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A new stenciling app aims to make life easier for architects and designers

"A Stencil Revolution"

A new stenciling app aims to make life easier for architects and designers

Using a stencil, either for a plan or section, is nothing new for architects. Whether it’s marking the outline of a 1:20 scale person, bed, kitchen unit, or tree, stencils have been making life easier for designers for ages. Today’s architects are well aware of the wealth of digital stencils available online, however, app developer Morpholio now claims to haven taken this one step further.

In what they claim to be a “stencil revolution,” Morpholio has unveiled a customizable stencil tool that can be used in conjunction with Trace App (also by Morpholio). Essentially, “Stencil” allows users to quickly turn images into stencils. The patent pending tool also provides the option of turning this into a customizable template, with the stencils themselves being scalable.

“Creating stencils sits perfectly between the architect’s sketch and the quick photo,” said Mark Collins, a co-creator of the tool speaking in a press release. “You’re trying to capture something—a texture, pattern, or detail that you want to use. Sketching is great but slow. Taking a photo buries it in the photo album. Generating a stencil automatically creates an incredible tool that you can utilize in various ways. The stencil is the quickest path to [distilling] an image into an actionable idea.”

The app asks users to set the contrast, inversion, and any transformations when going through the stencil creation process. When used with Trace App, stencils can be colored and have textures applied through brush types such as pencil, charcoal, marker, and brush. This can be done by setting the stencil and sketching over it with any brush or color. In addition, stencils can be used to form patterns and art, all of which can be applied “at any scale.”

While custom stencils can be shared through social media and cloud services, Morpholio’s app comes with a selection of pre-made illustrations and symbols that have been “artfully created for architecture, interiors, industrial and graphic design.”

“Here we witness, through art, the power of stencils delivering rigorous detail with extreme efficiency; an almost perfect optimization of craft, process, and drama,” said Toru Hasegawa, Morpholio co-creator. Meanwhile, Anna Kenoff, another co-creator said: “Allowing designers to draw and work in a fast and uninhibited space is the path to discovery. We want to bring these opportunities into the digital realm, combining analog process with new media that stays at your fingertips and keeps the creative process flowing.”

To download Morpholio’s apps, visit their website.

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