Lawn Signs

Banner signs on church lawns tend to be tacky, but St. Paul’s often does as good a job with such advertising as anyone. As we enter a new program year, St. Paul’s has two banners on the lawn facing Washington Road, each an attractive, two-sided pitch for Episcopal worship services.(Click on any of the pictures in this post for a larger view.)

The sign nearer the corner of Washington Road and Mayfair Drive employs the now-familiar “Joyful Morning” motif. It is a pleasing design with legible copy. One has a fair chance of reading all or part of it while driving by.

New this year is a sign for Refuge. It is smaller than the other banner, and, because of the font used, is somewhat more difficult to read. It is nicely designed, but its placement is more problematic, being more nearly parallel to Washington Road. Also, as can be seen in the picture at left, the two green steel poles holding up the banner are not quite parallel, giving the installation an amateurish quality.

As I said, however, the design on the banner is quite nice. It is virtually the same as the advertisement St. Paul’s placed in the September issue of Mt. Lebanon Magazine. (Back issues of the magazine are posted on-line, but the September issue is not on the Web as I am writing this. When available, the issue can be found here.) The design actually works better as a print advertisement, but we can hope that the sign on the lawn also gets some attention from passersby.

It is good to see St. Paul’s getting more imaginative in its publicity. The magazine ad is well placed, well executed, and well timed. Attracting worshipers is no easy task, however, and it remains to be seen how much the new advertising will help.

Update, 6:30 PM: I drove by St. Paul’s a little while ago and was gratified to see that the Refuge sign had been repositioned. It is now perpendicular to the roadway, so it can be seen easily by travelers moving in either direction. The stakes holding the banner are still not parallel.

Update, 9/4/2010: I visited downtown Mt. Lebanon last night for First Friday. Kris had has table on Washington Road promoting the new Refuge service. A Refuge banner was behind him. I assumed it was yet another banner, but the banner had apparently been removed from the St. Paul’s lawn. As of Saturday afternoon, it has not been returned to the lawn. Meanwhile, the other banner has apparently suffered wind damage and is largely disconnected from its supports.