Twenty-two years ago, Stencil1 was just me, a hobby, and a stack of stencils I was selling from my home in Brooklyn.
The hobby started in the ’90s, when I was running a little gallery in Williamsburg and surrounded by street art every day. I was working as a graphic designer for ad agencies and TV networks, and on the side I couldn’t stop making stencils. In 2004 I put the first ones up for sale on Stencil1.com — and stuffed the orders into envelopes myself.
Then CoolHunting and the New York Times noticed, I wound up on Martha Stewart’s show, and the stores started calling. A book (Stencil 101), a long partnership with Benjamin Moore, hundreds of designs later — it’s still a small business, still based in Brooklyn, and every Stencil1 stencil is still made in the USA, the way it has been since day one.
I started Stencil1 because I wanted the freedom to do my own thing. Twenty-two years later, the best part is watching what you make with them — the jackets, the walls, the gifts, the kids’ rooms. You’re the reason a hobby got to become a life’s work.
Thank you for 22 years. Here’s to making more.
— Ed
