse opportunities, life paths and creative backgrounds. We hold each other to questioning, as we hold space for ideas to grow into strong solutions.
Over eleven years of growth, we’ve honed our ability to co-create with client teams by arriving with curiosity, listening first, and finding opportunities in systems.
Life happens during work hours. Life informs the work we craft. As a now distributed team, we share our lives and perspectives on a daily basis. We see this transition as an opportunity to create deeper trust in each other, our clients, and those who use our work. Perspective is a practice.
Our Team
Jenn Cash
Principal, Strategy and Creative Direction
“My approach helps people grow and learn about themselves—from the people on my team to the clients we collaborate with to the audiences who experience it.”
MA
Tanya Quick
Principal, Strategy and Creative Direction
“My goal is to create optimal conditions for evolving creative work. Every time we begin a new engagement, our skills have grown and collective human experiences have shifted. We're invited to build on everything before and also to learn. This is why I love this work.”
NYC
Jenna Park
UX Strategy and Design
“By challenging assumptions and advocating for equity and accessibility in design, my work helps bring awareness to the power and responsibility that designers have for more inclusion in our industry and the products that we create.”
NYC
Frank Wild
Studio and Research Assistant
“From supporting the creative team to watering the company mascot—a ficus tree—I help everyone thrive.”
LinkedIn NYC
Niquita Taliaferro
User Experience and Visual Design
“I enjoy ideas. Forming my own and hearing those of others. It's interesting how we all think differently... how a piece of me and a piece of you can come together to make a new thing. You keep melding them together in thoughtful ways to solve any problem.”
VA
Sarah Shively
User Experience and Visual Design
“Often, the greatest value of collaboration comes through the moments of the most friction: an impossible technical challenge, two directly opposed design perspectives, a big shift in priorities. These are the moments when, properly navigated, push us towards the most thoughtful and future-proof solutions.”
NC
Sarah Asip
System Design and Research
“I want the work I do as a designer to improve existing systems or create new ones.”
LinkedIn ATL
Jada Vogt
Art Direction and Visual Design
“I always use/think from the lens/perspective of the end user to provide ease of understanding—both mentally and visually.”
MPLS
Kristen Mirenda
UX Writing and Content Strategy (Project-based consultant)
“I want someone to find an interface so seamless that they'd swear the words came from their own brain. Most of all, I want to enable both client and end user to achieve what they need to move forward in business, or in life.”
