Working with TOTEM as our branding agency has been refreshing. We found in Colin and his team a shared passion for doing things right and reappraising the status quo, to do the right things. I'm a firm believer in getting the brand strategy right first, investing time at the outset to get the rebranding process right and then trusting the creatives to deliver the outputs based on these vital inputs. This is working for us at Cork Airport. Our business has literally taken off with TOTEM on board to pilot our brand.

I would recommend this branding process with Colin and the team at TOTEM, start to finish. In fact, I already have. TOTEM are already hard at work on a brand development project with a CEO who is a former colleague of mine, and he's thanked me for recommending them to him as his branding agency.

On this brand development journey, TOTEM helped us articulate what it is about us that makes us unique. Why our clients recommend and refer others to us. The brand strategy gave us a level of clarity we didn't have before. And a huge sense of pride as a team, to see ourselves accurately reflected with a new brand positioning, brand identity, and website we can believe in. That's a great feeling.

Working with our TOTEM was collaborative from the start. They really took the time to listen and understand Clann — not just our purpose and what we do, but what we mean to people.
The new identity captures that perfectly. It feels warm, grounded and authentic. It resonated strongly with the Clann team and, most importantly, with our residents.

From the outset of the project our TOTEM captured the values of the organisation in a way that connects in a direct and deeply meaningful way with our donors, supporters and stakeholders. Their creativity combined with their authenticity made them the ideal partner to communicate The Mercy Foundation’s story and vision for the future. ‘The Mercy’ is an organisation with deep roots in the community, held in great affection and our new website has articulated the humanity at the core of the Foundation whilst also illustrating reassurance and reliability.

The brand has created clarity both internally and externally. Our team members have an identity they can rally behind, and partners see us as an independent entity they can trust. What’s most satisfying is seeing how quickly everyone embraced it – proving that when you get the strategy right, people just get it.
This wasn’t about imposing something new – it was about our TOTEM bringing our existing strengths into sharp focus.

As a new part of a really strong brand, any change can pose problems for some, internally. Certain people with long tenure saw it as a fundamental threat to their own identity. But when we showed them the new visual identity, with its clear narrative and messages – the continuity that led back to the parent brand, you could see the cogs turning. They went from silence, to ‘I really like it’ – it became something safe and understandable, where they could see their purpose.

Working with TOTEM was a genuinely rewarding experience. They understood our brief immediately and delivered a brand identity and website that captured our vision from their very first presentation. The process was collaborative, reassuring and focused throughout a time-critical project. The attention to detail with an added personal touch helped strengthen our partnership. We’re proud of the brand we’ve built together.

We couldn’t recommend TOTEM highly enough. From the outset, we felt that they really supported us through the whole brand development process of defining our who we are and why we do it: they listened to us, reflected back what they were hearing at each stage, and presented us with potential branding solutions to help us clarify our thinking. We were energised by their branding process because it was clear, logical, creative, and relevant to our needs. Within our organisation, we are really pleased with our new brand positioning, identities, and websites. But the feedback from our stakeholders has also been universally positive.