I saw this neat-o looking 65 on KBDFans this evening. If I hadn’t already gone for two other 65% customs in the past year, I’d be thinking about this one.
I like the idea, the layout, and the look - but I’m with the commenters on the page there, not a fan of the engraved quote on the back.
https://kbdfans.com/collections/new-arrival/products/ic-phase-one-65
Oh my, that’s quite handsome.
Seems like the Less-but-Better keycaps may be an obvious fit for this.
hehe it’s all good until the quote on the board which is kinda ironic because less is more 
Awesome, thank you so much for flagging this! I’m in on the less but better keycaps, and will probably be in on this board even though the design philosophy doesn’t quite match Dieter Rams’ principles (as so many have noted, and tried to express to the designers).
As a fan of Rams, I’m the perfect mark for these 
I’d love to know what Rams thinks about sacrificing a key for a useless static number display. 
You mean sacrificing a key for aesthetics. Happens all the time!
Plus a Copyright symbol engraved on the bottom? No issue with a brand engraving, but the Copyright symbol ruins any aspect of custom/quality board for me.
This one might just have jumped the proverbial shark for me. I’m shocked they resisted the temptation and kept it knobless.
Now that the GB is opening soon and prices have been announced, I’m revisiting this and would rather source a white Grid650 now. The final design direction is just too uninspiring for me now to be on board for the cost, sadly.
I hope I don’t come off as overly negative or pretentious, but it really bugs me how heavily they reference Dieter Rams here. The motifs used are clearly inspired visually by his work, but the design feels a bit dishonest to me.
It’s almost as if they put in enough visual cues to bait people who know that Dieter Rams’ work is “good design” but don’t actually care enough to investigate why they’re useful designs.
For example, the debossed design on the bottom weight looks like a speaker grille from a Braun radio… but it’s not a speaker. And the static “15” badge is an homage to the design of a flipping clock mechanism… but it doesn’t work as a clock.
This is what it reminds me of really…
I’ll admit they really got me in the beginning, but I’m recalibrating to find the spirit of Rams in objects and products, rather than being convinced by the letters of Rams (if you will) emblazoned on something that draws on the aesthetics of Rams whilst leaving his underlying principles behind.
This isn’t to overly put down the effort, though - any effort to produce anything to put out into the world is something I try to respect.
You’re right. When I review products, I generally try to understand why the designer did something a certain way, and hardly ever do I just bash on something I am not personally a fan of.
I think it just really bothers me when something feels disingenuous (whether or not that was the intent here, with all the direct mention of Dieter Rams).
The quote on the back has a real “hey, fellow kids” vibe… were the designer to follow that advice, that quote would be in the literature and not carved into the keyboard. 
This reminds me of a design playkeyboards or greystudio would do
The keyset and board were neat ideas until I saw the whole “less, but better” plastered all over. Just seems to go against the entire principle. Maybe should have gone with “less, but better, but actually more, but why?” instead.
I kinda thought they’d take the feedback from the IC; it was mentioned a lot at the time.
I think in the end, everyone’s interpretation of what would be authentic to Dieter Rams is different.
I like the board, in general, on it’s own regardless of the inspiration. I think it looks neat. I also really like the work that Dieter Rams has done over his career.
gasp
$488.00 a piece though. Whew; turns out I didn’t like it THAT much.
I had the same reaction. I bought the keycaps because I loved the elegant simplicity. The keyboard renders were interesting, though the references got a bit heavy-handed for my liking. I got the GB email earlier and YIKES.
Well. It sure is priced like a studio item. :x
