For this project I was asked to create a poster to showcase the Mencken Std font. The basic elements that the poster includes are; styles available in the typeface family, the foundry, its designer, any relevant history, including important dates, complete alphabet (upper and lower case),numbers 0-9, and any colors of our choice. 

HISTORY & ORIGIN: 

The Mencken was designed/created in 2005 by Jean Françios Porchez, who is the founder of Typofoundrie. Mencken has sixty-three styles, divided into three widths, three optical sizes, romans, italics, borders and dingbats. Mencken is unique because it is designed according to different axis and optical sizes.

Mencken Std is a bespoke typeface for American newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, started at the end of 2004 which marks the beginning of this project. At the time of its implementation, a survey of the newspaper’s readers had revealed that its previous typeface, drawn in the mid-1990s, was unsatisfactory. 

The Mencken was well received, some reader responses were particularly enjoyable: “It’s easier to read with the new type even though the type is designed by a French.” The name Mencken is also a tribute to H. L. Mencken’s journalistic contributions to The Baltimore Sun newspaper.

Throughout my design process of sketching/thumbnails, digital sketches, first-drafts, revisions, etc. I wanted to make sure that I was keeping the name Mencken as my focal point because that is what the poster is all about. I also tried to keep the spirit of its origins throughout my piece by trying to have some similarities between newspapers and what the font is generally used and suited for, such as paragraph, display and data. I pursued a more traditional approach to design in respect to the font. 

Altogether I was able to achieve a cohesive piece that draws you in more and more as you get closer to the poster. First, you can see the name, then you can see what styles it comes in, the designer, foundry, and finally the fine print explaining a bit more about the font's history and birth. To add texture in my poster I used the different styles of the Mencken font within each text element and also my body text, for example using the italic style for the designer, foundry and design date, and the extrabold style for the name Mencken

I have great use of alignment, making sure that everything works together, nothing thrown on the page. For example, even though the alphabet and numbers run off the page and continuing on the other side, the two lines of text still align with the M and the N in Mencken. This alignment also paves the way for visual hierarchy, moving the viewers eyes across the page.

In the poster I wanted to use accents such as the yellow boxes to help anchor the piece to the page, helping each piece of text feel in place yet fluid. The colors are a more pastel palette because I wanted to the font to stand out more than anything else, creating a warm yet professional feeling. The different colors of blue/gray, yellow, gray, and white also elevate hierarchy throughout the whole poster. 

The poster mock up that I used to present my poster was created by RawPixel and can bee found on the Freepik website: <a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/background">Background psd created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com</a>