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[IC] SA Welles - SUSPENDED
madmax13:
IC FORM
Designer Discord
Why Welles?
This kit initially had a working concept: "I wanted to do a dramatic but adult theme." I want something a bit understated and cool, like jazz music. One of my favorite bits of media is the movie LA Confidential, which introduced me to the concept of Film Noir and the world of gritty pulp fiction novels. If you have not seen the movie, it's a fantastic use of 2 hours of your time.
However, if this is the starting point, why is the set called Welles?
Welles was the master of the Noir art form. His films, such as Touch of Evil, The Lady from Shanghai, and The Stranger, set the standard for cinematography and storytelling.
I wanted this set to match the aesthetic of these films, which used shades of grey and red, along with the warm beiges standard in mid-century consumer electronics to tell complex and nuanced stories. To this end, I also needed a keycap profile that matches this aesthetic. Thus, I used the SA profile for its vintage look and excellent sound qualities. In a nod to modernity, I will use the more comfortable 1-1-2-3-4-3 profile for this set, designed around stock SP colors (TU, RBC, and GSS).
This preliminary design is the first one I was happy to share with others. Right now, because of the use case I foresee, I am only designing a base kit and a numpad kit, with a mind to potentially move towards thinking through noir/pulp-themed novelties and an accent kit.
The Concrete Blond- Basekit
This kit is named after the 1994 Michael Connelly Novel, an excellent example of a modern work that updates noir and pulp novel sensibilities.
This base kit accommodates 60-TKL, UK ISO, and Alice keyboards. It also features a minivan 3-key for limited 40 percent keyboard support. To save cost, the IC form includes questions to gauge interest in each keyboard configuration. I am balancing cost and coverage with the kit.
99 River Street- Numpad Kit
This is the Numpad kit, named after the 1953 noir classic.
The Bad Sleep Well- Novelty Kit
Named after the 1960 Akira Kurosawa Noir
A History of Violence- Extra/Extension Kit
Named after the 2005 Neo-Noir
The Small Back Room - 40s/Ergo
Named after the 1949 Noir
Renders
Last Render to show how the colors change under different form of light- the physical chips do the same.
Colors
This set uses Signature Plastics' in-house stock colors.
TU- Warm Beige
GSS- Blue-Grey
RBC- Deep Red
Vendors
EU: Coffeekeys
UK: TBD
US: TBD
JP: TBD
KR: TBD
SGP/SEA: Ktechs
CN: TBD
madmax13:
(Reserved)
AngryAardvark:
Love the colors. I’m in!
madmax13:
Some updates - some IC responses indicated a preference for MTNU. So, I did a quick touch-up to incorporate some of the feedback I've received on kitting, etc. The SA will be updated to reflect this as well.
Firstly is the alternative profile basekit for MTNU.
To show how it looks as an apples-to-apples, here it is on the same board that I had rendered in SA- Trash Man V4N4G0N
Piperaceae:
MTNU vendors tend to favor monokits with the numpad included (and often no other child kits). The base kits for MoDo and Skyriter (the revised version) are good examples I've heard multiple vendors say to emulate.
Since GMK has a standardized NordeUK kit with UK ISO included in it (assuming UK and EU vendors are willing to buy it out and get it made), the base kit usually just has terminal ISO in it.
Because of R4's bottom lip, including a R2 up arrow is popular - it's easier for fingers to slide between the up and down arrows with that R4 bottom lip removed, and makes arrow homing easier on non-exploded 65/75 boards.
You'll probably need to make the 40s keys mod-colored rather than accent-colored - forced accents generally draw complaints from people who don't want to have to use the accent colors.
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