1. Beginnings & the DSA Profile
Li’l Dragon is a passion project of a custom keycap set that takes inspiration from the exiled dragon-child of
the anime series Miss Koboyashi’s Dragon Maid.
This project originally started off as DSA Li’l Dragon, where I initially chose the DSA
keycap profile.
I felt that DSA was the most faithful to the original character inspiration
because of its short height and rounder shape.
Her hair color inspired the top-down cream to purple gradient; her dress, the pink
accent color; and her hair beads, the dark blue-grey legends. All colors in this project
were selected from the Pantone Uncoated Formula Guide. In order to emulate her
character in a typeface, I decided to go with all lowercase legends and a rounded sans.
2. Challenges & Limitations of DSAThere are
two main processes of printing legends on keycaps: dye-sublimation and
injection molds (double-shot and triple-shot). The manufacturer, Signature Plastics
(SP), utilizes double-shot injection molds which have many more limitations on printing
and manufacturing than dye-sublimination.
Some examples of their limitations are minimum line weight, negative spacing between shapes, and cost of
production. In the injection molding process, every new key needs a
new mold. We were heavily restricted in what we could do with the set purely because
of the desire to have two custom fonts and the costs of the new molds.
3. DSA KittingDue to the high costs of creating
all of the new molds of every keycap for the doubleshot
injection mold process, we were incredibly limited in what kits we could offer to
the consumer. We decided to have two alphas kits (Latin and “Katakanna”), three
novelty modifiers kits to accommodate for the three main distinctive keyboard layouts
(60s-TKL-1800, Ergo, 40s-40s Ortho), a separate number pad kit, and a spacebars kit for
further compatibility with keyboards that require specific sizes of spacebars.
We as a group decided to limit all of the modifiers to be exclusively novelties to further
focus on the faithfulness of the inspiration of the character herself.
4. Market Research
After preparing all of the files for production, creating initial renders, assembling
proposed kits, and finalizing colors, we put out interest checks and surveys on multiple
popular platforms in the mechanical keyboard community. Upon gathering feedback, we discovered that a majority of
the audience wanted an
option for text mods and icon mods in addition to the novelty mods. Users were also
interested in more flexible kitting as well as collaborations with other makers in the
community for more products surrounding the set.
Because of all of these requests, we ultimately decided to switch from DSA with SP to
KAM with Keyreative for manufacturing.
5. The Swap to KAM
Entirely switching manufacturers opened up a lot of opportunity to add
and change things. The main design decision we had to sacrifice in this transition was
the DSA profile for KAM, which is the new manufacturer’s alternative to DSA. KAM is slightly taller
than DSA, and is a modified version of their KAT profile from the second row profile.
The dye-sublimation process is much less restrictive, in both design and cost, than the
injection mold process. We ultimately decided that this switch would be
more worthwhile for numerous reasons, the main ones being that we would have much
more creative freedom and flexibility for different keyboard layout compatibilities.
6. The Final
Product LineThe vast number of new options in utilizing dye-sub allowed me to design a number
of new things. During this process, I was able to modify the existing novelty mods
and create new novelties to feel more cohesive without restriction, add options for
both blank alphas and mods, design completely new icon mods and text mods, add
Hiragana alphas, and diversify the kitting to better suit both common and more niche layouts like ergonomic
split, orthographic, and 40%.
7. Deskmat
Designs and Process
I wanted to create a line of deskmats to pair with the keycap set. This series of
deskmat designs was inspired by a Post-It doodle of clouds I created. I then sketched out the rest of the painting
on a 9” x 4”
paper using POSCA paint pens. From there, I scanned the image, painted it digitally, and
formatted the file to the manufacturer’s production standards.
There are five variations of the painted version, and two other minimal designs based off
of existing novelty designs in the set.
Credits
Renders: Steven
Olver
Photography: Alexotos
Additional Support: Bubaroo, Swishy
. . . and many others!