Hi All,
I am new to both this forum as well as the world of mechanical keyboards as a whole, so I apologize if I am a bit uninformed and ask some silly questions here and there. I have recently been doing quite a bit of research on the topic of mechanical keyboards and kept getting linked to this forum, so I figured this would be the best place to reach out to the community
I stumbled upon Pimp My Keyboards and absolutely love some of the group buys that are listed in their archives. Being a graphic designer I immediately got excited over the opportunity to design a set of keycaps to offer up to the community, but I feel that I currently lack the proper knowledge to pull off hosting a group buy considering this is all so new to me. I have pretty much finished designing a TKL set with some alternate function keys (alternate having icons rather than simply text), and intend on including OSX keys as I myself am a mac user and personally love seeing CMND, OPT, etc included. Based on all that I have gathered I would like these to be PBT DSAs, although that is based on reading / watching videos online, I haven't had any hands on experienced all of these options.
My questions are as follows:
- I assume PMK only would require me to send designs their way, host the keycap set, communicate with people asking questions or making recommendations, and also promote it... is this correct? What they say on their site implies that they handle the actual production of the product and it would be completely out of my hands, although I wanted to be 100% sure as their copy wasn't completely clear.
- Is there a reason I shouldn't go with PBT DSA, or is that purely up to individual preference?
- What child sets / alternate keys should I absolutely include? I personally have no interest in ergodox, but I know a lot of you guys love and swear by them and I wouldn't want to leave anybody out. I don't see any reason that I should't accommodate everybody in a set as it would just be a matter of designing more keys to include everybody's needs.
- Is there anything else I should be aware of before hosting a group buy on PMK?
Here is an image of the work in progress. The keyset will be called "Blackbeard 1718". It is a pirate themed set and is an homage to the infamous Blackbeard who died in 1718. Many of the icons (such as the bleeding heart, the hour glass and the style of many of the arrows and strokes) are those featured in Blackbeard's flag. I still have some things I want to tweak, but I think it is coming together nicely