Why Stencil Typography Is Here To Stay

(from fastcodedesign.com; photo by Louise Fili)

DESIGNERS LOUISE FILI AND STEVEN HELLER COMPILE 60 YEARS OF STENCIL TYPE FROM 8 COUNTRIES AND REVEAL WHY THE PRIMITIVE STYLE STILL REIGNS.

The stencil is one of the world’s most primitive printing techniques. It dates back to prehistory, with stencils found in caves, in the art of ancient China and Japan, and in the crafts of indigenous people worldwide. Stencil typefaces are still popular today, whether in the form of new, witty takes on the genre, like Der Weiner Stentzel’s sausage shapes for letterforms, or vintage typefaces redrawn as stencils, like Bodoni or Century.

Stencil Type, a new book by design gurus Steven Heller and Louise Fili, compiles 60 years of this universal typographic style with photos from around the world. It reveals why the stencil has been and remains such a valuable tool for designers and typographers even in the age of digital printing.

Compared to other forms of typesetting, stenciling has always been a low-cost, easy-to-use medium for bold, clearly legible mass communication. This made it ubiquitous in the military and transportation industry (think of the stenciled labels on shipping containers and burlap bags); in populist and rebellious movements (in occupied France, the stenciled letter "V" for victoire became a powerful symbol of resistance; much of the Occupy movement’s poster art is stenciled); and in magazine and poster design, especially in the Bauhaus, Futurist, Constructivist, and Art Deco movements.

"SYNERGY"

duo show : JEF AEROSOL & LEE JEFFRIES

opening / vernissage : 6 mars 2015 - 18.00 > 21.00 (entrée libre)

Galerie Mathgoth, 34 rue Hélène Brion 75013 PARIS

From March 6th to April 4th 2015, Matgoth gallery is welcoming stencil artist Jef Aérosol and photographer Lee Jeffries. The two talented artists have joined hands to produce the duo show : SYNERGY.

Since the very first time Jef Aérosol stumbled across Lee Jeffries' works, he's been fascinated by the portraits of homeless people that the British photographer magnifies and brings into the light.
Jef immediately saw that they could lend themselves to a stencil rendition and he could revisit in his own style those wearied faces, pregnant with meaning. In early 2014, he got in touch with Lee and they met up a few weeks later in London. They got on well with each other at once and decided on the spot about a duo show.

Opening: Saturday, March 7 / 8-11 PM

Exhibition Dates: March 7 – April 11

SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS is pleased to present Paper Cut, a group exhibition featuring artwork by six artists who cut into, tear into, and deconstruct the humble, traditional medium of paper to explore the terrain of their subject matter.

The exhibiting artists are: Adam Feibelman (San Francisco, Calif.), Aurel Rubbish (Paris, France), Bovey Lee (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Gregory Euclide (Minnesota River Valley, Minn.), Nicola Lopez (New York, N.Y.), and Swoon (Brooklyn, N.Y.). Each hails from a different city, drawing inspiration from distinctly different places and translating their ethos in dramatically unique and signature ways.

PERSONS OF INTEREST Opens Project M/7 for Urban Nation (UN) in Berlin with 12 Brooklyn Artists on March 14, 2015, curated by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo.

Bülowstrasse 7/ 97, 10783 Berlin, Germany

March 14 – June 15, 2015

Featuring new custom artworks by:

CAKE : CHRIS STAIN : DAIN : DON RIMX : EL SOL 25 : ESTEBAN DEL VALLE : GAIA : ICY & SOT : NOHJCOLEY : SPECTER : SWOON

Urban Nation (UN) and Brooklyn Street Art (BSA) bring Brooklyn to Berlin with PERSONS OF INTEREST, a stunning portraiture show for Project M/7. New original artworks by a diverse collection of 12 important Brooklyn Street Artists will appear on the façade and in the windows of the future Urban Nation ‘Haus’. BSA and UN invite guests to a reception and a show with new works directly on the walls at the UN Pop Up Space.

The show will open at 7-22 pm (in Bülowstrasse 97) with a reception where guests will have the opportunity to meet the curators and artists in person.

Cut It Out

Exhibition period: January 31st until February 27th, 2015.

URBAN NATION
Production Office
Bülowstraße 97
10738 Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany

Opening Hours
Monday-Friday 10.00 -18.00

An international group show dedicated to the art of the stencil.
Curated by Olly Walker and Henrik Haven.

With this exhibition we are not only showcasing the work of some of the best artists and exciting new emerging artists that choose to work with this technique, but also the tools of the trade, a bit of history, live action on walls, streets and cars to offer a glimpse insight the world of stencil art.

For Online sales and artist information please visit: www.cut-it-out-stencil.eu

For further Information please contact
Olly Walker at e-mail: olly@ollystudio.co.uk
and Henrik Haven at e-mail: henrik.haven@outlook.com

Shadows will not stop spring from coming! For now, have a few photos of stencil art with the changing climate.

Thanks to all the folks who continue to support and submit to the Stencil Archive!

<< Cow stencil/photo: Jimi Nepper (PA)

>NEW< Jimi Nepper (PA)

>NEW< Dede (IL)

>NEW< i <3 street art (Vancouver)

John Koleszar (AZ)

Eclair (SF, CA)

Scott Williams (SF, CA)

Jeremy Novy (sometimes SF, CA)

Jef Aerosol (FR)

NYC (just one)

The Mission District

Valencia Street (just one)

Lyft drops some ads

Stop Littering!

Haight St. (just one)

Democracia Real Ya!
Thu 5 February - Sat 28 February
FREE / Mezzanine Gallery 

35 - 47 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1 6LA

Richmix

Democracia real ya!’, meaning ‘real democracy now!’, is an exciting exhibition of street art by Rosario Martínez Llaguno and Roberto Vega Jiménez, members of the Mexican art collective Lapiztola Stencil, based in Oaxaca. This collective was formed following teachers’ strikes in Oaxaca in 2006 which were violently suppressed by the state. Street art became a form of political protest, highlighting the range of issues which Mexicans face, and providing hope and inspiration. The exhibition will celebrate the fight for social justice that the artists are involved with in Oaxaca and Mexico as a whole.

Haight Street Rat: By Banksy. On display in the window facing Montgomery Street. 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Jan. 21-July 11. 836m, 836 Montgomery St., S.F. Free. www.836m.org.

Banksy’s 'Haight Street Rat’ graffiti holes up in an S.F. gallery
By Rachel Howard (original)
Updated 1:59 pm, Monday, January 19, 2015

A graffiti work by the stealth artist Banksy is back in its original street habitat — sort of.

Through July 11, the image known as “Haight Street Rat,” spray-painted on the side of a bed-and-breakfast in 2010 when Banksy was in San Francisco for the release of his documentary, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” will be viewable to anyone who passes down the 800 block of Montgomery Street, though the 12-foot-tall work will be protected behind the glass facade of 836M, a nonprofit gallery near the Transamerica Pyramid.

The stenciled rat, which wears a Che Guevara-style cap and clutches a Magic Marker, no longer appears accompanied by the work’s original text, “THIS IS WHERE I DRAW THE LINE.” But “to me, this is as close as you can get to the intention that Banksy had, given the fact that the piece was salvaged and restored,” said Sebastien Lepinard, founder of the investment firm Next World Group and co-founder of 836M with his wife, Julie.

The Lepinards became interested in displaying the work after reading a Chronicle report on the efforts of Brian Greif, former general manager of the defunct KRON-TV, who in 2010 persuaded the owner of the vandalized Red Victorian Bed and Breakfast to let him remove 10 redwood siding planks on which the rat was painted. Greif took the painting to art-restoration specialists, who mounted the slats on corrugated aluminum. He raised $10,000 to offset costs through a Kickstarter campaign, promising never to sell the work, even though other Banksy creations have sold at auction for more than $1 million. Greif then tried to donate “Haight Street Rat” to various museums, but without a letter of authentication from the artist, the institutions said they would not accept the work.