Inspired by our visit at the “Lo Siento” studio and their stencil branding concept, I want to dive deeper into the possibilities of analogue work with stencils.
When I think about stencil fonts, what first comes to my mind is either cheap graffiti or oldschool military / aviation sprayed on airplanes, runways or industrial machinery and maintenance toolboxes. Nothing too elegant, more heavy duty style. But can I challenge this perception and create something new?
During my research I quickly found new resources that opened my mind:
For me this experiment was less about the stencil typography itself, but more about the mixed media aspect of it. Which materials can be used to fill or paint the letters?
Here some brainstorming:
- Fingerprints
- Earth
- Sand
- Spraypaint
- Pen scribble
- Acrylic paint
It’s interesting to see how different the readability and elegance is within these 4 examples I picked.
The Experiment
I chose to print out a stencil font called “Social Gothic Stencil” on a sheet of A4 paper and to cut it out with a carpet knife to create my own stencil with the two words “Hidden Hands”.
For further experiments and a leaner production process I would like to use washable plastic and the lasercutter in the FabLab to skip the manual cutting.
Here is my outcome of this experiment:
Resources:
