St. Mary, Star of The Sea

Full-Service Capital Campaign Branding

St. Mary, Star of the Sea is a Catholic parish on Longboat Key, Florida, founded in 1973 on what was once barren land. After Hurricane Helene brought wind and flood damage to their building, the parish saw the moment clearly: it was time to invest in hurricane-safety upgrades — storm shelters, protective gates — alongside decades-overdue repairs the congregation lives with every week: flickering lighting, aging pews, deteriorating bathrooms, sacristies in need of renovation. Parish leadership launched a capital campaign to fund it all.

I was brought in to give that campaign a voice and a look. Starting with conversations to understand the project and the parish itself, I built a full campaign brand — logo, color palette, typography, and pattern work — then carried it across every piece of print collateral the campaign needed: pledge cards, invitation cards, giving cards, informational cards, newsletters, envelopes, and letterhead.

On video, the parish asked for one piece. I delivered two: one letting parishioners speak to what St. Mary's means to them and what the building needs, the other featuring the priest making the spiritual case for the campaign — two different tools for two different moments in the same effort.

The project ran several months from first conversation to final delivery, and the finished brand carried the campaign through its entire run.