The Torchbearers Medicine Hat Prayer Retreat is a one-day gathering in Medicine Hat, Alberta, built around the theme of the Infilling of the Holy Spirit. I extended the campaign's visual language across seven touchpoints - devotional, social, print, apparel, and video - and one piece of that system reached 1,600 people in six days.
At a glance
Role: Campaign Design, Social Content, Editorial Layout
Client: The Torchbearers, in partnership with Medicine Hat Family Church
Event: One-day prayer retreat, August 8, 2026
The retreat was announced with a poster designed by another member of the team. My work started where the poster ended - taking its visual language (navy field, torn-paper edge, coral-orange script accents, chunky slab serif) and extending it across every other touchpoint in the campaign. Devotionals, social announcements, order-of-program, video content, apparel - all built from the same design DNA so the campaign read as one voice across formats.
What the retreat is
A one-day gathering built for people who are tired of surviving in their faith and want to be filled again. The anchor scriptures are Acts 4:31 and Ephesians 5:18. The theme is The Infilling of the Holy Spirit.
The audience is specific - the faith community in and around Medicine Hat, Alberta, along with members of The Torchbearers' broader network. That specificity mattered for both the visual language and the targeting.
The system I extended
The main poster established the visual grammar. My job was to take that grammar and make it fluent across every other format the campaign needed. That meant asking: what stays consistent, what adapts to the medium, and what do I leave alone?
What stays. The palette - deep navy, cream, coral-orange for accent, script for warmth. The torn-paper edge as a connective element that says the veil torn, the invitation to come closer. The type hierarchy - a chunky slab serif for headers, editorial serif for body, cursive script for punctuation and section labels.
What adapts. Format-specific layout - the square social crop, the 8.5x11 devotional PDF, the vertical Instagram Reel, the two-page order-of-program document. Each format has its own rules of engagement.
What gets left alone. The main poster's exact composition. It's the origin. Everything else refers back to it but doesn't imitate it.
Before Event
7-Day Devotional and Prayers social flyer. The teaser piece for the week leading up to the retreat, announcing seven days of prayer on Zoom and daily devotionals on social. Adapted the poster's torn edge from horizontal into a diagonal, kept the palette and type system consistent.
7-day devotional series PDFs. A daily devotional written by the ministry team, laid out as a two-page editorial piece for each of the seven days. Navy header block with the day number in coral script, torn edge dividing header from body, cream body ground for reading comfort, coral pull quotes for the strongest lines, script for section labels ("Memory Verse," "Reflection," "Pray with me"). Each devotional stood alone but sat inside the campaign visually.
Devotional social adaptation. The same devotional content adapted for Instagram carousel - cover slide, teaching slides, prayer slides. This kept the daily discipline available for people who wouldn't download a PDF but would swipe through a carousel on their phone.
Spotlight: 3 Signs You Need an Infilling
The strongest single piece in the campaign was a three-part social series that named three signs someone might need the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The copy did most of the work - arresting one-line diagnoses paired with the scripture underneath.
The three signs:
- You used to be undone in His presence. Now you just show up. (Isaiah 29:13)
- You still open the word, it doesn't open you anymore. (paired with the corresponding text)
- You know how to serve Him. You've forgotten how to sit at His feet. (Luke 10:41-42)
Each sign was designed as part of an Instagram post - navy field, chunky serif at scale, coral script tag ("Sign 1 of 3"), scripture in italic serif at the base, torn edge anchoring the composition. The visual restraint was the point. The copy needed room to land.
The series was also cut together as a video Reel and published to the account with paid promotion targeted to Medicine Hat and surrounding areas. Mixed organic and paid promotion, targeted to Medicine Hat and surrounding areas.
Results after 8 days:
- 2,038 views (over 3 seconds)
- 163 profile visits
- 167 link clicks to the retreat registration
- 63 likes and reactions
- 49 saves
- 9 shares
- 37 new followers to the account
The link-click number was the campaign's real metric - the design was doing its job as a top-of-funnel piece moving people toward retreat registration. The saves-to-likes ratio (roughly 4:5) suggested people wanted to return to the content, which Instagram's algorithm reads as a quality signal and reflected in continued reach.
During Event
Order of Program. A document for the retreat itself, listing the day's flow -welcome, worship, scripture, charge, prayer sessions, intercession, break, ministration, altar call, closing. Same visual DNA as the rest of the campaign, adapted into a functional wayfinding document for attendees.
Big-Screen Assets. Supporting assets to help attendees access the program flow as well as a screen to show ways to give.
Minister Intro Videos. Due to the lack of an MC, an introduction video was made for each minister. The intro video served two purposes, introducing the topic that the speaker will be addressing as well as introducing the minister too.
Apparel
Three T-shirt designs across two audiences.
For retreat attendees and the wider public - Emptied to be Filled / Fill, Flow, Overflow. The retreat's central metaphor rendered as apparel. Front carries the invitation, back carries the process. The flame icon references both the Torchbearers logo and the fire imagery in the retreat's Acts 4:31 anchor.
For the Torchbearers team - I Bring Light. An identity piece for team members. The struck-through DARKNESS being replaced with LIGHT captures the ministry's positioning in a single visual gesture. Available in dark grey. I initially had the design without the red line across cause the visual design of the word "darkness" was that it looked shattered but on speaking with the torchbearers team, someone suggested adding the red strikethrough light which made it even more abundantly clear.
For the Torchbearers team - Ìmólẹ̀ dé! Òkùnkùn para da! The same message rendered in Yoruba for Yoruba-speaking team members. Light has come! Darkness scatter! The mother tongue on the chest, worn with the same authority as the English version. Cultural specificity as a form of design care.
The Torchbearers team rocking their custom T-shirts
Reflections
Extending a system is a different skill from originating one. This project taught me the discipline of designing inside someone else's visual language. The temptation is always to add your own voice - a new type pairing, a fresh treatment, a small hero moment. Every time I felt that temptation, the work got worse. The campaign got sharper the more I trusted the poster's original grammar and just executed inside it.
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Copy and design have to arrive together. The 3 Signs piece worked because the writing was strong enough to carry the restraint of the design. If the copy had been generic, the composition would have felt empty. If the design had been busy, the copy would have suffocated. The two were shaped in conversation, which is the same principle I learned building the José landing page - the tightest work comes from tight iteration between copy and layout.
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Measurement is a design discipline. Capturing analytics on the 3 Signs Reel wasn't extra work. It was part of the design process. Without the numbers, I have a piece I feel good about. With the numbers, I have evidence that the design achieved a specific business outcome. Agencies hire designers who can defend their choices with measurement. I want to be one of those designers.