[IC] GMK CYL Highlight (Hi Licht) | Colours down to 5, novelty kit draft

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

I’m good w any variant color wise

Fully support you cutting out anything possible to keep the base kit price at 135 or less as MOQ is hard these days. I’ve used double zero before but would rather have this be made than a 140$ base kit that gets canceled like some other sets recently. 

[MartinThePolarBear]

I'd buy full base kit versions of each of these colors if I could. Especially the Magenta(?) used on the Caps Lock and Left Shift

[AMZ]

I did not liked the red color actually it is better to be without red color

[Its_Skullhead]

I love the changes to the base kit so far, however is there any chance one of the variations of F/J could be Scooped? Having both options of scoop. And bar is a staple I feel that should be considered. Please consider scoop lovers .

[Bobatype]

Novelkeys has kindly agreed to be the US vendor

I’m good w any variant color wise
Fully support you cutting out anything possible to keep the base kit price at 135 or less as MOQ is hard these days. I’ve used double zero before but would rather have this be made than a 140$ base kit that gets canceled like some other sets recently. 

I'd buy full base kit versions of each of these colors if I could. Especially the Magenta(?) used on the Caps Lock and Left Shift

Perhaps there might be a possibility in the future, but I'd like to see how these sample turns out first. Yes, I would love to a super neon pink keycap set if there's interest. For this set, I'm calling the pink on the modifiers 'Magenta' and the pink on the alphas 'Fuchsia'

I did not liked the red color actually it is better to be without red color

Appreciate your opinion/thoughts! As I don't have samples yet, please note that my current renders are not potentially the most accurate, and the 'red' has since been changed to RAL 2005 (the same as GMK Flare) since I was concerned it would be a bit too difficult for 'red' match the fluorescent energy of the other colors. In fact a lot more 'orange' in nature, and not red. I'm calling it 'orange-red', but I'll try to play with some renders and see if it really adds much to the set. The original concept had alphas primarily only orange (with yellow homing keys), which is why the 'red' was initially used; to help introduce a bit of visual variety with the bottom row modifiers. Now that the alphas are a mix of orange and fuchsia, it's purpose is less meaningful visually. So I'll have a play around to see if the 'red' is that important...

I love the changes to the base kit so far, however is there any chance one of the variations of F/J could be Scooped? Having both options of scoop. And bar is a staple I feel that should be considered. Please consider scoop lovers .

For now, the yellow F/J will come as both scooped and barred homing keys, whereas the fuchsia F & orange J will come only as barred. Trying to keep the base kitting price in mind atm.

[cryoverkiltmilk]

Yeah, I like this.

Like it even more if there was ortho support.

[culain]

Oh good lord I want this in my life!  I want this so badly! Amazing set, bravo!

[bobbynoee]

Super excited for this one!!!

[kein_mark]

Super excited as well! Do you have an idea about the timeline of this project?

[örange_stone]

Wow, this set is so unique. Probably too many colors for me, but I would use it as a highlight for my WOB set and put it together. I think they will create a cool effect together.

[Bobatype]

Oh good lord I want this in my life!  I want this so badly! Amazing set, bravo!

Super excited for this one!!!

<3

Super excited as well! Do you have an idea about the timeline of this project?

Rough timeline is late Q2 or early Q3.

Yeah, I like this.

Like it even more if there was ortho support.

Going to be honest that it's frankly quite difficult to do ortho/40s specific child kits in the current market. It's not likely without strong vendor support. I can potentially provide some physical layout coverage for 1u modifiers by covering for double macro column (XT-layout) in the add-on or novelty kit. It's an approach I'm trying in the Art Deco novelty kit for GMK Black and Gold, a groupbuy I'm currently I'm running at the moment.
Due to this set having a more varied pattern of colors, it's a little bit harder to predict how this would look on an ortho board though.

Wow, this set is so unique. Probably too many colors for me, but I would use it as a highlight for my WOB set and put it together. I think they will create a cool effect together.

Yeah I think you could definitely remix some of these caps with WoB for a unique look.

I've been informed by GMK that samples should be arriving in the next week or so

Regarding the novelty kit, I'll include the R1 Sticky Note, R1 'Hi' and R4 'cool S' (in both 1u and 1.25u), but for the other novelties, I'm still figuring it out.
- ? More sticky notes on R1 in each color; or doing them as relegendables and uv-printing the sticky note graphic under the relegendable cap
- ? 'Esc' on R1 with all letters in the same font style as cool S
- Perhaps I'll continue to lean into the doodle aesthetic to keep it fun, like a variety of emoji style expressions for each row. Or just some random doodles like stars, arrows, scribbles etc.
- Still not sure yet what to do for Enter novelty keys... perhaps 'Highlight' in outline bubble style font, or a scribble or something... open to suggestions/ideas

[mr_foggy]

icon only mods was better

[Bobatype]

icon only mods was better

I hear you. I typically prefer my modifier legends icon style (it varies based on overall design/theme ofc), as it makes it look less 'busy', so I'm open to switching back to it (after all, the bottom row and nav-keys are still 'text' only). I note that GMK Handarbeit and GMK Panels had icon legends, whilst DCS Windbreaker had Icon+Text legends.
Conceptually, I felt that 'text-only' modifiers fit the theme best, but it's actually my least preferred option based off renders done thus far.

This is an old base kit render with the icon modifiers:


I'll try and do some quick renders with icon legends for visualisation comparison.
With the silly/fun novelties I have in mind, I'm feeling that icon legends will perhaps fit better overall.

[FoxandFoundry]

icon only mods was better

I disagree. The classic Icon + Text is superior.

Edit: After staring at the set for a while, I could go either way. Perhaps there should be a vote?

[Thompywhompy]

I prefer text + icon or text only. I think that fits more into the theme

[codecoffeecode]

Very much looking forward to this! GLWIC!

[Bobatype]

Modifier legends Comparisons:
Several renders below comparing different modifier legends.
Icon legends vs text+icon legends (current iteration) and text only legends.
Open to thoughts. Here's a poll: https://strawpoll.com/XOgOVE4m2n3
Please vote.
You can select multiple options if you're not set on just one option.

Paragon


Phoenix




M-60A







POLL LINK: https://strawpoll.com/XOgOVE4m2n3

In other news, I have received samples, and whilst some colors are great (yellow and pink being the best), some aren't quite there yet, so the engineers at GMK have been provided my feedback.

[bigmaxnonions]

Isn't the idea of handarbeit to encourage and teach proper typing techniques? To me it makes the most sense to have text + icon because its the easiest for someone who is learning how to type to understand.

[Bobatype]

Isn't the idea of handarbeit to encourage and teach proper typing techniques? To me it makes the most sense to have text + icon because its the easiest for someone who is learning how to type to understand.

I'm not sure that argument makes much sense to me.
The OG G81-3000HBD Handarbeit has mostly icon legend modifiers:

Interestingly though, the ISO enter is text-only but in all uppercase, whereas the pg up, pg dn, scroll lock, and num lock is text+icon.
GMK Handarbeit itself is icon legends.

Anyways I appreciate everyone voting in the public poll.

(if MOQ wasn't a concern, I would have liked to see if a German text mods kit was viable (essentially a gutted version of nopunin10did's GMK Prussian Blue's child kit))

[Punkypj]

Uk iso possible?

[Guuuf]

I’ve set myself a reminder for GMK Highlight so I can check in on the progress from time to time. Looks like your project isn’t on ice after all, great to see! I can’t wait.

Have you found a European vendor to support your project yet? Maybe Oblotzky or EloquentClicks? It would be amazing if an International Kit became a reality, too. If there’s an Int Kit, I’d buy two sets with it. Promise!

And I’d definitely welcome R5. I feel like there aren’t enough R5 sets, but I guess not everyone sees it that way. I’d still buy it with R4 though.

Not a big deal, but I’d prefer Icon+Text mods, though I’d be fine with Text mods as well. Not sure if I mentioned that before.

Keep it up, your set rocks so much!

[ArchDill]

This set gives me so much anxiety 
I love it.

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

Let’s see those samples

[iwobobul]

If you replace dark color legends this will be a goated set IMO. I know highlighters in your inspo had black text on them, but IMO neon legends would work so much better on this.

[MartinThePolarBear]

I think Dark legends are both more readable and help make the neon colors pop more due to the contrast. Just look at GMK Flare

[nico.psd]

This might be the first kit to interest me since returning to the community, this is riduclously bright!

[Bobatype]

Hi,
Just dropping into say this project is still in the works.
I'm still waiting for another round of samples from GMK to push the brightness to max (within REACH regulations) and I didn't want to rush to groupbuy without the renders being somewhat within the realm of expectations of reality.
Yellow and pink were by far the best in the first batch of samples, whilst reddish orange and blue weren't as bright as I'd like.

To reduce colormatching barriers, I've also since revisited the color schema/pattern and simplified it.
I'm now pivoting towards removing the fuchsia pink, and removing the 'red' (which was based off the same RAL code as GMK Flare). Going from 7 colours down to 5 to make things less complicated.

This is an example of the color scheme re-arranged:


The 'modifiers' on both left and right sides now align with each other colours by row, with each row having its own color band.
The navigation keys are also now colored to match the modifier color they are in the same row with.
This also conveys the horizontal stripe style of a highlighter track

Before the nav key colours were intentionally chaotic, however it was leading to a few issues where the color blocking looked odd in certain layouts and nav key column preferences. I didn't want to add too many additional nav keys in other colors to account for these scenarios.
Note the one scenario where this rule doesn't work is in ISO due to the tall nature of the yellow Enter key taking up 2 rows. To account for R2 1.50u backspace users in 65/75%, I've also added a pink Pg Up key.
I've also added nav key sublegends to the numpad keys.

Thanks to everyone who participated the modifier legend poll. Icon did come first, but not by a large margin, and for majority of the period it was tied with Text+Icon.
There was a very vocal group requesting Text+Icon. After taking a bit of a break, and looking at the project again with renewed eyes, I've decided to stick to Text+Icon for this run. I think it fits the theme well.

Novelties are nearly complete, but I'm yet to render it. It's going to be a lot of simple silly/fun doodles alongside the cool S. Nothing too complex. i.e. enter will have a cat waving, and a yellow windowed stepped caps lock novelty with a doodle of a lightbulb on it.

I'm also considering a relegendable pack kit with 4x yellow, 4x pink, 4x blue and 4x green, but not really sure how popular relegendable only kits are.

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

Glad this lives

[kein_mark]

Please let the relegendables cover XT designs (2 for each row)! Would be insta-buy!

[dvorcol]

I'm also considering a relegendable pack kit with 4x yellow, 4x pink, 4x blue and 4x green, but not really sure how popular relegendable only kits are.

I have order numbers for these GBs:

[MartinThePolarBear]

Personally, I'd love a Relegendables kit that's 2x5. So 2 of each color and R1-R4 with 2 R4. Would look great on a XT board or W1-AT layout

[dvorcol]

Personally, I'd love a Relegendables kit that's 2x5. So 2 of each color and R1-R4 with 2 R4. Would look great on a XT board or W1-AT layout

So total 40 keycaps (10 each color, 4 colors), right?

[MartinThePolarBear]

Personally, I'd love a Relegendables kit that's 2x5. So 2 of each color and R1-R4 with 2 R4. Would look great on a XT board or W1-AT layout

So total 40 keycaps (10 each color, 4 colors), right?

No, I meant 10 Keycaps. 2 per Row (with R4 having 2 Rows) for the 5 colors.

[dvorcol]

Personally, I'd love a Relegendables kit that's 2x5. So 2 of each color and R1-R4 with 2 R4. Would look great on a XT board or W1-AT layout

So total 40 keycaps (10 each color, 4 colors), right?

No, I meant 10 Keycaps. 2 per Row (with R4 having 2 Rows) for the 5 colors.

So like this but orange would be R4 instead of R5?

Edit: removed legends

[MartinThePolarBear]

Personally, I'd love a Relegendables kit that's 2x5. So 2 of each color and R1-R4 with 2 R4. Would look great on a XT board or W1-AT layout

So total 40 keycaps (10 each color, 4 colors), right?

No, I meant 10 Keycaps. 2 per Row (with R4 having 2 Rows) for the 5 colors.

So like this but orange would be R4 instead of R5?

Show Image

Oh just noticed the bottom row is R5 instead of R4. Nevermind, so the Orange would still be R5 in my hypothetical . So yeah basically what you're describing

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

Did GMK make molds for relegendables other than R1?

[MartinThePolarBear]

Did GMK make molds for relegendables other than R1?

If they didn't, could also just do a plain macro extension like Jamon & Striker

[Bobatype]

Thanks for the data dvorcol. Guess that's pretty convincing it does well. Maybe I could include a fun doodle sticker pack to increase the appeal haha.

As far as I know, relegendable molds are only R1 profile (I haven't seen any manufacturer do it any other row).
I would actually prefer to do 4x of each of the 5 colours so that the whole F-row and prt scr/scroll/pause cluster can be substituted. I think that would look really nice on the TKL/1800/100% layouts
It does double the number of keys in the kit compared to just 2x5, but I guess by having 20 keys in total, it covers a lot more scenarios/users. Even macropads.
Someone can also use it as another XT column on another keyboard (doesn't have to be paired with GMK Highlight... can be just simple WoB/BoW).

[Bobatype]

Base Kit updated

After playing around in Blender with how the colour scheme looks in various layouts, the base kit has been updated to account for split backspace/hhkb 60% scenarios.
This means an extra R1 tilde in blue, R1 delete in pink, and a R2 1.5u backspace in blue. I  have removed the pink R2 Pg Up since that doesn't make sense. I've tried to account for most common scenarios I think, so strongly believe this is the likely final base kit composition. I will try to find time to do some new renders for the new scheme since the reduction from 7 colors down to 5.

Novelty Kit
- Render pending -

Preview of a section of the novelty kit. Hope you enjoy the doodles/chaos! The first column that hasn't been revealed yet is also looking cute and more animal themed... i.e. the crab will be a 1u orange key too

Add-Ons Kit
- Render pending - diagram placeholder in the meantime

Primarily a spacebar kit, it also includes windowed keys with legends that I believe are more versatile for people who would like the cluster above the nav keys to be more useful (lots of personal bias admittedly here).

Relegendable Kit?
- Render pending -

This is still super tentative, as I'm not sure it'd reach MOQ. It could cover for the whole F-row basically... or also be used as XT/macro columns too, however they're only R1 profile for GMK.

I'll need to create an IC form to see what kit interest there is, so vendors can figure out if there is sufficient interest in either the relegendable or add-on kit.

[Guuuf]

Looks awesome! But am I right in thinking there’s no International kit planned anymore, or is that just me getting the wrong impression? 

[Bobatype]

Looks awesome! But am I right in thinking there’s no International kit planned anymore, or is that just me getting the wrong impression? 

I'm not too sure anymore which is why I tentatively removed it from the first post. It really depends if the EU/UK vendors will support its production to reach the MOQ.
I do want to offer it (I've even mocked it up in KLE with considerations of the appropriate colour pattern scheme), but I don't want to promise something that might not happen without vendors pushing for it. Vendors make decisions based on previous purchase trend data and most GBs in the last year have not gone particularly well for that kit in particular.


 

[Guuuf]

Got it, thanks for clarifying! Totally understand you don’t want to promise something that might not reach MOQ. Fingers crossed the EU/UK vendors get on board, though. I think an International kit would really make the set shine.

[dvorcol]

Looks awesome! But am I right in thinking there’s no International kit planned anymore, or is that just me getting the wrong impression? 

I'm not too sure anymore which is why I tentatively removed it from the first post. It really depends if the EU/UK vendors will support its production to reach the MOQ.
I do want to offer it (I've even mocked it up in KLE with considerations of the appropriate colour pattern scheme), but I don't want to promise something that might not happen without vendors pushing for it. Vendors make decisions based on previous purchase trend data and most GBs in the last year have not gone particularly well for that kit in particular.

This only goes back to the end of April 2022.

Edit: KAT sets were able to break international support into multiple child kits thanks to the unique total-units MOQ scheme. See summary of 21 KAT sets here.

[Bobatype]

Looks awesome! But am I right in thinking there’s no International kit planned anymore, or is that just me getting the wrong impression? 

I'm not too sure anymore which is why I tentatively removed it from the first post. It really depends if the EU/UK vendors will support its production to reach the MOQ.
I do want to offer it (I've even mocked it up in KLE with considerations of the appropriate colour pattern scheme), but I don't want to promise something that might not happen without vendors pushing for it. Vendors make decisions based on previous purchase trend data and most GBs in the last year have not gone particularly well for that kit in particular.

Show Image

This only goes back to the end of April 2022.

Edit: KAT sets were able to break international support into multiple child kits thanks to the unique total-units MOQ scheme. See summary of 21 KAT sets here.

Thanks dvorcol for the data. Does this include Extras or exclude them?
For example, GMK Black and Gold, during GB - 550 base kits, without extras, only 28 NorDeUK kits without extras. Needed vendors extras to get to the 50 MOQ. So that was a 5% kit take rate excluding extras. So for a reasonably successful GMK GB in 2025, it still required vendor extras buyout to get to that child kit MOQ.
I took no Designer fee for the NorDeUK kits either to keep its pricing attractive, since we wanted to make sure we could get it over the line

[Guuuf]

That actually makes it sound like an International kit isn’t completely off the table. Even if vendors have to push a bit with extras, there’s still hope for us ISO folks. 🙏

[Bobatype]

That actually makes it sound like an International kit isn’t completely off the table. Even if vendors have to push a bit with extras, there’s still hope for us ISO folks.

Yeah I'm not ruling it out. Just gotta hope there's enough interest to support it for GMK runs, otherwise we're going to start seeing less and less sets offer that coverage for folks in future sets.

To determine if the other child kits proposed are viable, I've decided to do a Google Form. Please kindly fill it out, so it can help convince vendors on what interest there is in kits/extra coverage

Here's some of the other doodles planned for the rest of the novelty kit. Nothing complicated, but hopefully people enjoy them:


I've also uploaded some new simple renders with the new colourway scheme showing how the modifiers are now color co-ordinated by row:

Paragon by Artemis Design


D-60 Lite by KBDFans


Phoenix by Cable Car Designs


8XMK2 by KBDFans

[dvorcol]

Show Image

This only goes back to the end of April 2022.

Edit: KAT sets were able to break international support into multiple child kits thanks to the unique total-units MOQ scheme. See summary of 21 KAT sets here.

Thanks dvorcol for the data. Does this include Extras or exclude them?
For example, GMK Black and Gold, during GB - 550 base kits, without extras, only 28 NorDeUK kits without extras. Needed vendors extras to get to the 50 MOQ. So that was a 5% kit take rate excluding extras. So for a reasonably successful GMK GB in 2025, it still required vendor extras buyout to get to that child kit MOQ.
I took no Designer fee for the NorDeUK kits either to keep its pricing attractive, since we wanted to make sure we could get it over the line

The previous graph used orders-only if those numbers were shared, and orders+extras if not. Orders-only represents actual customer demand, while deciding extras may involve some market prediction. That said, for most GBs the two take rates are very similar. Black & Gold, for example, was 5.09% (28/550) vs 5.48% (58/1004).

Here are the same GBs with and without extras:

[Rassles]

Although I won’t be buying this myself, I gotta say I love the theme and think the novelties are an awesome edition! Keep up the great work!

[Bobatype]

Show Image

This only goes back to the end of April 2022.

Edit: KAT sets were able to break international support into multiple child kits thanks to the unique total-units MOQ scheme. See summary of 21 KAT sets here.

Thanks dvorcol for the data. Does this include Extras or exclude them?
For example, GMK Black and Gold, during GB - 550 base kits, without extras, only 28 NorDeUK kits without extras. Needed vendors extras to get to the 50 MOQ. So that was a 5% kit take rate excluding extras. So for a reasonably successful GMK GB in 2025, it still required vendor extras buyout to get to that child kit MOQ.
I took no Designer fee for the NorDeUK kits either to keep its pricing attractive, since we wanted to make sure we could get it over the line

The previous graph used orders-only if those numbers were shared, and orders+extras if not. Orders-only represents actual customer demand, while deciding extras may involve some market prediction. That said, for most GBs the two take rates are very similar. Black & Gold, for example, was 5.09% (28/550) vs 5.48% (58/1004).

Here are the same GBs with and without extras:

Show Image

Show Image

Ah okay, thanks for explaining.
What I can take from that data is, if it's GMK groupbuy that barely gets to the 250 MOQ for base kit orders, then chances of a NorDeUK kit going to meet MOQ is rather slim, whilst for a moderately successful groupbuy that reaches 500 MOQ, the chances of that NorDeUK kit reaching that MOQ of 50 is much more likely, however may need a bit of vendor support to just get it over the line, so it's still perhaps worth proposing. For popular sets like Mictlán, then it's a no brainer to obviously cater to it. This is of course a very broad generalisation, as perhaps some colourways/themes preferences/economic factors may influence these specific regions' participation in a GMK keycap set group-buy at any given moment (and also the participating EU/UK vendors appetite/capacity for extras if there is shortfall of the MOQ goal).

[Bobatype]

Although I won’t be buying this myself, I gotta say I love the theme and think the novelties are an awesome edition! Keep up the great work!

Thanks <3. Appreciate the lovely words. Maybe the crab in the GMK Just Beachy novelties inspired me to include a crab novelty on the orange key.

I'm wondering if there's any interest in the inclusion of a BAE ("Big Ass Enter"), with R1 1u back key (in pink) into the Extensions (Spacebar + windowed keys) kit? Or not really? I understand that BAE is more associated with vintage/classic themed sets, so it might not be the best fit here.