As a relative newcomer to the mechanical keyboard hobby, I was thrilled to land the opportunity to do a design for The Key Company’s Artists X TKC Deskmat Collaboration. People look into mechanical keyboards for many reasons, but one of the major appeals of this expensive and time-consuming hobby is the ability to customize components down to the finest details. I wanted my deskmat design to be fun while also incorporating some of the grit that comes with building a keyboard.
“Keybjört” is a parody on the works of a certain Swedish furniture giant–their illustrated assembly manuals provided the perfect format, and the design includes plenty of familiar details for hobbyists to appreciate. In terms of color, I chose a lower-contrast and neutral palette that offers mass appeal. The most tedious part of my design was having to dust off my 3D modeling software in order to create the stylized exploded view of a mechanical keyboard. The deskmat ended up generating a great deal of buzz in the community and was ordered from all parts of the world!
