Emmaus Retreat Songbook & Prayer Cards

Designing a cohesive visual system for a retreat songbook and devotional prayer cards.

Role: Creative Direction, Art Direction, Graphic Design, Illustration, Print Design
Organization: Saint Louis Catholic Church Men's Emmaus
Scope: Songbook Design, Prayer Card Design, Visual System, Illustration, Print Production

The Journey

The System

The Prayer

The Cards

The History

Emmaus Retreat Songbook & Prayer Cards is a printed devotional system designed for Saint Louis Catholic Church’s Men’s Emmaus Retreat. The project brings the retreat’s songs, Scripture, prayers, reflections, and history together through a cohesive visual language designed to feel warm, contemplative, and contemporary while remaining rooted in the character of the Emmaus community.

I developed the visual direction, artwork, typography, page architecture, and print system across the songbook and a complementary collection of devotional prayer cards. The goal was to create something that could function not only as a retreat resource, but as a meaningful physical object—one that could be held, written in, prayed with, and carried home.

This project was initiated through a close creative collaboration with David Ladowski, whose ideas, input, and support helped shape the work throughout the process.

Illustrative artwork was developed using generative AI through an art-directed process of visual exploration, iteration, selection, and refinement to establish a cohesive visual language across the project.