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Drop + biip MT3 Extended 2048 Dark Keycap Set

Designing an Apple-inspired keycap set

Jul 19, 20233246 VIEWS

Biip is about as close to a household name as you can get in the keycap design world. We’ve already learned a lot about his history and design style in the interview that he shared for the MT3 Operator launch (check that out if you haven’t already); now he’s back to share some details about the design of Extended 2048 Dark (as well as Extended 2048).

It's clear that the design for Extended 2048 (and Extended 2048 Dark, by extension) is heavily influenced by vintage Apple keyboards like the Apple Extended Keyboard and its derivatives. What is your personal history with these keyboards? Did you use old Apple computers growing up? I've always been drawn to vintage computers, especially microcomputers. They have a strong influence on my work, with an unrivaled charm that is hard to find today. For me, the AEKII is the most refined yet timeless keyboard from that era. It still exudes something contemporary today. Are there any in-progress design documents that you would be comfortable sharing, to give the reader an idea of what the process of designing a keycap set actually looks like? Extended 2048 being the first set I designed, I no longer have any sketches or the first icon files. What did your process for designing Extended 2048 look like? Both philosophically (I'm sure you didn't directly copy any iconography from Apple) as well as logistically. For example, how did you determine optimal line weights and icon sizes to fit well on the spherical MT3 keycaps while still retaining the nod to the original Extended Keyboard (off-center legends)? The idea was to keep the essence of the AEKII set, while making it more modern and compatible. Regarding the typography, I defined a grid based on the keys with the largest characters, i.e. {[ }], so that everything would fit in afterwards. The legends are, obviously, centered vertically to avoid any distortion on the MT3 profile, which is spherical, but also for aesthetic purposes (As well as echoing vintage keycap sets, it makes the captions more legible). Can you explain a little bit about the design choice to use icon modifiers instead of text mods like the original Apple boards? Icons/illustrations will always be more universal than words. They also give character to the set, making it unique. Not all modifier keys need to have an unequivocal legend, linked to their function, nor is the idea to restrict the user to one and only one way of arranging keycaps on their keyboard. The accent modifiers in both 2048 sets incorporate the classic "six colors" from the famous Apple logo. What ultimately led to you using these particular shades in the set? The colors used in the keycaps are a bit more pastel compared to the more saturated colors that Apple used. The colors are indeed inspired by the Apple rainbow logo, but I wanted this addition to make sense, give off a vintage air, and fit with the cream color of the other keycaps. I was worried that garish colors would stand out too much and break the homogeneity of the keycap set. In the years since first designing the Extended 2048 set, have any new novelty icons come to mind that you would like to add to the kit? Probably more functional icons such as: gear, eye, workspace, monitor, any tool from popular software, etc. Fittingly, some of the novelty designs included in your 2048 keycap sets draw heavy inspiration from the original Macintosh icons and logos. Has Susan Kare and the rest of the design team from that era at Apple influenced any of your other designs that we might not have picked up on immediately? Probably; I'm inspired by a lot of things. Actually, I'm careful to make each set different from the next, so you shouldn't find a direct reference to his work in any of my other sets. ____________ Thank you again to biip for taking the time to answer our questions and giving us a little peek inside the design process! Let us know if you’d like to see more designer interviews for future keycap sets.

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Jul 26, 2023

How about… [glances furtively left and right before uttering the crazy] how about instead of, or at least in addition to, having Mac-inspired keycaps, you offered Mac-compatible keycaps? Specifically, for starters, Command and Option. It blows my mind that only Keychron seems to provide these out of the box.

alti83

Jul 21, 2023

Seriously guys, please try to be a little better with the combinations. If you are a colemak user with a non-common keyboard layout then you have to end up buying almost every option to get all the keys that are needed.

dtolb

Jul 21, 2023

Please, please, please make the sets sensical. Include a space bar in the alphas or color-modifiers. Original set was way too $$ to get any semblance of color

rhruiz

Jul 21, 2023

Any chance of this being out for preorder still in July?

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michel.v

Jul 21, 2023

Dear Drop, did a Colevrak user hurt you? There is only a grand total of four MT3 sets with Colevrak kits, out of more than twenty MT3 sets.

CONIN

192

Jul 20, 2023

I'd buy this set (or the white one) in a blink of an eye, if it was in either XDA or Cherry profile instead.

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Jul 21, 2023

CONINI'll consider this profile 👍

CONIN

192

Aug 1, 2023

biipThat would be great!, thanks!

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kartiksathappan

Jul 20, 2023

Is there a version where all the caps are the same color (black) ?

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Jul 21, 2023

kartiksathappanKits will be posted soon. There will be two base kits, both featuring "WoB" keycaps. The accent kit will be separate.

kartiksathappan

Aug 19, 2023

biipEnded up getting novelties, accents, and base! have been waiting for an all-black drop from you, this will be my first foray outside of built in Mac keyboards 😇

(Edited)

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etrigan63

Jul 20, 2023

Please, please, please include keys for extended Alice layouts (Alice plus 5 macro keys)!

biip

263

Verified Vendor

Jul 21, 2023

etrigan63We've got you covered! The novelties kit should feature more than enough keycaps to cover any macro column/pad.

Bitvar

Jul 20, 2023

Are these keycaps a good plastic (not ABS) or a bad structural plastic designed for return customers (ABS, which is soluble by fatty oils like the ones found on human skin)?

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Bitvar

Jul 21, 2023

Sick. Very nice.

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Bad__Music

Jul 25, 2023

Darn, I guess if you're trying to hit a certain price point then double shot might not be feasible. They looked to only have two colors per cap, so I was really hoping these would be double shot as opposed to the previous white set. Dye sub is the only reason I haven't bought the white set and it will be the only reason I don't buy this set.

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