Steven Heller and Louise Fili present a compilation of sixty years of stencil type and reveal why the primitive style still reigns.



Stencils are ubiquitous in the fields of industry, military, traffic and transportation, as well as in the home, often applied as ornamental patterns on cabinets, walls and floors. And because they are an affordable means of mass communication, stencils are even employed by populist, rebellious and street-art movements. This follow-up to the cult typography volumes Scripts and Shadow Type, perennial favourites among designers looking for fresh and unexpected ideas, presents hundreds of examples from the 19th through the 20th centuries, artfully selected by Steven Heller and Louise Fili, preceded by a historical introduction and arranged by country of origin.