Total Identity - 25-01-2007

Auteur: Eli Vlessing

It took force, courage and long evenings of heavy debating. But the inevitable did take place: in the year 2000, almost forty years after its conception, Total Design disappeared. The company itself had caused this sad and at the same time joyful moment.

Total Design was officially founded in 1963. The same year Ferdinand Porsche presented his Porsche 901. Both turned out to become classics, very much alive and in great demand today in 2007. In the early decades of its existence, Total Design (TD Association for Total Design; ‘TD’ to the acquaintances) then became world famous. In Holland, the company grew, as did the list of clients and the list of finished projects. Riding, and partly creating the wave of euphoria that surrounded ‘Dutch Design’ in those years, the name of the company also made it into the annals of countries outside the low lands.

As the name indicated, Total Design was more than just ‘design’. Although an eloquent definition of ‘Total Design’ did exist, it never ceased to trigger the curious minds of the creative. Total Design was as much ‘design’ as it was ‘about design’. This made Total Design a company in transition. Defining, redefining, rethinking and resetting the playing field, the ambitions, the function and the goal of the company lead to its fore mentioned demise.

The surprising, inquisitive, suspicious, highly creative but most of all open-minded staff of Total Design never rested. Goals were not set to be reached for their own sake – goals were set as an offset for new goals. A culture to look further, dig deeper, think longer lead to a vision beyond the horizon of design. Even of total design.

Total Design has been conceived with the goal to become superfluous. New minds, new insights, new horizons and the mentioned long, long nights of discussing and disagreeing, pushed forward the change that was to come: total is not the same as complete.

The rebirth of Total

In the year 2000 Total Design ceased to exist and Total Identity saw the light of day. Still Total Design was cherished and a number of business units were created inside Total Identity: strategy, communication, and implementation. And of course: design. But the path chosen by the company was clear: Total Identity was to become an identity agency with a strong focus on strategic issues. Of which the creative department, the former Total Design, was the most visible and largest unit.

The years after that have proven the decision of 2000 right: the nostalgia around Total Design has not prevented an influx of new talent, that was not drawn to the company for its design fame, but for its Total approach of identity. The new flag gave room for new initiatives, new visions and new connections. The wide-spectrum approach in the field of identity, lead to market-oriented consultancy teams and to the emergence of communication and identity driven disciplines such as publishing and design-management. This new spirit also gave way to more structural expansion ambitions: Total Identity started to expand into various countries and by the same time internationalise the own approach. Experiences in several European countries, but also in the Far and Middle East, returned valuable not only for expansion in economic terms. The aim to become ‘international’ turned out to be a source of innovation and transformation referred to the own Identity.

Total Identity in 2007 has a bright future. Goals have been reached. So new goals have come into sight. Followed by new ones. Total Design in 1963 turned out to be a reliable, consistent name in the industry, even more so after the change to Total Identity in 2000. Actually, it is the goal to design markets and players within a stakeholder oriented strategy focus. And this brings Total Identity close towards the own roots. But without nostalgia.