It does, it’s like friggin’ catnip to me. Although the design itself suggests a fair bit of machining to accomplish and thus I’m doubtful it will see the light of day.
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I’d be fine if they cast it. Heck I don’t think I’d mind at all if it were plastic. Just gimme that cool shape
I also love those old style dome LEDs. Reminds me of RadioShack before it was a celphone outlet, when you could buy individual electronic components (like those LEDs) there.
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Casting would do it, I’m fine with casting as well.
I’m always curious though whether the folks who design and render these are aware of these kinds of manufacturing processes. I get the impression that many don’t and kind of learn by doing if they’re even successful in bringing their design to life. Design for manufacturing is kind of a big deal.
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I’m gonna need to find more ways to incorporate this phrase in my life 
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Is the name Blackout? 
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Dude, that’s what they should actually be called – Æ Blaekouts. Right on.
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Good way to clearly reinforce the fact that they’re using their own molds for these perhaps?
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That’s better, switch tops get easily deformed and this filling can prevent it.
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That’s a great point. I bet these hold up way better than most when being gnarled by a switch puller. Also, I’m not into per-key RGB, but I do appreciate some niffy underglow. In hindsight, they should have leaned their marketing a bit heavier on this feature. Whatever shortcomings the switch has mechanically, this tidbit makes up for it.
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Just to refine this a little bit: the color palette is “what if Instagram, but it didn’t meet contrast guidelines for accessibility”. Say what you will about the old design/branding, but it did at least meet WCAG 2.1 guidelines for contrast ratios (at least in a vast majority of cases; I can’t recall if it was ever perfect but clearly their previous designer had a better grasp on this than their current one) which is becoming a pretty essential requirement based on a smattering of court cases over the last decade and the (more recent) DoJ guidance on how the ADA relates to web accessibility.
In general I’d say the old design felt more like a Keyboard Hobbyist Shop and the newer one feels like A Shopify Theme With Light Branding. Which: there’s nothing particularly wrong with that, but it does feel a bit odd for one of the longest-standing players in this space rather than a new upstart shop?
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That’s actually really interesting - I spent all kinds of time considering ADA guidelines while designing things like road and way-finding signage, but I never really thought about it for the web aside from making sure images have alt text for TTS accessibility programs.
Well said - this was something I was grasping for but couldn’t quite find the words.
Yeah the WCAG has been doing a ton of good work in terms of research/study and refining those guidelines for almost three decades now, but it’s only really within the last decade that court cases have started popping up holding people to them under the ADA. The big one was this Domino’s case that achieved its ruling largely due to Domino’s operating its website as an extension of its physical stores (take note, folks operating web stores in conjunction with any kind of physical location: the ADA absolutely unequivocally applies to the operation of your web store) and ordered them to bring their digital operations into WCAG 2.0 compliance (indicating that it is both a usable and specific benchmark for evaluation of ADA compliance).
The much more recent DoJ guidance on the ADA is definitely a move toward formalizing that websites fall under ADA requirements and that WCAG guidelines may be key evaluation criteria for that compliance, regardless of whether those websites are connected to physical locations that do business, though it’s not quite 100% there yet. It’s an indicator of where the winds are blowing and folks operating web stores that can sell to US citizens (and more broadly websites that can be served in the US) should take note that it is not only in their best interests as empathetic citizens of the world first and foremost but also as businesses trying to stay afloat financially that it is likely soon to be a legal requirement that they provably meet or exceed those guidelines to avoid opening themselves up to very complicated and expensive legal proceedings.
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Totally random drop of Topre Hi Pro caps with PETSCII sublegends!
https://kbdfans.com/products/kbdfans-pbt-ec-hipro-commander-keycaps?_pos=2&_sid=de86663ee&_ss=r
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The tall “buildings” on the left are supposed to be the bottom of a couple keyboards too, I think. No idea what the conical structures on the right are supposed to be, but I think they missed the chance to do a key switch as a water tower.
The new site looks like a shopify theme because it is a shopify theme (so far as I can tell):
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NovelKeys is having a flash sale right now. Among others:
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I think they’re meant to be factory smoke-stacks; the logo makes me think of this building in particular:
Battersea power station in London
Shucks! I already ordered mine. 
Cool of them to put a current GB on sale, though - hopefully not an indication it might not meet MOQ. Everybody go buy a set just in case.
Sorry, my comment wasn’t very clear. I knew they were smokestacks but couldn’t think of any keyboard-related components they could be representing. It’s entirely plausible they’re just smokestacks to complete the factory/power plant scene and balance out the right side of the logo.
I was really surprised to see a current GB on sale. However, I suspect the overall response from people who purchased at full price will be a lot less positive than your generous take. I suspect a lot of people being frustrated they spent ~$40 more than they would have if they waited until the sale.
The GB price is $99.
The $135 amount is foreshadowing the extras pricing once the GB has ended.
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Caught that one on time. I wanted a GMK Masterpiece, that blue is such a unique color IMO. Proved difficult, so I got this one in the full blue variant. I also added some Cream Launch switches. Stoked.
*Used code “BOLT” to get a small discount on the switches.