You can know what a business does by its services alone. You can find its core clientele through its website or social media.
But finding the heart of a business takes some digging. What makes an entrepreneur wake up and do a job each day for longer hours than most? There has to be a reason beyond making money.
For Rhem Galloway, owner of Tōdem Brands, answering these questions was the key to creating a brand for a client that would go far beyond just creating a logo.
Galloway studied graphic design through undergraduate and grad school. After working for West Greenville marketing consultants Brains on Fire and then freelancing, she found that her favorite aspect of the process was seeing the difference brand identification made to the business.
With that in mind, she set out to create a company that represented her interests and values but still needed to determine how that would look. Galloway said a light bulb for her was how branding fleshed out the client’s identity and inspired its employees.
“We did that for the owner, but then also, you could tell a difference with the employees as well,” Galloway said. “They had more to latch on to, and to connect within the company.”
Soul of Tōdem Brands
That became the soul of Tōdem Brands.
“The heart of it was, it wasn’t necessarily design,” Galloway said. “I love doing that stuff, but it was seeing how it could impact the lives of others and make a positive change.”
In other words, it’s not just about the logo but about how a brand can infuse other aspects of business, and act as a guardrail for how that company is conducted.
For Galloway, conducting a business on the operational level means establishing a good work culture involving employee appreciation and understanding.
In addition to being a business owner, she’s a mom. She described the staff as a tight-knit group of women who are all moms. As she runs the company, she considers the moments she would not want to miss and intentionally created a workplace with flexible schedules.
In navigating her roles — mom, designer, entrepreneur, among others — there comes a necessary balance that involves allowing oneself the permission to show up where they are.
“I had a line that I would just say, ‘Don’t compare yourself to Picasso.’ It’s OK if you’re not Picasso,” she said. “There’s a lot of great people in between Picasso and people that don’t know anything about design. There’s still plenty of room to be incredibly good at what you do.”
Behind the name
The stylization of “Tōdem” is directly related to the company’s mission. It is the phonetic spelling of the word “totem,” which is the physical representation of a group or concept, much like a logo. Using the word’s phonetic spelling doubles down on the focus of recognizing a brand’s essence. In so doing, its name contains a double meaning, addressing identity and making sure that identity is crystal clear.
