The Pilgrimage - Jerome Tupa
2025
“Father Tupa's career as a painter reveals him to be a man who has always sought an answer to the artist's most persistent question: How do you do something new? Or rather, how can you create a fresh vision that is as spiritually inspiring as works of the past? Always one to speak to spiritual issues, Father Tupa has actively sought out new iconography for painting.
Father Tupa's art celebrates his relationship with the world, and with God. His paintings are an invitation to partake of and share in this balanced wholeness. In this process, he fills the viewer with what he recognizes as "our deepest strivings," those of "completion, and love."
Father Jerome Tupa is a Benedictine monk, priest and professor of French at St. John's Abbey/University in Collegeville, Minnesota. He is also an artist, or more specifically, a painter.”
Photography
Publication Design
Cover Design
Handwritting
The Project
This project was done during my time as an intern at Switchboard. The customer, Jerome Tupa is a long time client of theirs and they let me take on the project. Jerome was looking for a book about his pilgrimage and the work he created during it. It needed to be a mix of both his paintings and photos from the trip. As well as a carefully crafted story and narrative for the reader to follow along with. I assisted in doing some of the painting photography, designed the cover, did the primary design and layout, and helped craft it into a story that would guide the reader throughout the book.
The Process
The book needed to feel like Jerome and also some of the work Switchboard had already done for him. So lots of negative space, a modern and clean look, and photography throughout. Something I added to was some handwriting on both the cover and throughout the book to give it a very personal feel, almost like a journal. It also created some fun points of interest throughout the book and contrasted nicely with the clean, modern layout.
The Payoff
A book that was not only a book, but also a piece of art. One that people would want on a coffee table. Submitted to the Central Minnesota Advertising Awards and won “Best in Show.”
Received a gold ADDY award for the project and “Best in Show” in the professional category at the central Minnesota adfed Awards. (picture of awards featured on right)
