[IC] GMK Avanguardia - GB 15th December - GB Thread UP!

[raz]

Link to Discord server
raz.works



Last Update!

So, this will be the last update. The 15th of December GMK Avanguardia is going live on
EU: Candykeys
USA: Vala Supply
Asia: iLumkb
Australia: Switchkeys
Canada: Deskhero

It's been a long journey but we're finally here! Thank you all for the support and critiques - you helped me a lot guys!

Below are posted all the new renders and the new kits. Beside that, I worked on a website about the projects I'm working on: raz.works and started a Discord server.
If you're Italian, there's this Discord server where I practically developed the whole set with the help of the Italian community.

I'm going to setup the Geekhack GB post with all the fuzz soon!

Thank you all again for the support bois <3

PS: this is the GMK Box i designed. I hope GMK can print the inside of it.



NEW KITS!

Minimalistico


Figure e Forme


Alternativo


Striscia


Milleottocento


40Per100


Linee



Deskmats:
Those are designed to be standard 900x400mm!




Keyboards Renders
I did all the renders here, i am still learning so don't be too much picky 

Latest Renders














Old Post

More

Hello Geekhack Community!

I am Raz, a web designer from Italy and I would like to present you my first keycap set project!
Quarantine here in Italy gave me the opportunity to develop some ideas that I had been dragging for some time.

I partnered up with my friend and designer Johnnymalandra and came up with the idea of GMK Avanguardia:
I chose an italian word that, as you can guess corresponds to "Avant-guard" or "Vanguard",
referring to all those extreme, daring and innovative artists with a futuristic sight capable of anticipating their times.

I have seen that sets featuring themes related to modern pop culture have always been appreciated, so I thought, why not pay respect to a great artist who influenced it the most in shapes and colors.
More than content, this set draws its inspiration from Kandinsky's words:
"Art goes beyond the limits in which time would like to compress it, and indicates the content in the future"

The Color Palette


We especially referred to Vasilij Vasil’evič Kandinskij and
this painting to get the inspiration for the novelties:



We wanted to give our concept a more personal interpretation by using a palette oriented towards the tech world and so the result is down here!

I would like to thank all my friends from the ClickyClackClub Italian community for the support they showed me and Johnnymalandra for the awesome artworks!

Nasu by crusader_alex






Mega by Keebwerk






TKC MOLLY










Rama U80






Vendors:

EU: Candykeys
USA: Vala Supply
Asia: iLumkb
Australia: Switchkeys
Canada: Deskhero



UPDATES

June 11
  - Updated the 40s kit leaving out the 1.75 spacebar support and adding magenta 1u Esc and Enter keys
  - Updated the spacebar kit dropping the 1.75 spacebar support

June 9
  - We have a canadian proxy! Thank you Deskhero!
  - We have an asian proxy! Thank you iLumkb!
  - Edited 40s and Spacebars | The 40s now have 2x2u and 2x1.75u spacebars
  - Proposing an Alternate set with dark number row and additional tab. With this one plus the base you would fill two keyboards. I am testing this up and getting feedbacks on the IC Form. This is the kit:

   
   
COLORS
I read a lot of concerns about color contrast and Violet Tendencies similarities.
I've uploaded an imgur album with some renders of Violet Tendencies mods and my alphas/mods in different light conditions:

imgur album with contrasts and gmk tendencies mods

TLDR:


I made this render cause people is concerned about GMK Avanguardia sharing the same GMK Nightshade's palette. In this image you can check GMK colors CR, N9 and NY:



Thanks to
ClickyClackClub Italian community,
David from Candykeys
Keycap Designers discord community!


I am going to update this post with changelogs and new renders soon
Remember to fillout the IC form, it would help me a lot!

Here's the geekhack signature banner for GMK Avanguardia:


You can copy paste the code below to support this set!

Code: [Select]

[url=https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=105981.0][img]https://i.imgur.com/wOwCmfC.jpg[/img][/url]

[CandyKeys]

First comment, oiy oiy! Lets do this.

[MaKrum]

You did a really nice work man, good luck con amore dall'italia!

[Capsy]

Love it.

[fedemito]

Nice work Raz! Good luck and in bocca al lupo!

[toastyAU]

deskmat is gorgeous

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

[Rejeckted]

I'm interested, i like the extra b in the base. mats are nice too, i wish i was personally capable of using a white mat without focusing on every little particle that finds its way on it lol.

[jani80k]

Renders look ridiculous

[iSamurai]

Ne norde avail?

Inviato dal mio H8314 utilizzando Tapatalk

[cijanzen]

I don’t love the keyset but I do love the mats and tshirts!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MaKrum]

Renders look ridiculous

I think they are pretty decent considering that they are the result of his firt attempt with render

[jani80k]

Renders look ridiculous

I think they are pretty decent considering that they are the result of his firt approach with render

It was meant in a positive way LOL

[Vyndem]

Not really a big fan of the keyset as of right now, but I do love the deskmats.

[MaKrum]

Renders look ridiculous

I think they are pretty decent considering that they are the result of his firt approach with render

It was meant in a positive way LOL

in this case I completely agree with you

[Ulliam]

Amazing work bra, been awesome seeing this grow. All in on that mat <3

[jestemfranklin]

Love the concept and novelties, but there's so many purple and dark grey sets these days...any chance for alts in any of the varied Kandinsky palettes?

[sourmk]

Got quite excited looking at the banner, nice design and type choice, very clean. Set is definitely not for me, and doesn't really match what I thought when I saw the top of this post. The mats look great though! Nice work, GLWIC!

[Bits]

You might wanna fix the renders for the base kit. You have 'F', 'G', and '5' as the barred homing keys instead of 'F', 'J, and' 5'

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

[zekth]

Definitely not into the colorscheme but novelties are cool and really fit the theme.

Why 2 B in the base kit? and not into the 40kit? as in the alice layout you need those spacebars.

[Scucka]

Ah my friend you're a god, I love it! 

[Pach]

The geometry is such a cool design, keep it up!

[KaosJ]

Cool set and amazing renders duder.
On some pics is hard to tell if it's a real photo or a render, good work

[raz]

First of all: thank you everyone for the support!

I am going to update the post with the color palette as i missed that in the first place!

You might wanna fix the renders for the base kit. You have 'F', 'G', and '5' as the barred homing keys instead of 'F', 'J, and' 5'

Show Image

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

Eagle Eye! Thanks, i am going to fix and update the post!

Definitely not into the colorscheme but novelties are cool and really fit the theme.

Why 2 B in the base kit? and not into the 40kit? as in the alice layout you need those spacebars.

If i did the math right, you can put the base kit on the Alice layout by using shifts instead of spacebars :)



For any questions i am here! I am just working on more renders with different lights temperature!

[Jaxxstatic]

I would buy the deskmat.

[zekth]

Definitely not into the colorscheme but novelties are cool and really fit the theme.

Why 2 B in the base kit? and not into the 40kit? as in the alice layout you need those spacebars.

If i did the math right, you can put the base kit on the Alice layout by using shifts instead of spacebars



For any questions i am here! I am just working on more renders with different lights temperature!

With this logic you can replace the second B with any non used R4 1U key 

[krautcat]

i'm into the keyset because of inspirations and references but... colors. What?

Also see in the forties 1.5U Enter key but no 1.5U Tab key. As owner of forty board with uncommon staggering I would like to see 1.5U R3 Tab key in this kit.

[MaKrum]

Definitely not into the colorscheme but novelties are cool and really fit the theme.

Why 2 B in the base kit? and not into the 40kit? as in the alice layout you need those spacebars.

If i did the math right, you can put the base kit on the Alice layout by using shifts instead of spacebars

With this logic you can replace the second B with any non used R4 1U key 

I think he puts 'B' in the base kit so people are not forced to pay more buying the 40s kit.
if you want to put on an alice the spacebar instead of shift you can buy the 40s but you also have to buy the base kit so isn't really important where you put 'B'

[raz]

Definitely not into the colorscheme but novelties are cool and really fit the theme.

Why 2 B in the base kit? and not into the 40kit? as in the alice layout you need those spacebars.

If i did the math right, you can put the base kit on the Alice layout by using shifts instead of spacebars



For any questions i am here! I am just working on more renders with different lights temperature!

With this logic you can replace the second B with any non used R4 1U key 

You're right, you can always buy the base so you have the right Alphas and get the spacebars or 40s to get the spacebars 😊
I think it's a good "cheap" addon to a base kit!

i'm into the keyset because of inspirations and references but... colors. What?

Also see in the forties 1.5U Enter key but no 1.5U Tab key. As owner of forty board with uncommon staggering I would like to see 1.5U R3 Tab key in this kit.

I am all in for advices about the 40s kit! I know there are a lot of layouts and i am not really in ortho/40s keyboards. Can you send me a KLE layout or just a pic of your keyboard?

[krautcat]

I am all in for advice about the 40s kit! I know there are a lot of layouts and i am not really in ortho/40s keyboards. Can you send me a KLE layout or just a pic of your keyboard?

I own Pearl keyboard.

Also I want to discuss the colors.

Why did you choose such horrendous and disgusting color palette (in the context of art and especially Kandinskij) for the set? Why black and violet if suprematists didn't use this colors? So your inspiration and references I see only in novelties. I really into suprematism and neoplasticism. And, for example, GMK Mondrian made it better. I really feel his works thorugh the set. But there's no such vibe through the main part of the set, the colors.

The colors. If I wanted interesting black'n violet set, I would like to buy GMK Rouge, for example. It's interesting set with colors in the spirit of it. But such color combination in this set is hard no for me.

[Italian_T3ddy_v2]

Wow man those novelties and deskmats are awesome! And the renders are insane, keep it up

[DrHigsby]

I am very disappointed in the color palette. There are already several black/gray and purple/violet sets on the horizon or in recent memory, such as Black Lotus (live GB on TKC), Rouge (GB in June), and First Love (ran last year).

Now I’m not one of those people to say you can’t use a similar color palette as a set that has been run before. I’m disappointed because the color appears to have nothing to do with your stated inspiration. The inspiration painting posted in your OP is full of reds, oranges, and yellows. There is no purple.

In terms of overall design, your deskpads, novelties, and T-shirts look really great! I hope you find traction simply because there is obvious inspiration and dedication placed into your work.

[MaKrum]

I am all in for advice about the 40s kit! I know there are a lot of layouts and i am not really in ortho/40s keyboards. Can you send me a KLE layout or just a pic of your keyboard?

I own Pearl keyboard.

Also I want to discuss the colors.

Why did you choose such horrendous and disgusting color palette (in the context of art and especially Kandinskij) for the set? Why black and violet if suprematists didn't use this colors? So your inspiration and references I see only in novelties. I really into suprematism and neoplasticism. And, for example, GMK Mondrian made it better. I really feel his works thorugh the set. But there's no such vibe through the main part of the set, the colors.

The colors. If I wanted interesting black'n violet set, I would like to buy GMK Rouge, for example. It's interesting set with colors in the spirit of it. But such color combination in this set is hard no for me.

I think he is free to choose any colore he wants, Avant-guard is an art movement, not a simple palette

[alper_maestro]

I like the deskmats a lot.

[krautcat]

I think he is free to choose any colore he wants, Avant-guard is an art movement, not a simple palette

It doesn't answer why this colors were chosen.

I much love the idea behind the set and everything here. Novelties (but it's subject to discuss, for me they're quite straightforward), deskmats, kits' content, ever T-Shirts. Except colors.

Maybe designer decided to choose this colors after Kandinskij's theory of color. But... I don't know. I don't want to fill in the blanks.

I see the base kit and try to think is there any background behind this palette what can explain the choice. I try to see any reference in base kit and don't get them.

It's really frustrate felling about the colors.

[MaKrum]

I think he is free to choose any colore he wants, Avant-guard is an art movement, not a simple palette

It doesn't answer why this colors were chosen.

I much love the idea behind the set and everything here. Novelties (but it's subject to discuss, for me they're quite straightforward), deskmats, kits' content, ever T-Shirts. Except colors.

Maybe designer decided to choose this colors after Kandinskij's theory of color. But... I don't know. I don't want to fill in the blanks.

I see the base kit and try to think is there any background behind this palette what can explain the choice. I try to see any reference in base kit and don't get them.

It's really frustrate felling about the colors.

I understand what you mean, the set is a little bit too much novelties based probably

[raz]

Wow man those novelties and deskmats are awesome! And the renders are insane, keep it up

I am all in for advice about the 40s kit! I know there are a lot of layouts and i am not really in ortho/40s keyboards. Can you send me a KLE layout or just a pic of your keyboard?

I own Pearl keyboard.

Also I want to discuss the colors.

Why did you choose such horrendous and disgusting color palette (in the context of art and especially Kandinskij) for the set? Why black and violet if suprematists didn't use this colors? So your inspiration and references I see only in novelties. I really into suprematism and neoplasticism. And, for example, GMK Mondrian made it better. I really feel his works thorugh the set. But there's no such vibe through the main part of the set, the colors.

The colors. If I wanted interesting black'n violet set, I would like to buy GMK Rouge, for example. It's interesting set with colors in the spirit of it. But such color combination in this set is hard no for me.

I think he is free to choose any colore he wants, Avant-guard is an art movement, not a simple palette

Ok guys i think i have to address some valid points!

I take note of your considerations which I respect but do not agree with.
Like you other people have pointed out the lack of correspondence between the palette used and the reference shown: I want to clarify that we were inspired by the general work of Kandinskij by studying his symbolism and traits. We found those were very interesting for us to use in the novelties: "modernity and minimalism suitable for product needs such as a keyboard".
We wanted to give our concept a more personal interpretation by using a palette oriented towards the tech world, always keeping in mind our targets and marketing purposes.

I close my message by saying that as a community and as designers we cannot limit ourselves to mathematically translating what we see into keyset concepts. By doing this we will make a run on who chose the best theme or pic or palette first. By saying this i want to answer to all the critics about the palette choice: if we stop using hues already used in other sets, we can stop doing keysets. The color psychology and its principles is not changing anytime soon and so the Itten Wheel.


EDIT: i am not a native speaker, so pardon me for every error i made! I don't want to sound "harsh", this is just the way we worked out the design of the set

Maybe we had to clarify this on the OP!

[pixelpusher]

I don’t love the keyset but I do love the mats and tshirts!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed!  The merch is quite nice.  Keyset doesn't reflect the artwork to me.  Not sure how it could.  But I wish you the best!

[iaman]

Fan of the colors and fan of the deskmat 👍

[mcRewind]

Novelties, deskmats, and merch are awesome to me! Hope you're able to get this through

[Zeelobby]

Yeah. Keyset, meh. Especially for the subject matter, but the extras are great.

[MrCoolPants]

hope the legends aren't difficult to see. was getting some violet tendencies vibes from the colors. deskmats look dope but not too interested in the set overall

[apostolis159]

Love the mats, and quite into the colour combo. Also, novelties fit very nice. Seriously considering. 

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

What's the dark grey color? How does it compare to CR black or N9 grey?

[raz]

What's the dark grey color? How does it compare to CR black or N9 grey?

The alpha and mod colors are more like Gmk Dracula mods! A really dark gray with a indigo bluish tone.

I am going to post the color palette anyway!

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

What's the dark grey color? How does it compare to CR black or N9 grey?

The alpha and mod colors are more like Gmk Dracula mods! A really dark gray with a indigo bluish tone.

I am going to post the color palette anyway!

Neat. I went back to the source and looked at the colors more. Need to think about a board for this...

[oldcat]

Very interested

[ThereminGoat]

Wow man those novelties and deskmats are awesome! And the renders are insane, keep it up

I am all in for advice about the 40s kit! I know there are a lot of layouts and i am not really in ortho/40s keyboards. Can you send me a KLE layout or just a pic of your keyboard?

I own Pearl keyboard.

Also I want to discuss the colors.

Why did you choose such horrendous and disgusting color palette (in the context of art and especially Kandinskij) for the set? Why black and violet if suprematists didn't use this colors? So your inspiration and references I see only in novelties. I really into suprematism and neoplasticism. And, for example, GMK Mondrian made it better. I really feel his works thorugh the set. But there's no such vibe through the main part of the set, the colors.

The colors. If I wanted interesting black'n violet set, I would like to buy GMK Rouge, for example. It's interesting set with colors in the spirit of it. But such color combination in this set is hard no for me.

I think he is free to choose any colore he wants, Avant-guard is an art movement, not a simple palette

Ok guys i think i have to address some valid points!

I take note of your considerations which I respect but do not agree with.
Like you other people have pointed out the lack of correspondence between the palette used and the reference shown: I want to clarify that we were inspired by the general work of Kandinskij by studying his symbolism and traits. We found those were very interesting for us to use in the novelties: "modernity and minimalism suitable for product needs such as a keyboard".
We wanted to give our concept a more personal interpretation by using a palette oriented towards the tech world, always keeping in mind our targets and marketing purposes.

I close my message by saying that as a community and as designers we cannot limit ourselves to mathematically translating what we see into keyset concepts. By doing this we will make a run on who chose the best theme or pic or palette first. By saying this i want to answer to all the critics about the palette choice: if we stop using hues already used in other sets, we can stop doing keysets. The color psychology and its principles is not changing anytime soon and so the Itten Wheel.


EDIT: i am not a native speaker, so pardon me for every error i made! I don't want to sound "harsh", this is just the way we worked out the design of the set

Maybe we had to clarify this on the OP!

I recognize I may be beating a dead horse here a bit (all pun intended) given the criticisms that other individuals have pointed out already but there are a few issues I see with 'theme/design':

1. Avant Garde isn't an art movement Kandinsky is associated with. Kandinsky was much more well known for his German Expressionist style works.
2. Of these works, and works in the same vein as his later period which he is more known for, none of which share this color palette as his primary basis. Most of them are at least colors "on white" (A second art pun in the same response)
3. Nothing about German Expressionism was centered around minimalism nor a simplification of the reality of things. In fact, this feels almost an opposite of the concept of expressionism.
4. Basing a set on a famous German Expressionist and *not* including a horse novelty is at the least just further strengthening the disconnect between this and the "source inspiration"
5. In Kandinsky's own words, which you quoted in the original post, "Art goes beyond the limits in which time would like to compress it, and indicates the content in the future". How "minimalism and modernity" is drawn out of that quote into the novelties baffles me further.

[outerspace]

The desk mats are incredible! Can we have a GB of that now? They can still run with the key caps again later :-)

[AaronR]

would like to see more pink caps

[raz]

I recognize I may be beating a dead horse here a bit (all pun intended) given the criticisms that other individuals have pointed out already but there are a few issues I see with 'theme/design':

1. Avant Garde isn't an art movement Kandinsky is associated with. Kandinsky was much more well known for his German Expressionist style works.
2. Of these works, and works in the same vein as his later period which he is more known for, none of which share this color palette as his primary basis. Most of them are at least colors "on white" (A second art pun in the same response)
3. Nothing about German Expressionism was centered around minimalism nor a simplification of the reality of things. In fact, this feels almost an opposite of the concept of expressionism.
4. Basing a set on a famous German Expressionist and *not* including a horse novelty is at the least just further strengthening the disconnect between this and the "source inspiration"
5. In Kandinsky's own words, which you quoted in the original post, "Art goes beyond the limits in which time would like to compress it, and indicates the content in the future". How "minimalism and modernity" is drawn out of that quote into the novelties baffles me further.

Abstractism is an Avant-garde movement. Like Futurism, dadaism, surrealism etc. I don't really get your point! We've got the novelties inspiration form his Bauhaus era
Kandinsky is Russian, not German - and he didn't live his life only producing expressionist art. We are not getting inspired by his early expressionist times as i stated before.

As for the color palettes: we are not copying, we are getting inspired by. Anyway, Kandinsky used the full palette in his paintings

We all can have different opinions and i am not here to discuss art, but i am glad the project gave you some points for a critique!