- So this thread will no longer will be updated. Thank for all your feedback everyone!
Inspiration
<神奈川沖浪裏>
The Great Wave off Kanagawa (c 1829-1833), is a woodblock print by the ukiyo-e artist Hokusai and is one of the most reproduced and recognisable images of Japanese artwork. World-renowned, it has had a profound influence on Western art culture, but particularly the French Impressionists which in-turn shaped the great wave of European Modernism in the 20th Century. Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night also clearly shows significant inspiration from it, with him even writing vividly to his brother Theo: Hokusai’s "waves are claws, the boat is caught in them, you can feel it".
In fact, Hokusai's sophisticated uses of rich hues of blue to create this striking design, led to European artists to incorrectly deem the colour blue as idiosyncratically Japanese, and fuelled the "Japonism" craze at the time (the earliest weebs Japanophiles!). The blue in fact was actually European in origin, commonly known as Prussian Blue, and is the first modern synthetic pigment, spreading rapidly around the world, causing reciprocating ripples globally, from Paris to Japan.
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There's many details to love, such as the intense dramatic tension of the gigantic wave about to break on top of the viewer unfolding in the foreground, to the contrast between the saturated swells and the white crest of foam with its claw-like tendrils. Despite its restrictive palette, it successfully captures a moment in time, portraying the constantly changing movement of the ocean and its vast power. Men in boats appear insignificant amongst the chaos of nature, which even envelops Japan's largest and sacred symbol, Mount Fuji (a focus of Hokusai's spirituality). This referential icon, appears as a diminutive triangle in the distance, where it could be easily missed and mistaken for another ocean wave. This defied traditional Japanese compositions of perspective at the time, and Hokusai thus skillfully blends European structure, with Japanese motifs and techniques into a seamless work of enduring international appeal.
To us, the significant history behind this artwork and the pigment blue highlights the role of cultural exchange at the heart of creative discovery, and to continue to celebrate this spirit, we're using this seascape as inspiration for a keycap set design we think lots of people will also love too.
Design
Besides being a tribute to an ubiquitous artwork of significant cultural influence, we hope that our design is humbly evocative of the vast and infinite seas and sky. From a deep, muted navy hue that transitions to crispy ice-white, we wish to recall the endless beauty of crashing ocean waves, summer skies, and crystalline icebergs. Timeless, enduring, and elegant, blue is able to evoke many different emotions and scenes of nature.
This is currently planned to be offered in the KAT profile; PBT plastic and dye-subbed legends. Few other profiles offer the same kitting compatibility/flexibility. Note that kits outside of the core layouts of 60-100% ANSI are also still a work in progress, as are novelties, which will evidently have heavy Japanese motifs (i.e. Mt Fuji on enter key, Sakura flower etc.).
During development I noticed that there are many keycap set designs that are Japanese themed, and/or Blue, and/or a Gradient pattern. Well you can forget about the rest, cause this manages to cover all of those features in one go!
Triple Threat; true thematic coverage
Kits
Alphas
※ Berlin Blue [Latin]
※ Kanagawa (神奈川) [Katakana]
Modifiers
※ Swell [Text]
※ Depths [Icon]
ƒ-Row
※ Foam [Standard] ※ Fuji [Kanji]
Number Pad - 数パッド
※ Go (碁) [Arabic] ※ Abacus (算盤) [Kanji]
Other Kits
※Soon…
Novelties and kits such as Iso, Spacebar, 40s, Ortho, Ergo, Mac, JIS, etc. are still a work-in-progress
Colours
The pantone codes have been selected, but we are still in process of double-checking and will confirm and post them closer to IC
To Do
※ Further kits, novelties, desk-mats, renders, potential collabs and vendors will naturally develop as the project progresses
※ IC when we have a few more kits, draft novelties ready, and tweaked a few things based on initial feedback
※ Given the versatile theme of the colourway, and it likely being KAT MOQ, if there’s enough interest, we’re also considering secondary novelty kits that can change the theme to something else for those who want a break from the umami, such as nautical, sky, or ice-themed novelties. Note we intend to keep the core focus/primary novelties related to our main inspiration
Feedback Form
We’ve still got a few decisions to make (i.e. name of the set; hiragana sub-legends? blanks-only kit?) so please share your opinions and feedback below LINK:https://forms.gle/NyivQknZbMXt4qw66 Please let us know what you think below! We’re really excited to hear your thoughts!
Cheers!
BobaSweatandTears and Dudeship
Support※ Despite being untitled you can still support the project by adding this banner to your signature
[url=https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=108136.0][img width=161 height=120]https://i.imgur.com/XF28ZNY.gif[/img][/url]※ Discord DMs: BobaSweatandTears#4616 x dudeship#3753
In the mean-time, special thanks to:※ Hokusai - the OG
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※ u/Manch455 for his support during the initial conceptualisation of the set
※ Swishy from Keycapdesigner Discord (KAM 80s), and QQMBR (KAT Specimen) for answering so many newbie questions and pointing us in the right direction
※ The Keycapdesigner Discord and those who have contributed to the guides, and resources
※ Dazon for helping out with the technical side of the theme
※ JSaintS & OneCreativeMind for the icon mods
※ Kidviddy - for answering so many queries about Japanese characters and their meaning
※ Konstantin - in advance, as we’ll likely base our kits off his guidance on KAT Monochrome/Refined
※ Designers of other sets, that we admired afar from, in one way or another: i.e. SA Vilebloom, GMK Masterpiece, and GMK Sumi
※ Ulliam - for partial initial work on Novelties
Thanks for believing that our Magikarp can one day evolve
Source: The Great Wave off Kanto, by Missy Pena
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※ The term Manga was created by the artist Hokusai
※ Arising from the Edo period, the Great Wave art may be Hokusai’s most famous work, but he didn’t produce the piece until 70 years old, after creating more than 30,000 works of art.
※ The wave print was part of a 36-piece series known as Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.
※ Despite its popularity, the series was not considered great art by Japanese art historians of the time. They viewed uikyo-e as a form of commercial printing – not fine art, beneath consideration for artistic merit. But today, original woodblock prints are beloved by museums and galleries around the world
※ Hokusai was influenced by Dutch artist's techniques of vanishing point perspective, evidenced by the illusion of depth, and a low horizon line; abandoning traditional Japanese isometric view, where motifs are scaled according to importance.
※ There are echoes of golden ratio throughout the artwork, where the fractal nature of breaking wave mirrors the mathematical beauty of nature itself.
※ Prussian blue is the traditional "blue" in both blueprints and aizuri-e (藍摺り絵) Japanese woodblock prints.
※ Despite Japan’s strict ban on all imports and exports, the colour "Berlin Blue" found its way to the printmaking industry in Osaka where it was trafficked as “bero”, where its vivid hue, tonal range and foreignness saw it explode in popularity just as it had in Europe.
※ It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a basic health system used as an antidote for certain kinds of heavy metal poisoning
Cat Great WaveSource: nekomakicomics
