The Evidence We Carry

The Story of Naming a Brand That Was Too Close to Home

People often say creativity comes from connecting unrelated things.

For us, creativity came from connecting the deeply connected – two people who grew up just blocks apart in the same subdivision and followed one long creative journey together.

We did not notice the pattern at first. We were just kids making things because making things felt natural. But the evidence lived everywhere.

Looking back on our shared story, we realized that our strongest work had always been the work we created together. Simply put: the evidence was there. So, when we decided it was time to fulfill the calling we’d had for many years – starting an agency – we were faced with our toughest challenge yet: giving it a name.

We filled lists, scribbled ideas on post-it notes, and texted insane concepts at all hours of the night. Every step of the way, we held the names all up to the lives we had lived. Some of them carried weight but lacked energy. Others captured tone but felt too abstract. We wanted something that honored our creative history, told the story of what we do, and was easy to say (and spell… mostly for Jake’s sake).

We started with a hundred words, maybe more. Some felt clever for ten minutes. Some felt too intense. We polled friends and creative peers, hoping their reactions would reveal a direction we couldn’t see yet. Their feedback helped, but it also confirmed what we already suspected – we still hadn’t found it.

The Zoom brainstorming calls became their own kind of endurance test. Hours of circling names, testing how they sounded, imagining how they lived on a proposal or a website.

“Artifact” sat close to what we wanted, but didn’t hold everything. But then came the moment that broke the loop. We were mid-conversation when Keith, Karmen’s boyfriend, shouted a couple options from the other room.

Artifactual.

A word with movement, clarity, and room for both of us. Something that brought our two skills – art and fact – together. The name felt familiar in a way that made sense of everything we had been building for years. We said it again, then again, and the search finally settled.

Naming something that carries years of your life carries a strange weight. You know too much. The evidence becomes so close that it blurs. You want one word to tell the truth of your past story and still feel alive enough to carry you to your future one.

That process taught us something important.

Every founder and every company carries the truth of their brand long before they try to name it. The clues live in their history, their habits, their strengths, their way of seeing the world. Most people simply stand too close to recognize the pattern.

That’s the work we do.

Artifactual took shape through the evidence we carried, which is now the same kind of evidence we now help others see for themselves.