Where it comes from
Stencil lettering did not start as a graffiti style. It arrived from industrial and military marking, where a cut card and a can of paint was the cheapest way to put a code on a crate. When it moved onto walls it brought that utility with it, and it kept the one feature no other graffiti family has: the letter is designed as a hole.
The most famous stencil work in the world is not lettering at all — it is imagery. But the letters came first, and stencil alphabets remain the standard for anyone who needs the same design reproduced identically in many places, which is precisely what a stencil is for.
How it is built
Draw the letter solidly first
Start with the filled letter, the way you would in any other style. The stencil design is a subtraction from that shape, not a separate drawing.
Find the islands
Any part of the letter completely surrounded by cut-away space will fall out of the card. The hole in an O, the two holes in a B, the triangle in an A — these are islands, and each one needs a bridge.
Cut bridges to hold the islands
A bridge is a thin strip of uncut card connecting the island to the rest of the letter. Every island needs at least one. Place bridges where they will be read as part of the letterform rather than as damage.
Keep bridges consistent and inboard
Bridges the same width as the outline stroke read as a design decision; bridges of different widths read as an accident. Keep them on the inside of the letter where possible, so the outer silhouette stays clean.
Terms you will meet
- Island
- A part of the letter that is not connected to the rest of the card. The counter of an O is an island.
- Bridge
- The strip of card left uncut to hold an island in place. Also called a tie or a bar.
- Counter
- The enclosed space inside a letter. In stencil design, the counter is what must become an island.
- Card
- The cut sheet itself — paper, plastic or mylar. The word describes the tool rather than the artwork.
- Cut
- The removed area. In a one-colour stencil, the cut is where the paint lands.
Where it goes wrong
- Forgetting an island — A letter with an unbridged island will not survive its first use. Count the enclosed spaces in your word before you cut anything.
- Bridges that are too narrow — A bridge thinner than the outline stroke will tear, and it will look like a mistake even before it does.
- Bridges that are too wide — A heavy bridge turns an O into a C. Keep them just thick enough to hold.
- Using stencil construction in a style that does not need it — A stencil letter without islands or bridges is just a block letter. The gaps are the signature of the family, not a limitation to be designed away.
Try it in the generator
Three of the fifteen styles in the studio belong to this family. Each is a different skeleton of the alphabet, so the same word resolves differently in each one.