[IC] GMK Indigo // GB Thread is Up

[Fredington]

Domikey’s legends are off. The spacing of the lettering of the mods aren’t great (“shif t”), the numbers for the hiragana are too small (compared to GMK), the texture of the keycaps aren’t as great.

This is what I suspected. Manufacturing will remain with GMK. Hopefully, we can have a GB sooner rather than later, although GMK has been rather slow with providing quotes lately.

Given the feedback so far, I have a pretty good idea of where I want to take the kitting. Metal artisan collabs are also forthcoming.

[HelloThisIsDog]

Really love the color combo! Not a huge fan of (yet another set with) Japanese sublegends

[nvh2092]

Domikey’s legends are off. The spacing of the lettering of the mods aren’t great (“shif t”), the numbers for the hiragana are too small (compared to GMK), the texture of the keycaps aren’t as great.

This is what I suspected. Manufacturing will remain with GMK. Hopefully, we can have a GB sooner rather than later, although GMK has been rather slow with providing quotes lately.

Given the feedback so far, I have a pretty good idea of where I want to take the kitting. Metal artisan collabs are also forthcoming.

Beside sub and non sub legend, are there any problems with the current kitting? I think base kit and novelty are good

[Puddsy]

JTK's tripleshot legend plates are a lot better than the latin single legend plates, i helped them fix a lot of them

i think they either just redid or are redoing the mod legends right now, i haven't really been in contact with them much the last few months cause ive been busy

personally i wouldn't take the quality hit of pad print subs, especially when combined with having to wait probably over a year for a set to get made

[gihrenzabi]

OMG..... denim is my favourite colour.....

[Bitdrive]

Absolutely love it! If this becomes a real set I will 100% pick one up!

[Meletrix2021]

 GLWIC 

[Serval]

Would love this even more if it wasn't a GMK set. 1 1/2 to 2 years wait time is too long. GLWIC tho

[konstantin]

Deskmat

Show Image

That deskmat is nothing short of awesome!

[IMZO]

This hits the spot, idk about the novelties tho

[morerudder]

instabuy for me!

[qnnoa]

I wish there was a latin alpha base...

[d3stiny]

I prefer the latin based alphas as well. I dont think the hiragana subs are clearly visible. It looks too messy with it.

GL!

[RoyalOak88]

Really digging this set! The colours, novelties and deskmat are awesome.
But like many others, would also prefer the Latin alphas as base. Not a big fan of the hiragana subs.

[sagarsiddhpura]

I am very interested. Please have latin base kit and work on novelties a bit more. Thanks

[Mr Chrome]

Those novelties are top tier. I love how they're faithful to the stitching while still looking like symbols (for functions).

That said, they make a good case for latin-only basekit. The novelties being mostly white and a very similar thickness to the latin legends make them a much better fit for plain latin legends than with subs IMO. I just think it matches the design of the novelties better.

[CookieFlow]

I guess I'll voice my vote for keeping the hiragana subs as I like them, and they feel adequate for the theme of the set.

[treeleaf64]

Even if it doesn't match Denim colors... it's still Denim in my eyes. A darker version

[sup3r170va]

I guess I'll voice my vote for keeping the hiragana subs as I like them, and they feel adequate for the theme of the set.

I second this.

[microCuts]

Prefer base alpha without sublegends.

[Fredington]

OK let's gather some data. I created a poll so you can vote for your preference of base kit (Hiragana vs. Latin). I'll leave it open for a week or so.

[geonworks]

im down the Latin base

[Puddsy]

im down the Latin base

im with geon on this one

[loopaddiction]

I'm hoping Latin base wins out. I understand the justifications for Hiragana to go with the theme...but it just doesn't look good to me.

I'm not a deskmat person either and I think 99% of the deskmat designs in this hobby are tacky AF, but this one is actually good.

Great work as usual Fred!

[kameron]

the colors are nice but the subs seem hard to read glwic tho.

[Fredington]

Bump for poll, which will be open for a few more days.

[azack]

Voted in the poll! Hoping for latin base too 

[haesbaert]

Voted in the poll! Hoping for latin base too 

Me too ! Latin base is instant buy for me.

[AstralYT]

Latin ez win

Sent from my GM1917 using Tapatalk

[Hyphen]

Latin for me, as well. Just adding my hope for a Canadian vendor, as well.

[Fredington]

Latin ez win

Sent from my GM1917 using Tapatalk

Pretty much:



This breakdown has pretty much stayed constant throughout the entirety of the poll, so I think the results are pretty definitive.

Poll is now closed. Thank you to everyone who voted.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Below are the new proposed kits, as well as a new IC form. Please have a look and let me know what you think! Updated renders are pending.



NEW IC Form



NEW Kits

Base

The updated Base kit now features Latin-only legends with support for 60% boards and up. Terminal-style ISO and F13 are included.



JIS

Here, Hiragana sublegends have been combined with the original JIS kit. As Hiragana has now been confined to a child kit, coupled with the increased key count for proper ANSI and JIS support, the extra cost for UV-printed sublegends could no longer be justified. Thus, they are now doubleshot.



Extension - NEW

The new Extension kit features a wealth of additional compatibility:

• R3/R4 PgUp/PgDn
• 660 support
• 2u Shift
• MacOS support (both ANSI and JIS)
• 40s support
• Alice support
• Filco Minila Air/GH60 Minila JIS support

Novelties

Accent arrows have been added here. The 1.25u and 1.5u novelty artworks have been swapped.



Spacebars

Alice support being moved to the new Extension kit made room for some more accents here.

[Puddsy]

excellent update, i like all these changes

[sup3r170va]

Damn. I was looking forward to the low contrast hiragana sublegends. Sad that they aren’t even in the JIS kit will it be too prohibitive to offer that?

By the way the link for the new IC form is broken. It now shows the Imgur for the results of the last form.

[Fredington]

Damn. I was looking forward to the low contrast hiragana sublegends. Sad that they aren’t even in the JIS kit will it be too prohibitive to offer that?

By the way the link for the new IC form is broken. It now shows the Imgur for the results of the last form.

Thanks, it's been fixed. I think given that alternate legend child kits have a historical attachment rate of less than 15%, price is going to be a major factor for this kit to make its MOQ.

[_rubik]

Those updates look really good -- I'm excited to see the new renders

Sad to see the low contrast jis legends go, but I understand that the pricing is prohibitive on a set of that size.

[CookieFlow]

Hopefully the people that voted Latin will show up when it comes to buying.

Having a Japanese themed set with latin alphas in the base kit makes 0 sense to me.
And afaik almost all (if not all) the Japanese oriented sets recently that offered 2 base kits, the base kit with hiragana sublegends did better.

[sup3r170va]

Damn. I was looking forward to the low contrast hiragana sublegends. Sad that they aren’t even in the JIS kit will it be too prohibitive to offer that?

By the way the link for the new IC form is broken. It now shows the Imgur for the results of the last form.

Thanks, it's been fixed. I think given that alternate legend child kits have a historical attachment rate of less than 15%, price is going to be a major factor for this kit to make its MOQ.

Please reconsider low constrast UV sub legends for the JIS kit. Think of the 1/3 of the folks that voted for that kit earlier! I’ll buy 2 child kits towards your MOQ if you run it.

[XiXora]

I'll miss the low contrast Japanese legends. I was excited to have a nice (ISO) Japanese set.
Could you add the R3 |\ and R4 >< key that is now missing please?

[Fredington]

I'll miss the low contrast Japanese legends. I was excited to have a nice (ISO) Japanese set.
Could you add the R3 |\ and R4 >< key that is now missing please?

[sudou915]

Yea, I did prefer the Latin base but was still looking forward to the low contrast sublegends in the child set.

[Vibex]

Oooof yeah thats a huge bummer. Was really looking forward to those low contrast keys. Hope those latin voters come out when its time to buy, because this unfortunately will stop me (and I'm betting a lot of others) from joining. :/

[azack]

Nice latin base! Thank you for listening to the community! Definitely in for most kits now!

[asciisii]

Yay latin base. I'm in. Will think on the novelties, it seems sashiko theme is for sure

[XiXora]

I'll miss the low contrast Japanese legends. I was excited to have a nice (ISO) Japanese set.
Could you add the R3 |\ and R4 >< key that is now missing please?

<cut picture to not make thread massive>

Ah, I must have missed that R3 scurrying to find the old R4 [><]… so one key needed?

[CookieFlow]

Being about 60/40% I think you should also consider the option of 2 base kits one for latin alphas and one for hiragana sublegends.

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

Being about 60/40% I think you should also consider the option of 2 base kits one for latin alphas and one for hiragana sublegends.

I wanted something like this in the survey

I want Latin base and but will buy hiragana base, not child Latin alphas
I want Latin base but will buy Latin child kit and hiragana base (I was here)
I want Latin base and if it’s not there I’m out
Along with the other 3.

I think from there you get the data for child kit or not. Experienced designers like Fredington might know they’re unreliable though…

[Evasive]

Nice, latin base kit works better here imo.

[konstantin]

Ah, I must have missed that R3 scurrying to find the old R4 [><]… so one key needed?

The R4 <>ろ key is not needed since there is already a R4 \_ろ key (as circled in the image that Fredington posted).

Base

The updated Base kit now features Latin-only legends with support for 60% boards and up. Terminal-style ISO and F13 are included.

Show Image

I would move the generic R4 1u Meta key to the Extension kit. I think that's about the only change I'd make, for now.

[Fredington]

Being about 60/40% I think you should also consider the option of 2 base kits one for latin alphas and one for hiragana sublegends.

I wanted something like this in the survey

I want Latin base and but will buy hiragana base, not child Latin alphas
I want Latin base but will buy Latin child kit and hiragana base (I was here)
I want Latin base and if it’s not there I’m out
Along with the other 3.

I think from there you get the data for child kit or not. Experienced designers like Fredington might know they’re unreliable though…

Being about 60/40% I think you should also consider the option of 2 base kits one for latin alphas and one for hiragana sublegends.

Like I said, the poll breakdown really didn't change much throughout the course of the poll. Moreover, the number of poll participants was very nearly equal to the number of IC form responses, so I consider the results to be pretty definitive. Also, where we ended up (almost 66/33) is statistically pretty different from 60/40 or even something closer that would legitimately give doubt to the results, so let's not fudge the numbers.

Regarding the possibility of 2 base kits, I'm personally not a fan of how they essentially cannibalize each other's sales. To be honest, this is something that would only happen if this set got a much bigger response. This is also why there weren't more options in the poll.

Base

The updated Base kit now features Latin-only legends with support for 60% boards and up. Terminal-style ISO and F13 are included.

Show Image

I would move the generic R4 1u Meta key to the Extension kit. I think that's about the only change I'd make, for now.

That'll probably happen, yeah.

[CookieFlow]

I understand the reasoning, I just hope the Latin buyers will come through.

But from looking at recent sales for Japanese inspired sets that had 2 base kits, afaik the base kit with Japanese subs always did better:
Hazakura, Origami, A, Harvest, Awaken and some were fairly close like Fuji and Shashin but the sub legends kits still did better.

Anyways it is 100% your decision and I will respect it, but I feel it is also something to consider since not everybody participates in the polls.