At 26, Emily Abe has figured out how to combine two of her life’s passions: graphic design and the Catholic Church.
She grew up playing video games, was a musician but decided to study graphic design in college, which is how she makes her living today.
Abe, a parishioner of Holy Family in St. Louis Park, recently joined “Practicing Catholic” show host Patrick Conley to talk about her conversion to the Catholic faith and how she ended up working with mostly Catholic-related organizations.
Emily Abe
Growing up in the United Methodist Church, Abe said she learned “the Christian basics,” but she felt left looking for more. She asked “her band friends” in high school where they went to church, which was the start of her path to the Catholic Church.
“That was everything I needed and wanted at the time,” she said, “like good praise and worship music, small groups and an engaging talk. And not just a talk about ‘Jesus loves you.’ They had a talk on abortion when I was I high school, and I had never heard anything about that.”
She said her journey started with a desire for friendships, and as she said, “it turned into so much more.”
“I fell in love with the Catholic space,” she said. “I went off to college, researching Catholicism. I read the youth catechism cover to cover.”
Abe looked into other Christian denominations, but had issues with “this innate sense of truth.” For example, one book she read talked about moral relativism “and I knew something was wrong with that,” she said. “But the Catholic Church was the one that told me what was wrong with it. … So, I got confirmed as a sophomore in college.”
She said while many of her college peers partied, she spent most of her time with campus ministry. Jokingly calling herself “this crazy Catholic convert,” she said that joining the Catholic Church has “been the best decision of my life.”
After graduation, she looked for graphic designer jobs without much success. Then, at a parish career group, she completed a Venn diagram with questions like “What are you good at?” “What are you passionate about?” “What does the world need?” And “what can earn you money?”
“All of them pointed to the Church and graphic design,” she said.
She began focusing on doing design work for parishes and ministries — what her website describes as “mission-driven organizations.”
“I’m starting to make a name for myself in the Catholic world. I have been so blessed to be able to do Catholic-related graphic design,” she said.
Abe said her work isn’t just about making good websites, logos, print design, social media and photography, but “creating art and digital art that will speak to someone’s soul.”
“I think this is my way of contributing to the Church and forwarding evangelization and just sharing the joy of the faith,” she said.
To check out Abe’s website and blog posts — which address the Catholic faith and graphic design — visit EmilyAbe.com. To hear the full interview, listen to this episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show. It airs at 9 p.m. Sept. 3, 1 p.m. Sept 4 and 2 p.m. Sept. 5 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Jean Stolpestad, director of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Office of Marriage, Family, and Life, who discusses how parishes are preparing for the next step in the Synod process — parish consultation through small groups, and Mary Stolz, a registered nurse from Lakes Life Care Center in Forest Lake, who describes help for women and couples facing a crisis pregnancy.
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at:
soundcloud.com/PracticingCatholic
tinyurl.com/PracticingCatholic (Spotify)
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