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# Cylinders · Another Poster
- URL: https://blog.garypercival.com/cylinders/
- Published: 2026-10-04T15:00:39.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-04T15:00:39.000Z
- Description: A poster built from nine soft pink tiles and a set of teal cylinders. Each cylinder presses in where a counter belongs. Read in rows, the tiles spell the word.
- Author: Gary Percival
- Tags: #behindtheposter

## Why this week's poster

I wanted one shape doing all the work.

The cylinder is the first primitive most people model.  
A circle, extruded.

Here it carves the letters instead of building them.

Nine tiles.  
Nine letters.  
C Y L I N D E R S.

The word names the shape used to make it.

## The build

- **Objects.** Teal cylinders, one diameter throughout. Some lie flat, some stand upright. Several push past the tile edges.
- **Letters.** One tile per letter. Each cylinder sits where a gap or counter belongs. The pink around it holds the letterform.
- **Colour.** Soft pink tiles. Deep teal cylinders. Charcoal ground. Coral for the type.
- **Lighting.** Light from above. Deep pink shadows fall offset from each cylinder and lift it off the tile.
- **Texture.** Fine grain across every surface. Tile edges bulge where a cylinder presses in. A thin black keyline traces every form.
- **Type.** ABC Areal in coral. Series name top left. Title set vertical, bottom left. Date on the right. URL bottom right.

## What worked

- The 3×3 grid gives every letter the same frame. The word reads left to right, row by row.
- Teal on pink holds its contrast at thumbnail size.
- The keyline keeps each edge crisp against the soft shading.
- Cylinders breaking the tile edges put movement into a rigid grid.

## What I'd push next time

- The C reads slowest. One horizontal cylinder leaves the form open to guesswork.
- An impression-only version: remove the cylinders and keep the dents.
- A motion test: drop the cylinders in one at a time and let the word form.

## Print details

- Edition: open
- Sizes: A3, A2

## Close

One shape.  
Nine tiles.  
One word.

The cylinders did the carving.  
The pink kept the letters.

![Two overlapping Another Poster prints with pink blocks, teal cylinders and coral text on a dark grey grid](https://storage.ghost.io/c/92/bc/92bc4aa6-fb0d-48c9-88cc-6bb1e109d23d/content/images/2026/10/Ghost_Post_Images.jpg)