TruMark's Trail Blazing Blog: Your Guide To Athletic Field Stencils

Are you ready to add some inspiration and paint your field with your team logo, name or mascot? We have created a guide on our website that will answer many frequently asked questions about field stencils. Here is a quick summary and you can read the full guide here.

The Basics

Let’s Talk End Zones

Mid Field Inspiration

Bring the inspiration with a midfield logo stencil for your football field. Most football midfield stencils are made to fit between the 45 yard lines (approx. 27’-30’ in width). We use either an 8 mil plastic in a “connect-the-dots” style cutout or a 10 mil “paint-by-number” style cutout for our football midfield stencils based on what will make your stencil easiest to paint and last the longest. You can use your school mascot or team logo or any other image to bring attention and make your field look unique. Check out any college football field stencil or professional football field stencil to get ideas!

Soccer Field Stencils

Bring the inspiration with a midfield logo stencil for your soccer field! A midfield soccer stencil would be located within the center circle which gives you up 57 feet to work with although most are around 30 feet. Custom logos can also be placed in the corners or down the touchlines. We use either an 8 mil plastic in a “connect-the-dots” style cutout or a 10 mil “paint-by-number” style cutout for our soccer midfield stencils based on what will make your stencil easiest to paint and last the longest. You can use your school mascot or team logo or any other image to bring attention and make your field look unique. Check out any college or professional soccer pitch stencil to get ideas!

Root, Root, Root for the Home Team!

Unique Uses for Custom Field Stencils

What’s the Custom Stencil Process Like?

· Send us your logo in a high resolution format; a vector file works best. Along with your logo it is helpful to know your deadline and where on your field you want the logo as well as the approximate size that you have in mind. If you aren't sure what size would look best or if you want us to quote multiple size options we can do that and make recommendations.

When converting a logo that is used for printing to a graphic that gets painted on a field sometimes we need to make moderate tweaks to the logo to make sure it 1) can be cut 2) can be painted and most importantly 3) can be seen by the fans! We will always tell you up front if any adjustments need to be made to your logo.

We will quote the size and cost of the stencil as well as provide the current lead time. Mockups are available at the customer request.

If you need graphic work done on your logo we can make small changes at no cost. Any complex graphic work can be done and is charged hourly at $50/hour.

Stencil production is scheduled on a first come, first serve basis. Lead times are approximately 2-3 weeks during the busy season of July through September.

Your stencil will ship with detailed instructions for painting. We are always available via phone, text or FaceTime to help with painting if you have questions right from the field.

What Are Field Stencils Made of and How Long Will it Last?

The sideline number stencils and hash mark stencils are manufactured from durable, rigid sheets of plastic which means they will last for many, many applications if not forever! The letter stencils and custom logo stencils are manufactured from either an 8 mil or 10 mil agricultural grade sheet plastic for durability, flexibility and easy storage by rolling or folding. Letter stencils and custom field stencils vary in how long they will last based on the complexity of the image and how the stencil is cut. We can give you an estimation for the life expectancy of your stencil during the quoting process.

How Much Paint is Needed for a Field Stencil?

A rule of thumb for painting field stencils is approximately 1 gallon of diluted bulk paint per 100 square feet of stencil. For example a Large Block Letter stencil, 10' x 16', will have approximately 100 square feet of painted area. When using aerosol paint we would recommend 4 cans of aerosol paint per letter. If this is the first application you may use more and subsequent painting operations will likely use less paint.

How to Paint Field Stencils

When using the custom stencil bring with you a colored picture of the logo. This allows the field painting staff to recognize how the stencil was manufactured relative to the logo features. Many custom stencils will have a border or series of borders. Some of these borders will be cut out using bracing for strength and designated by using a series half moon and rectangular cut outs.

Prior to taking the stencil to the field we recommend spreading out it to lay flat and remove creases. You want to minimize the amount of time that a custom stencil is spread out on the natural turf to reduce any heat stress to the turf. Use some method to square the stencil on the playing field, using the yard lines and hash marks and string. Once the field stencil has been laid out you must secure the stencil in place using sandbags or other weights - we do not recommend piercing the plastic with anything, such as landscape staples.

Have all your different colored paint and painting machine available before the stencil is laid out. Have a rinse pail of water available for mistake corrections and clean-out between paint colors. Use an aerosol field marking paint can or spray wand applicator connected a field marking paint sprayer to quickly outline the painted sections of the stencil so the stencil can be removed quickly from the turf.

To help a stencil stand out you can first paint a white background. Also you can free hand paint a different color border around the logo. This is especially effective for end zone letter stencils and is really easy to do!

For those stadiums with shorter bleachers we recommend placing the stencil on the home field side of center line of the field. More of the stencil will be visible due to the height of football field center relative to the sideline.