# A stencilled unit motto — and why you can't invent one > Stencil lettering reading 4 FIELD SQN and WE DIG FIRST is a case study in earned insignia — and the one design here you cannot borrow, only wear if it is actually yours. August 19, 2026 · https://justog.club/stories/regimental-motto-shirt `4 FIELD SQN` across the chest, large. `WE DIG FIRST` underneath, smaller. Both stencilled, not set — the paint sits heavy at a couple of edges and one bridge in the G has filled in, the way a real stencil does when the brush goes on too fast. This is the one design in this collection you cannot make up a version of and wear it as if it were earned. ## Why does it look like a stencil rather than a badge? Because that is what unit markings actually are. A stencil is a marking applied to kit by whoever happened to have the stencil and five minutes — onto a crate, a helmet, a vehicle door, sometimes a shirt. It is not a designed identity commissioned from an artist. It is utilitarian, it is a little rough, and the roughness is the whole visual argument: this was put there by the unit itself, in the field, not printed by a marketing department. A clean, symmetrical version of the same words would look like merchandise. The uneven one looks like kit. ## Why is the motto funnier than a Latin phrase would be? Because it says exactly what the unit does, in the unit's own words. `WE DIG FIRST` is a field engineer's motto — flat, literal, slightly proud of a job nobody thanks you for. A dead-language phrase would claim a lineage this squadron doesn't have. A plain sentence about the actual work is funnier, truer, and belongs to an invented unit far more comfortably than a borrowed Latin line ever would. ## Why can't I use my regiment's actual motto and badge? You can — if it's actually yours. Every other tradition in this set can be adapted, invented, or borrowed freely, because a family crest or a civic emblem is decoration once it's not claiming to be a specific living authority. A unit's motto and insignia are different in kind. They are earned through service, they are attached to a specific record of who did what and when, and putting one on your own chest when you have no claim to it is not a legal technicality — it is a specific social offence, and it is recognised instantly by the people who actually served. It reads to them the way a stolen medal reads. Some countries also make it a criminal offence to wear insignia or claim a rank you don't hold, which is a real legal exposure on top of the social one, but the social read comes first and it comes immediately. ### The honest version None of this rules out the honest version. A veteran's own unit is theirs — their squadron, their motto, their badge, worn by the person who was actually in it. That is not a grey area and it is not something anybody needs permission to do. What doesn't transfer is wearing somebody else's service as decoration, which is [the other case in this material where the answer is a hard no rather than a licence](/stories/hazard-signage-horror). ## Does the format work for a unit that never existed? Yes, and that's the version this design is. `4 FIELD SQN` is not a real formation. Inventing a plausible unit designation, a role, and a motto that fits the role is exactly the same design exercise as any other trade or civic identity here — crossed tools for a guild, a wheatsheaf for a family. The stencil register, the slightly heavy paint, the imperfect letterform: all of that transfers cleanly to a unit that only exists on this shirt. ## Does the wear help or hurt it? It's most of the point. A crisp stencil looks freshly applied and slightly fake, because real stencilling on real kit picks up drips, skips, and edges that bleed under the mask. Ageing it — a filled bridge in a letter, paint heavier on one stroke than the next — is what separates a stencilled design from a printed one wearing a stencil font. Overdo it and it reads as distressed for effect, which is its own kind of fake; the aim is one or two believable flaws, not a pattern of them. ## Does it print well? Yes, but the roughness has to survive the print, not just the artwork. Stencil lettering is naturally suited to screen printing — it was invented to work with a single flat colour through a mask, which is the same physical constraint a printed garment has. Keep it to one ink and let the edge irregularities do the work; a second colour on top tends to smooth over exactly the imperfections that make it read as applied by hand. Olive drab, sand and faded black all carry a stencil convincingly; a bright ground fights the utilitarian read the whole design depends on. ## How do I get one made? Describe the unit at [JustOG](/) — the designation, the motto, and how worn the stencil should look. Pick a direction, drag the crop frame, see it composited on the real garment, and it's made to order and shipped. Designs other people have published are in the [shop](/shop). A filled bridge in one letter. Paint heavy at the edge of the next one over.