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# Vicious Circles · Repeat Until It Cuts
- URL: https://blog.garypercival.com/vicious-circles-repeat-until-it-cuts/
- Published: 2026-07-19T15:00:53.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-19T15:00:53.000Z
- Description: A word set twice. Same shapes. Different colour. Red spiked discs cut through the rhythm.
- Author: Gary Percival
- Tags: #behindtheposter

## Why this week's poster

The phrase came first. Vicious circles. A loop that hurts to stay inside.

I wanted the type to enact it. 

Same word, twice.  
Same shapes, different colour.  
Red discs breaking through where the pattern begins to fail.

## The Build

- **Objects.** Spiked paper discs. Modelled as segmented fans, each blade cut from a single sheet then rotated around a centre point. Three interruptions across the composition.
- **Letters.** Heavy geometric forms. Wide apertures, generous counters, deliberately simple so the discs read cleanly against them.
- **Colour.** Cobalt blue over yellow, both on flat black. Red for the discs 〰 the only warm note, kept saturated so it cuts.
- **Lighting.** Flat soft key. Minimal falloff. The discs carry a slight raised shadow to lift them off the type.
- **Texture.** Fine corrugation running horizontally through the letterforms. The discs stay smooth 〰 sharp against the ridged type.
- **Type.** Custom drawn. No tracking work needed 〰 the letters butt against each other and hold the grid.

## What worked

- The repetition sells the concept without a caption.
- Red against blue and yellow gives two different tensions from the same disc.
- The corrugation on the type reads as effort. The discs read as interruption.

## What I'd push next time

- A third repeat in a muted tone to see where repetition stops adding tension and starts becoming wallpaper.
- Smaller disc variants scattered at the edges.
- A version where the discs sit behind the type instead of over it.

## Print Details

- Edition: open weekly release
- Sizes: A3

## Close

The word repeats because the form repeats.  
Break the pattern once and the whole composition changes.

![  Two Vicious Circles posters stacked, blue and yellow letterforms with red spiked paper discs on black. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/92/bc/92bc4aa6-fb0d-48c9-88cc-6bb1e109d23d/content/images/2026/07/Ghost_Post_Images-1.jpg)