Cylindre Club

Cylindre is a studio for design and graphic research, founded by Vincent Desclaux, and active on the axis Paris—Montreuil. In December 2022, it launched a spinoff dubbed Cylindre Club. On this playground, Cylindre designs and distributes graphic objects related to bikes and bicycling, as expressed by the slogan “wheely good stuff”. All of this is done with a focus on crafts and collaboration, for a “super-local and meaningful production”.

Just like routes are central to biking, space and time play an important role in Cylindre Club’s process, too. The club members love detours and getting lost in maps. This geographic aspect is found back in the presentation of the online store. For all products, the involved providers and partners – think printers, textile companies, and other craftspeople – are not only credited. They are listed with the distance it takes to travel by bike to the respective facility: while the sticker manufacturer is located in Nantes (350 km), the trusted Risograph print studio can be found in nearby Paris (7.2 km), and the embroidering service of choice is just around the corner in Montreuil (500 m), etc.

This way, Cylindre Club maps out their network and shares the acquired know-how for a graphic production that’s local and sustainable. The experience is progressive, and Cylindre Club points out they’re always on the lookout for new recommended addresses.

The club’s identity is based on two typefaces. Kreuz was designed by Emmanuel Besse of Large, Paris (7.0 km), and published by Production Type, situated a short sprint further to the west (8.4 km). Built around the visual metaphor of nuts and bolts, Kreuz is an obvious choice for a project concerned with crafts and bikes.

If Kreuz is the mechanic, its counterpart is the pacemaker. Superette, a script typeface distinguished by a drastic slant angle, adds velocity. Superette hails from a more distant source: conceived by Canadian type designer (and avid cyclist) Ross Milne, its initial inspiration draws from a peculiar style of semi-connected script lettering on the fruit and farm signs spotted in Île d’Orléans in southern Québec. Superette is available from Commercial Type, a foundry based in New York and London.

This typographic team of two features in the logo and the website. It’s also used to render the punny texts on the posters, shirts, buttons, and other items offered by the club.