Alessandro Segalini

In drawing/designing letterforms stenciling is a kind of in-between technique. On one hand it is much more precise than writing, because written forms are always different from each other. Stenciling avoids that, in principle every shape stenciled from the same stencil is the same. This can be done in Illustrator as well, copy and paste. The good thing about stenciling is however that the students have to use their own hands and are confronted with their skills concerning precision in cutting and positioning and drawing letter-elements. Using pens, pencils, markers, cutters instead of a keyboard, a mouse and a screen, results often in a total other mood and attitude towards basic exercises. So stenciling has a high degree of precision yet it remains very human, you have to do it with your own hands. The latin alphabet is very suitable for stenciling because a lot shapes repeat themselves, the curve from the ’n’ can be used for the ‘h’ and ‘m’ and ‘u’ for example. Often the students have more respect of a few words stenciled by themselves in comparison with a laser-printed page. The interaction with the material and the results is often a far more positive one.