Kinver Methodist Church

This is quite a special one for me, as it was this poster at this church, which I drove past regularly at one time, that made me decide to do this blog.  Unfortunately, by the time I had actually got round to starting it, the poster had been taken down and replaced with a practical, informative one, so I began to despair of ever being able to feature it.  However, one must learn not to allow oneself to be trapped in the Slough of Despond: ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find...

Imagine my delight on driving through Kinver the other week to discover that it was back.  So without further ado, the poster that kick-started the blog, in all its super-sized glory.  Not technically a pun, just another attempt to put the methods of Mammon into the service of God, but it is still both awe inspiring and of great historic importance.

Tettenhall Wood URC

Here's a Christmas classic: a simple, unfancy poster, with a natty rhyming slogan - I'm assuming they mean the festive season here, rather than Winter in general, which as we all know, is due rather to the tilt of the Earth's axis than to the Incarnation (and as it is due to the tilt in the Earth's axis, it is arguably just down to His Dad's handiwork, rather than His boy - I say arguably, I'm not opening up the whole trinity can of worms today...  We'll leave that one for later).

Nice display surrounding it, drawing attention to the simplicity of the message.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Tettenhall Wood URC

Wonderful shocking pink for the background here: a suitably garish shade for some absolutely first rate punning.  The sheer joyful quality of the punning message means that the use of only one colour for the font is forgiven - even the lack of a capital letter for 'fragile' in order to be consistent with the style of the rest of the writing, even the fact that 'with' looks like it was squeezed in as an afterthought, or because the printer had mis-judged the amount of space, even these minor foibles are forgiven.

A prime example of a Church Pun Poster that should have had crowds gathered round it applauding its beauty.  Love it.

Beckminster Methodist Church

This one ticks almost all the design boxes required for a classic church pun poster: italics, bold, two colours for the writing, different angles - all it lacks is underlining.

As for the content I am not convinced.  Surely apathy is better than active evil - after all, Luke 9:50, 'for he that is not against us, is for us'.  Mind you, Luke 11:23, 'He that is not with me is against me.'  So apathy is out, but indecisiveness is fine.

Also I'm pretty sure that God can use everything and turn it towards his masterplan, that being part of the whole omnipotence thing, so I don't think that apathy is beyond his capacities.

Generally good advice for life though, as it is better to try and fail than never to try at all, but I'm not convinced that God has such a blindspot in his powers - perhaps they meant His church rather than Him, in which case they are probably bang on.

St. Jude's, Wolverhampton

Another great quality poster from St. Jude's, as usual.  However, whereas normally the quality of the design and production are both far better than the content of their posters, this one is so jam packed full of punny goodness, with both verbal and visual playfulness, that it would still have worked if it had been drawn on the back of wallpaper offcuts with a packet of half chewed crayolas.  This my friends, is world class punning at the very highest level.

The only thing that lets it down slightly (and this is a minor caveat) is my regular point about not letting the audience work things out for themselves, feeling the need to ensure we work out that the answer is Jesus - rather at odds with the 'draw your own conclusions' message.  Anyway, surely in this case Jesus is a metaphorical pencil sharpener, rather than the pencil itself, which is rather a representation of life in general, or as I would personally interpret it, our stubby, broken-ended souls, awaiting sharpening.  I do like the choice of ecclesiastical purple though - good call.

Another little niggle - great poster, top punning... so why not lash out on a wee bit of lining paper for the frame and mount it more centrally.  As they do say, the Devil is in the details.

Beckminster Methodist Church

Stylistically, this one is a true classic of the genre, however I have to say I am a little disappointed by the content.

With its use of three different fonts, using two colours, italicisation and different angles for them, it packs in almost everything one wants from a church pun poster except, crucially, a pun.

The style nicely echoes the content, with its 'don't forget to sniff the daisies' type philosophy, but there is nothing to really make you think, nothing that provokes slightly more thought and nothing that really directs you to a specifically Christian answer.  I know I have criticised other posters for being too explicit and not giving the audience the credit of being able to work it out for themselves, but this one could have done with a little hint in the right direction, a little something to make you pause and think a little more about the poster... and that, my friends, is the role of the pun.

Also it is a shame the punctuation lets it down, assuming the half-hearted apostrophe was deliberate - if not it must have been added by a grammar vigilante who needs to brush up on the subject themselves...

St. Paul's, Milngavie

Saw this pair earlier in the year, when visiting Glasgow.  It has taken a while to get them put up on here, but they are well worth the wait.

What we have are a pair of posters, seemingly unconnected at first and (apart from the fact that they are colour printed) both very different in style.  The first deals with an artistic metaphor for a confused, messed up life, although whether some of the great abstract expressionists would agree that the picture in the background is actually a mess is a bit of a moot point, however as far as the poster goes, it doesn't know much about art, but it knows what it likes and it likes pictures that look like things.  So, it's a mess, but it is not too messed up for salvation, whatever anyone else might think...

 The second poster has a much simpler design, although a more complicated subject, featuring as it does one of Mr. Rubik's famous cubes.  This time there is a bit of a clash between the definitively 80s subject matter and the simple, clean-cut 1960s style of the poster itself.

Of course what I did when faced with the Rubik's cube (and I am old enough to remember them first time round) was buy a copy of the book of instructions and work it out from that, rather than get on the 'phone to Erno Rubik himself, as the poster suggests I should.  Although that also, I suppose, acts as a suitable metaphorical response to life that is equally applicable in this context.

So, two different posters, just combined together through chance or co-incidence, or a deliberate pairing.  At first they seem unconnected, until you realise that they form a diptych of dilemma - reflecting both inner and outer confusion, microcosm and macrocosm, both ultimately with the same solution.