Greetings from Denmark

[Mudflats]

Hey Y'all,

Hope you are all doing well, these uncertain times taken into consideration.

I have been lurking in these forums for quite some time and I believe the time has finally come to introduce myself.

My name is Kasper aka Mudflats, and I roam the sandy shores of Denmark. I have been into keyboards for a few years and I actually have quite a story to tell. Lets start from the beginning shall we.

I have a background working within the fashion industry, but gaming and computers in general has always been a huge part of my life. A few years ago my life was at a crossroad, I was in and out of substance abuse and I was struggling to find my way through. However things took a turn for the better as I met my soon-to-be wife, who helped me through the tough times.

I started to regain confidence in myself and decided to go back to studying. After studying hard for two years I now had a degree within the field of engineering. But, as I landed my first job afterwards, I quickly realized that I might have made the wrong decision. That was when I decided on trying my luck at selfemployment.

My mind kept racing with lots of ideas. I figured I wanted to try to combine my love for designing and gaming. I decided on a webshop in Denmark, focusing on streamers and streaming graphics. To my surprise I was actually quite skilled at making my customers visions come to life and quickly started to make a name for myself in the local streaming community. However, trying to keep up with the increased demand for graphics and animations I neglected my webshop. Keep in mind, it was a small-time webshop, selling webcams, greenscreens, headsets and keyboards. And this is where things get interesting. I stumbled across Varmilo keyboards, and I was completely sold on the variety and personality tucked in these keyboards. They appealed to me and I was quick to find a scandinavian distributor whom I could buy them from.

Fast forwarding I had some issues with the distributor and decided to reach out to Varmilo myself. As faith would have it, some representatives from the company was in Copenhagen at the time. We arranged a meeting on short notice and the day after I was taking the 300 km drive to Copenhagen to meet with them. We talked back and forth and I told them a bit about what I do. One thing lead to another and we discussed the possibilities of me designing a keyboard for them. I couldn't believe my luck as I was sitting in the car driving back home. However, I also knew that there wasnt any sorts of guarantees that this would plan out. As soon as I got home I started sketching and brainstorming ideas about how to proceed with this one of a kind opportunity. Initially I designed 3 different keyboards for them and they would pick the one they liked the most and we would continue working on that specific design. Fast forwarding yet again. About a year later it actually happened. I had designed a keyboard that was now a part of Varmilos productrange.

You might have seen it, or you might not. The keyboard I designed for them is called Varmilo Summit and was released worldwide back in June 2020. Thanks to the team at Varmilo I was not only blessed with a unique opportunity, but to me, a life changing opportunity.

So, now you know how my interest in keyboards began.

I am genuinely looking forward to participate in various discussions and topics on this forum and see all your amazing talents regarding mech keyboards.

Best regards,
Kasper/Mudflats

[econeuler]

Hi Kasper,
Welcome to the forum! Quite an interesting story, and super cool that you got to design a keyboard!
How was that process, and what parts did you design? As a climber I must say I think the theme is awesome 

[Lucy Lumi]

Hallo Kasper!
What an inspiring story on so many levels Tak for sharing your honesty and journey ❤
First of all, so much love for Danmark! That country will always be a 'home' to me. I studied there in 2017/2018 as an exchange student during my design degree, which opened my eyes to the world of game design
I then got very interested in 3D modelling, and fast forward, I'd love to 3D model some artisan keycaps one day hehe.

I actually also got into mechanical keyboards through Varmilo! My first board Varmilo tkl sea melody with ec sakura switches
Really admire your courage and initiative to reach out to Varmilo, that is a very cool design project you endeavoured with them! congrats ^^ and I also wish you the best with all you endeavour in future

Med venlig hilsen,
Lucy Lumi/Happy Forge

[Mudflats]

Hi Kasper,
Welcome to the forum! Quite an interesting story, and super cool that you got to design a keyboard!
How was that process, and what parts did you design? As a climber I must say I think the theme is awesome 

Thanks man, and thank you for your kind words

We did all of the visuals on the keyboard. That applies to choice of colors, layout, novelties, backlight and so on. We had to work within some boundaries regarding materials for caps, casing and certain color codes. So we basically did 3 different design and presented them to them. It was a full presentation that showcased our thoughts and and ideas behind the different designs, mood boards, renders and so on. One of the main focuspoints from Varmilo was, that it had to be a design that somehow represented the scandinavian culture. As for the 3 designs we did the Summit, which is inspired by the scandinavian nature and fauna. Aurora which was based on the nightsky of northern Europe and Viken, which was based on, you guessed it, vikings

After the presentation they had an internal round of voting at Varmilo and they decided on the Summit. Now that, that was decided we got back to the design and did some adjustments and changes. I think it took about 6 months up until we received a prototype for approval. Then this thing called Corona happened and we had to postpone the launch which was scheduled to be around march 2020. A few months went by and by the month of june 2020 it was finally sent out to their distributors.

I hope this answers some of your questions, if you have any other, feel free to let me know

[Mudflats]

Hallo Kasper!
What an inspiring story on so many levels Tak for sharing your honesty and journey ❤
First of all, so much love for Danmark! That country will always be a 'home' to me. I studied there in 2017/2018 as an exchange student during my design degree, which opened my eyes to the world of game design
I then got very interested in 3D modelling, and fast forward, I'd love to 3D model some artisan keycaps one day hehe.

I actually also got into mechanical keyboards through Varmilo! My first board Varmilo tkl sea melody with ec sakura switches
Really admire your courage and initiative to reach out to Varmilo, that is a very cool design project you endeavoured with them! congrats ^^ and I also wish you the best with all you endeavour in future

Med venlig hilsen,
Lucy Lumi/Happy Forge

Hi Lucy,

Thank you for taking your time to read and reply to my post

Awesome that you have been in Denmark! Where did you study?

Really cool that you are into 3D design, I always wanted to learn more about this subject. Hopefully I will have some time to spare in the not so distant future. However at the moment I am stuck with my two wonderful boys, age 4 and 1. In other words, I got my hands full, haha.

A while back I was actually looking into having my own artisans produced for a webshop we just launched, but we couldnt make ends meet and we had to recalculate our budget backing the project. If you ever venture further into your artisan project, feel free to holla at me, maybe we could work something out

Once again, really appreciate your feedback and kind words!

[econeuler]

Hi Kasper,
Welcome to the forum! Quite an interesting story, and super cool that you got to design a keyboard!
How was that process, and what parts did you design? As a climber I must say I think the theme is awesome 

Thanks man, and thank you for your kind words

We did all of the visuals on the keyboard. That applies to choice of colors, layout, novelties, backlight and so on. We had to work within some boundaries regarding materials for caps, casing and certain color codes. So we basically did 3 different design and presented them to them. It was a full presentation that showcased our thoughts and and ideas behind the different designs, mood boards, renders and so on. One of the main focuspoints from Varmilo was, that it had to be a design that somehow represented the scandinavian culture. As for the 3 designs we did the Summit, which is inspired by the scandinavian nature and fauna. Aurora which was based on the nightsky of northern Europe and Viken, which was based on, you guessed it, vikings

After the presentation they had an internal round of voting at Varmilo and they decided on the Summit. Now that, that was decided we got back to the design and did some adjustments and changes. I think it took about 6 months up until we received a prototype for approval. Then this thing called Corona happened and we had to postpone the launch which was scheduled to be around march 2020. A few months went by and by the month of june 2020 it was finally sent out to their distributors.

I hope this answers some of your questions, if you have any other, feel free to let me know

Very nice, now I like the theme even more Thanks for sharing!
I'm sure you will find some like minded designers and creators here on the forum!