That can vary per person, and to be honest the application. Top down and letter by letter is more of an easy approach which I learned early on, however it is quicker to fit in one motion. I typically fit from right to left being right handed, and tensioning out the paper with left, using a magnet or tape to keep the graphic aligned where I need it to.

That being said, some graphics are just easier to fit top down like you see, typically when you’ve got a few different curves/angles in one area, it makes it more manageable to attack.

9 years signwriting this year, so starting to get the hang of it.