We Help Clients Find Their Voice. We Finally Took Time to Define Our Own.

Karmen Johnson and Jake Engel, co-founders of Artifactual Creative Agency, and the Mother of Pearls team.

​There’s an irony in public relations we don’t talk about enough.

We spend our days helping other people find their voice, clarify their message, and tell their story. But we don’t always take the time to do that for ourselves.

That was true for us at Mother of Pearls.

For years, we built this firm the way many small businesses do - through relationships, reputation, and results. Clients trusted us. They told other people. And we grew organically.

But growth has a way of forcing new questions to the surface.
Who are we, really?
What do we stand for?
What makes us different?
And how do we want clients to feel when they work with us?

Until recently, we hadn’t fully slowed down to answer those questions.

We had a logo, but we had never gone much deeper than that. And if I’m being honest, I was nervous to. As communicators, we’re used to putting the spotlight on our clients. Turning that lens on ourselves felt uncomfortable, yet long overdue.

The truth is, we already knew a lot of the answers. We just hadn’t put it into words. That changed when we went through a full branding process for the first time.

I give full credit to my friend Jake Engel, an incredibly talented brand and creative strategist, who guided us through it step by step. He asked the right questions, eased my hesitation, and helped us see this wasn’t about reinventing ourselves. It was about uncovering what was already there. That was the shift.

A good branding process doesn’t create something artificial. It reveals something authentic.

Through that work, we found language for the instincts that have guided our business from the beginning. We defined the principles that had been operating quietly in the background.

We are a curious firm that gets close to the work.
We uncover stories others might miss.
We value trust, honesty, and real relationships.
We care about the people behind the story - not just the message.

That clarity gave us confidence; not the polished, performative kind, but the real kind that comes from knowing exactly who you are and being able to stand behind it. One of the most meaningful parts of the process was realizing how much the business has evolved.

For a long time, Mother of Pearls was closely tied to me personally. And that foundation matters. But the brand needed to grow alongside the team. That’s not a loss of identity. It’s growth.

We now have a brand that reflects the team, the work, and the future of where we’re headed, while still holding onto the authenticity that got us here.

We also walked away with a clearer sense of purpose and intentionality. Even our tone reflects that clarity. We’re not trying to sound like a big agency. We’re not chasing buzzwords. Our voice is meant to feel like a trusted friend - calm, confident, and steady, especially when things get complicated.

Looking back, the most valuable part of this process wasn’t the visuals or the language. It was the alignment. We have a clearer understanding of who we are. Our team has language to rally around. And we have confidence in how we show up for our clients AND for ourselves.

If you’ve built something strong but haven’t taken the time to define it, you’re not alone. It’s easy to stay in motion. To keep doing the work. To keep saying yes. But there’s real value in pausing long enough to ask: does our brand reflect who we really are?

Ours does now. And that clarity is already making us better at what we do.

Because when you know your own story, you tell everyone else’s a little better.