[GB] MBK Legend‡ — GB Live! | Jan 15th - Feb 15th

MBK LEGEND‡

If you follow low-profile, Choc switch keyboards at all, you know that keycaps have been left out of the equation for far too long. MBK keycaps have only been available as blanks so far, but now it’s time to change that.

MBK Legend‡ is the first dye sub keycap set for Choc switches. Inspired by classic keycap legend design, Legend‡ offers broad versatility for many of the low-profile switch boards available today. The typeface was chosen for its even-feeling letterform design and historical characteristics. Icons were designed to compliment the letterforms, referencing the line weight and proportions. The idea? Integrate the alphas and icon mods to create a set that will always look balanced in even the most exotic layouts or rotated thumb clusters.

The kits include three colorways: Black on White, White on Black, and Legend. For now all alphas and mods can be mixed and matched to preference and extra homing keys are included in all of our alpha kits to cover a wide variety of layouts (including Colemak, Dvorak, Workman, etc.), as well as 2 homing blanks for those rare souls that just need more. Hiragana alphas? Done.

We will be expanding compatibility in the future… more cap sizes, more MBK, more Legend‡

KITS:

Myth‡ : Why Cherokee legends? A few years ago, I made a trip back to where I went to college to reconnect with old friends. One night, we were out drinking beers with our former type design professor and he talked about his latest project at the time… which involved helping to preserve the heritage of a civilization: that of the Cherokees. The great Cherokee Nation was once widespread/extensive; now there are only 10,000 people left who speak the language. There were written documents, but no complete digital, modern typeface. Only incomplete, poorly designed fonts existed and were not adequate. My professor met and worked with elders in the community, researched over 180 years worth of documents, and proceeded to fill in all of the gaps and missing glyphs. The end result: the most accurate and complete type family of the Cherokee language to date.

This story made me reflect on how easy it is to lose our history and culture, especially in our modern times where our knowledge can travel the world in a heartbeat, but can also be wiped off of a disk just as fast. Language is a tool we use to preserve the past which we often take for granted, but countless cultures have already been lost to the mists of time. Myth‡ is a humble tribute to this culture, and a reminder that our MK subculture may be as ephemeral as any.

-tectonicplate


GALLERY OF ALL KIT COMBINATIONS


RENDERS:


Corne-ish Zen


Planck Light-inspired

KEYCAPS:
PBT dye sublimated

GROUP BUY ACTIVE:
Jan 15th - Feb 15th

ESTIMATE FOR VENDORS TO RECEIVE KITS:
July 1st, 2021

VENDORS:

PRICING (US):
$30 for alphas / $32 for mods

Join the “Low Profile Keyboards” Discord >> Discord
Instagram >> https://www.instagram.com/fk.caps

DESIGN BY: tectonicplate
RENDERS: iljey
MBK PRODUCED BY: FKcaps
MBK DESIGN BY: mburger

8 Likes

Myth set is hot, just wish I could get regular alphas in that color way.

1 Like

Thank you. There will be future runs and that might be an option!

Love the Cherokee story behind the myth set so much.

2 Likes

Okay, maybe with the existence of choc keycaps, we’ll see more choc switch users out in the wild

image

4 Likes

I feel like even if the keycaps are awesome (these are pretty up great!) it’s still going to be hard to get over that the switches are hot garbage compared to most MX. But hey, maybe better profile caps will make them more tolerable. I’m kinda curious and might pick up a set.

2 Likes

Great story and seems like awesome work by your old professor and elders in the community. Are you going to be donating some proportion of the sales to the Cherokee nation?

4 Likes

Yes, we are currently working on exactly that and plan to share a formal announcement in the coming days!

3 Likes

Hey, thanks for the mention on This Week in Keyboards!

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UPDATE: Part of the profits made with the MBK Legend‡ Myth Alpha kits (Cherokee alphabet legends) will be donated to the Cherokee Preservation Foundation to help protect this endangered language and culture. You can read more about it on Reddit

2 Likes

Looking forward to getting into my first low profile build with your set!

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Told myself I was done grabbing caps for a while but after reading through your update I decided to jump on these. Can’t wait!

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paging @deshipu in case they haven’t seen this, for low-profile cap win.

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Thank you @kimslawson, I have already ordered it, and I can’t wait to put them on the Kamina.

2 Likes