Alison Coté
Alison Coté (née Cowles) is a New York-based graphic designer and artist who is the daughter of frequent TMBG collaborator David Cowles. At four years old, she was featured in the music video for I Never Go To Work, created by her father.[1] Coté has worked for many other clients in the past including the Jonas Brothers, Danielle Ponder, and C. W. Stoneking. Her style is distinctively 70s inspired and often referred to as vintage.[2]
Coté created the illustrations which were used in the design for the album Why? Coté also designed the videos for the songs Elephants and Moles, Hounds, Bears, Bees And Hares, which were directed by her father and Jeremy Galante, and created the T-shirts for TMBG's 2018 US/Canadian, 2018 European, and 2019 Australian tours.
In an email response to a fan, Alison had this to say about her work on Why?:
[Flansburgh] had seen some illustrations I had done for musician Mikaela Davis and wanted similar energetic, child-like ink illustrations of various animals for the album art. I drew a variety of animals using a quill pen and pot of ink, the weirder and sillier looking the better. Then I scanned the images and Melissa arranged them for the final composition.
Coté is also a musician alongside her husband Alex. In 2025, the duo started a YouTube channel alongside her father called Kinder-Toons! where Cowles animates music videos for his daughter's children's music. Cowles has said that they are "following in the mighty footsteps of Sesame Street, Schoolhouse Rock and They Might Be Giants."[3] The Coté's have also created music for Sesame Street in the past.[4]