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[IC] GMK CYL Black & Gold | ft. Art Deco and Casino Royale novelties
Bobatype:
GMK Black & Gold
LINKS Intro | Kits | Renders | Specs | Q&A | Logistics | Deskmat | Collabs | MiscIC Form | Instagram
• INSPIRATION •
Black and gold is a simple but classic combination evoking luxury and elegance. Thus this timeless colourway serves as the basis of this keycap set which utilises GMK’s new metallic ABS material. Golden accents are included for high-end flair; whilst for the high rollers, novelty keycaps themed around Art Deco and Casino Royale are included for extra style points.
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• KITS •
Base[Typical GMK Base Kit. Covers 60%, 65%, 75%, TKL, with terminal ISO, F13, Tsangan support, and minimal compatibility for some Alice, and split space layouts. 3-key 40s physical layout support included]
Art Deco Novelty[Inspired by the geometric character of the Art Deco aesthetic that flourished in the 1920s. In its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress.]
v1 of this kit: More
Casino Royale Novelty[Featuring classic card suit icons, for fans of card games, whilst also a nod to a great James Bold film.] v1 of this kit: MoreThis included novelties for the Backspace, Joker hat(s), and more suits/crowns
Add-Ons Kit
[Additional keys for further compatibility or variety, such as the classic Cherry icons, additional support for HHKB, Windowed Keys (legends are UV-print*), stepped Ctrl icon key, less utilised Shift keys (1.50u, 1u, 2u), CR black spacebars (1.00u x 2, 1.25u x 1, 1.75u x 2, 2.00u x 1, 3.00u x 2, 6.00u x 1), and R3 up arrows.] v1 of this kit: MoreThis included stepped Ctrl icon key, and R3 up arrow keys
Accent Spacebars Kit[Besides the usual support for split space keyboard layouts, these gold bars include 2 x 1.75c and 2 x 2.00c bars for additional 40s/ortho support.
NorDEUK[Pending - depends on demand and UK/EU vendor support.]
Media Kit[Viability remains uncertain. Let me know if you like it. Also wondering if I should add some further icon keys such as a 1u musical note on R4 to cover a single XT column, and/or more R1 icons such as loop/repeat; shuffle; +/- brightness, etc. I have depicted the icons in outline line style, but I can switch to opaque in-fill if that’s people’s preference]
MoreOther Kit ideas include Katakana sublegend alphas (for compatibility with GMK Kin to Kuro novelties), or Cangjie sublegend alphas (with Chinese theme novelties based on Dragon or Wukong).
Alternate Alphas Kit[This kit has been scrapped, but I was floating the idea of alternate alphas in WS1 white, for a monochrome style look. Includes extra modifier keys, so that in combination with the base kit, you could theoretically cover 2 keyboards. We both know you have more than one keyboard.]
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• RENDERS •
Werk One by werk.technica
Haus by Hand Engineering
Frog by Geon Works
IRON165 by Smith + Rune IRON180 by Smith + Rune
M60-A by Rama Works
Disclaimer: Renders shown are for illustrative purposes and may not perfectly display the actual colours. Please refer to the actual sample photos below to see the real colours and texture of existing GMK metallic ABS keycaps. Do note that the process of creating metallic ABS involves special powders that are subject to the various injection flow patterns in each cap, creating a unique (and unpredictable) result. There will also be ultimately inherent limits in emulating the lustrous and shiny appearance of metal in plastic.
• SPECIFICATIONS •
Samples
Quick photo of real-life samples of the metallic gold colourway More (top)
Material: ABS Material
Profile: Cylindrical Cherry Profile
Manufacturing Method: Double shot injection molding
Manufacturer: GMK
Compatibility: MX switches
• Q&A •
Manufacturer choice?
MoreGMK for now as it has demonstrated samples with metallic ABS already.
Metallic ABS?
MoreThis set aims to use the exciting new metallic ABS material from GMK. A photo sample of metallic ABS was featured in GMK Kaiju R2 groupbuy - and there also exists other samples of GMK emulating the ‘metallic’ look in other colours to great effect.
As seen in the disclaimer for GMK Kaiju R2 and evident in other photos of that set, metallic plastic has inherent variables which can lead to unpredictable flow variations and streaks on the final result.
However unlike Kaiju R2 Mechakaiju base kit, in this keycap set, the metallic ABS is limited to primarily the legends (except for accents), so this effect should be limited on the overall look. However it is impossible to predict whether it will or won't occur, so it will feature on some legends regardless.
I had initially contemplated doing a completely gold keycap set themed Midas but due to these flow streak artefacts, I felt it’d be better limiting it to primarily the legends and accents for now.
Two Novelty Kits?
MoreGiven how well the colourway goes with several themes, I’d like to try to offer 2 novelty kits instead of splitting them into separate groupbuy runs. In fact I had other novelties and themes planned, one of which became GMK Kin to Kuro (Kintsugi and Shogun novelties), whereas others i.e. Midas with Grecian sublegends, Dragon King with Cangjie sublegends will come down the line later.
Will there be other kits /layout compatibility?
MoreGiven the current market conditions, and the likely manufacturer pricing structure and MOQ (minimum order quantity) requirements, I’m unsure which kits would reach MOQ.
Hence why the Extension kit is a combination of spacebars, windowed keys and HHKB support. It’s not ideal, but it should hopefully make it more likely to hit MOQ.
International kits will be dependent on support/demand and regional vendors, which is always a challenge.
I will be exploring the possibility of combining GB purchases for the Gold spacebars kit and/or Media kit with GMK Kin to Koru GB to make MOQ easier to reach.
If the media kit gets interest, I can explore a separate GB with these molds in basic WoB/beige.
White & Gold?
MoreIt’s in the works! It’s got an awesome theme/novelties to match it but it’ll stay under wraps for now
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• DESKMAT • Pending
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• COLLABS • TBC(top)
• LOGISTICS •TBC Estimated Groupbuy Date and Production Timeline to be confirmed.
• VENDORS • TBC
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• MISC •
• FEEDBACK FORM • Please fill in the Feedback form if you are interested. Thanks!
• SOCIALS • INSTAGRAM | DISCORD
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS •
“'Cause if you're not really here
Then I don't wanna be either
I wanna be next to you
Black and gold, black and gold, black and gold.”
Black & Gold by Sam Sparro
Thank you to those who provided help, support or design assistance for this project in some form or another. Special shoutouts in particular to:
More> GMK for the keycap samples
> Nindroid for assistance with the ISO enter Art Deco novelty
> Cutie for the renders and encouraging feedback
> The designers of the respective keyboards in the renders depicted, and also the teams behind Blender, Inkscape, and KRK (Imperfectlink) whose software was used in the development of the visuals of this project.
> Nopunin10did and Konstantin for also being the original kitting wizards whose advice on previous projects of mine (and others) have led to my foundational knowledge and decision making (any mistakes or peculiarities are mine though haha)
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AMZ:
IC Form link not working.
Randomlosername:
This set is FIRE 🔥 goddamn ima be broke buying up all the extra kits lol. Love the inclusion of media keys and two sets of novelties is fantastic imo. Any chance of sub-legend alpha keys? IC form isn’t working otherwise I’d put that there haha.
Bobatype:
--- Quote from: AMZ on Fri, 06 September 2024, 02:21:44 ---IC Form link not working.
--- End quote ---
Thanks for the heads up. Form link has been fixed (hopefully).
--- Quote from: Randomlosername on Fri, 06 September 2024, 03:28:47 ---This set is FIRE 🔥 goddamn ima be broke buying up all the extra kits lol. Love the inclusion of media keys and two sets of novelties is fantastic imo. Any chance of sub-legend alpha keys? IC form isn’t working otherwise I’d put that there haha.
--- End quote ---
Thanks for the lovely words.
In terms of sub-legend alpha keys, I have already kinda covered Japanese sublegends in the IC for GMK Kin to Kuro. The intention is that the Shogun novelties from Kin to Kuro could still be used with either set readily. One idea that your comment has prompted me to seriously consider is a Katakana sublegends alpha kit.
I have considered other sub-legends during the development, but wasn't super confident of it meeting MOQ.
Like others, I'm a bit tentative to post these concepts/novelties on this forum too early due to the frequent cloning of keycap sets and deskmats that has happened to fellow designers and myself. But I've just updated the feedback form with a question about these other ideas.
I can say that I was thinking of doing Cangjie sublegends with a Dragon novelty kit (similar novelties to DCD lunar new year's dragons), which you can preview in the old render concept picture attached (albeit with icon legends).
The novelty kit is called 'Long Wang' (Dragon King in Chinese). I was also considering another novelty kit with the Monkey King as well (I swear I'm not a bandwagon hopping on the recent game's popularity - I do have concept renders and novelties from 2.5 year ago).
If there's interest in this, I'm happy to also offer it too, but I do want to be try and be realistic about how viable it is to offer 4 novelty kit options (6 if you include Kin to Kuro).
AMZ:
--- Quote from: Bobatype on Fri, 06 September 2024, 04:34:57 ---
--- Quote from: AMZ on Fri, 06 September 2024, 02:21:44 ---IC Form link not working.
--- End quote ---
Thanks for the heads up. Form link has been fixed (hopefully).
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Unfortunately still not working.
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