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# Flex and Bend · Corrugated Letters
- URL: https://blog.garypercival.com/flex-and-bend-corrugated-letters/
- Published: 2026-08-16T15:00:51.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-16T15:00:51.000Z
- Description: A poster built from four bent lengths of red corrugated tubing. FLEX in the foreground. BEND repeating behind in dots.
- Author: Gary Percival
- Tags: #behindtheposter

## Why this week's poster

I wanted a material with rhythm already inside it. 

Corrugated tubing has that 〰 every rib repeats a beat.  
I bent single lengths into FLEX and set BEND behind it in a repeating dot pattern. 

Two words.  
Two treatments.  
One idea running through both.

## The Build

- **Objects.** Corrugated flexible tubing. Glossy red. Modelled once, duplicated, then posed per letter.
- **Letters.** FLEX laid out in a 2×2 grid from single continuous runs of tube. BEND behind, spelled in dot letterforms tiled across the full field.
- **Colour.** Deep red against warm taupe. The dot BEND dropped in tone so the tubing sits forward.
- **Lighting.** Broad soft key from above. Short shadows to keep the forms pressed to the page.
- **Texture.** Wet plastic gloss on the outer skin. Ribs catching the key in tight repeating bands.
- **Type.** Neutral sans set small into the negative space. The tubing carries the poster.

## What Worked

- The rib rhythm reads before the letter does.
- The 2×2 FLEX grid gives each character its own quiet room.
- BEND tiled in dots holds the whole field without competing with the foreground.

## What I'd Push Next Time

- Cleaner continuity at the join where the X crosses itself.
- A wider tonal spread across the dot BEND for more depth.
- One letter framed from a lower angle for variation in the set.

## Print Details

- Edition: open
- Size: A3

## Close

The tubing did most of the work.  
Bending it was the design.

![Two Flex and Bend posters overlapped, showing red corrugated tubing FLEX on taupe with BEND dot pattern behind](https://storage.ghost.io/c/92/bc/92bc4aa6-fb0d-48c9-88cc-6bb1e109d23d/content/images/2026/08/Ghost_Post_Images.jpg)