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# Cut Through ·· Pushed Out
- URL: https://blog.garypercival.com/cut-through-pushed-out/
- Published: 2025-12-21T16:00:36.000Z
- Updated: 2025-12-21T16:00:35.000Z
- Description: A typographic poster built around subtraction and pressure. Forms carved away. Shapes displaced. Meaning revealed by what’s removed.
- Author: Gary Percival
- Tags: #behindtheposter

## Why this week’s poster

This one started with resistance.

I wasn’t interested in adding more.  
I wanted to see what happened when I took material away.

Cutting creates clarity.  
Pressure creates movement.

The phrase followed naturally:

**Cut through ·· pushed out**

It describes the form.  
It also describes the feeling of progress when friction does the shaping.

## The build

- **Structure.** A solid base shape treated as a single mass. Nothing decorative added.
- **Subtraction.** Circular and curved cuts carved directly through the form. No soft edges.
- **Displacement.** Elements feel pushed from behind rather than placed on top.
- **Typography.** Large, blunt type set beneath the surface. Revealed only where material gives way.
- **Colour.** High-contrast pairings to separate surface from depth. The text needed to feel physical, not graphic.
- **Finish.** Hard lighting to emphasise edges and depth shifts. Shadows do the explaining.

## What worked

- The cuts read immediately. No explanation needed.
- The layered depth holds at distance and close up.
- The typography feels discovered, not applied.

## What I’d push next time

- More variation in cut depth across the surface.
- A second pass on edge wear where pressure feels highest.
- A motion test where the text emerges gradually through the form.

## Print details

- **Edition:** Open weekly release
- **Sizes:** A3

## Close

Sometimes progress doesn’t come from adding effort.  
It comes from pressure applied in the right place.

This poster records that moment.

![Two typographic posters with carved surfaces and circular cut-outs, revealing bold text beneath in contrasting yellow and orange.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/92/bc/92bc4aa6-fb0d-48c9-88cc-6bb1e109d23d/content/images/2025/12/Ghost_Post_Images_01-1.jpg)