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geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: Clubkids on Sun, 26 February 2017, 19:38:55

Title: The Road to Keycap Production
Post by: Clubkids on Sun, 26 February 2017, 19:38:55
Morning all,

I'm curious to hear from some longer standing members here - preferably those with first hand experience - on what the road to actual keycap production looks like. From concept to delviery. As far as i can tell, it's below;

Now this is where i'd love some advice if possible. What is the best way to vet your design / concept as marketable and wanted? A post here, a poll on massdrop? What  do you guys feel is the best way to validate concepts. Is it best to have renders done prior to releasing design to give a really good feel of what it will look like?

I'm a rookie, so i may be way off. Look forward to hearing everyone's opinions here!
Title: Re: The Road to Keycap Production
Post by: Puddsy on Mon, 27 February 2017, 16:25:39
you'll probably get better luck PMing vendors than asking publicly like this

some people are pretty private about the method

i've never done it but it seems easy enough, just very time consuming
Title: Re: The Road to Keycap Production
Post by: zslane on Mon, 27 February 2017, 19:13:45
The keyboard layout editor is okay for getting the basic notion across as a very first step in an IC thread in the Interest Check forum here. But if there is any meaningful interest you will almost immediately get requests for CG renders.

The most time-consuming and exhausting part of the development process, IMO, is achieving community consensus on kit composition. Once you have settled on the kits, it's time to put up a Massdrop poll. Massdrop still does not have a formal keyset proposal protocol for designers to follow, so at this time you have to just put your keyset renders up wherever you can and hope you attract the attention of what I call the Massdrop Makers Cabal. Alternatively, you might attract the attention of one of the smaller, independent group buy agents.

Generally speaking, you don't have to contact the manufacturer yourself for anything unless you have technical questions regarding your design, like custom colors or legends.
Title: Re: The Road to Keycap Production
Post by: Niomosy on Mon, 27 February 2017, 19:35:48
The MassDrop system as it stands presently is a mess for keycap sets.  On one side you've got a bit of an unknown process as to how to really go about things with MassDrop.  On the other, you've got poll after poll with people simply wanting reruns of existing sets without realizing that it doesn't really work that way either.

It would be nice to see MassDrop fix that but given they're swimming in sets to sell, I wonder how quickly an improved process will come about.
Title: Re: The Road to Keycap Production
Post by: Clubkids on Thu, 02 March 2017, 00:57:16
Thanks for the responses guys. I've started an IC on my first design here. Any feedback would be much apprecaited!

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=87956.0 (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=87956.0)