SA A History of VioletsMay 2025: GB THREADFeedback Form LinkVendorsUS: SPKeyboards
EU: Coffeekeys
More to come
BackgroundBuckle up, folks. This is a biggie.
This wasn't the set I thought I was going to try to run next. I've been challenging myself to create a quickie design a couple times a week, based on silly names I come up with. One recent one was "Cream of Cadet," which spawned the idea for a low-contrast, beige-on-cream cadet set.
While I was messing around with that and trying to make it more legible, I started fondly remembering the old Violet on Cream rounds, and came up with a name for another purple set, "A History of Violets." (Get it? Like that David Cronenberg film from 20 years ago? Sigh.)
Drawing influence from the movie's mood, I went dark; using two shades of deep purple, with cream's presence reduced to just the legends and accents. And you know what? I liked the results. A lot. And I felt like other people might, too. So I pushed this ahead of multiple other projects, and I'm presenting it now.
Yes, it
could be said this is just Cream on Violet, instead of Violet on Cream. But there are a LOT of shades of violet, and the two used here are nowhere close to VoC's.
Violet on Cream (left) vs A History of Violets (right), both using identical legends. Render colors sourced from Signature Plastics's own provided hex values. Since I was now making something of a 2014 throwback set anyway, I thought
why not try to design and include ALL the niche kits you'd see offered back in the day? After all, Symbiosis had 20 kits! So I looked at every feasible request anyone had ever made of my previous designs, and drew them up.
And I mean EVERY one.
It's up to you if ANY of these kits get made, but let no one say I didn't try.To sum up - this looks good, no one owns the concept of purple (except maybe Grimace), and it's been too long since we got purple, cadet legends, ostentatiously comprehensive kitting, and Signature Plastics's quality all together to party. Let's do this.
ColorsAll colors are Signature Plastics stock ABS resins.
RDR purple alphas
REC dark purple mods
WCK cream legends
Alert keys are WCK with REC legends
Colors in indirect and direct sunlight
DatesSpring 2025, with shipping in the late summer.
PricingLikely Kits:Base: TBD
Extension: TBD
Numpad: TBD
40s/Ortho: TBD
Cream Alert: TBD
Novelties: TBD
Less Likely Kits:Ergo Full Base: TBD
Ergo Mods Only: TBD
Monolegend Alphas: TBD
LED: TBD
Norde: TBD
Mac: TBD
Typist (Colemak/Dvorak): TBD
VimCaps: TBD
Revised January 2025 KittingBase
Extension with Macro Columns
Numpad and Roman Numerals
40%/Ortho
Cream Alert
Violet and Lotus Novelties
Unlikely Additional KitsErgo Option 1: Full Ergo Base
Ergo Option 2: Ergo Mods Only
Monolegend Alphas
LED Shinethrough
NorDe
Macintosh
VimCaps
Typist (Colemak and Dvorak)
Additional RendersMore
About the DesignerMore
Hi, I'm Jeremy. I'm a Boston-based maker, photographer, and designer. My previous sets include SA Dasher Nights and DCS SMRT. I like to draw inspiration from vintage boards of the 1960's-80's, especially when it comes to weird keypunch and terminal legends.
Support AHoV!I'll be blunt - this is a LOT of keycap. I'm counting on y'all to agree with me that this color combo looks pretty spiffy, and to
vote with your wallets and prove you want to see bigger, more outrageous offerings like this come back again. This set is a deliberate throwback to the heady era of the 2010's, when windowed, ErgoDox, NorDe, and Colevrak kits were a common thing.
Do you want to see more of that? I do.
Again, there's no guarantee ANY of these kits will run without your support. So please fill out the feedback form and let vendors know you want them.Also, comment here!
Interest isn't just determined by a form, but also through the excitement demonstrated on social media. Share this on Instagram, Discord, Bluesky, or wherever. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. Talk to your pets - do they know how important this is to you? Maybe get a tattoo of the logo, as a conversation starter.
Or, add the AHoV banner to your signature:
[url=https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=124067][img width=480 height=120]https://i.imgur.com/wuGkUra.jpeg[/img][/url]
This message has been brought to you by the Committee to Manufacture A History of Violets.
ChangelogMore
25/03/08: Updated kit renders to match the finalized versions from the proposal I sent to SP in January.
25/03/04: Updated color codes - REC dark purple mods, RDR purple alphas.
25/01/02: Feedback period ended. Split off some keys from the base, and created a new Extension kit. Merged macro columns into Extension kit. Proposed two different ergo options - a full base, or just the mods. Sent proposal to SP for dibs.
24/12/03: Added VimCaps kit.
24/12/02: Added cream R1 brackets and missing R2 ? key to Typist kit. The cream brackets allow mixing with the Cream Alert accents. Expanded Mac kit to include function row and Apple ISO. Added Novelties kit render.
24/12/01: Expanded Mono kit to include alphas, added more 1.5u and 1u bottom-row keys to the Ergo kit, so it can be paired with the Mono kit without needing to buy the base. Added Novelties kit, which will consist of a new violet symbol and retro lotus flower from the old Rounds runs. Novelty set render will come as soon as the violet artwork is finished.
24/11/30: Moved cadet numerals from Cream Alert to numpad kit. Added unscooped F and J to base. Added unscooped 5 to numpad kit. Removed unscooped F from Typist kit. Removed redundant R3 up arrow from 40s kit.
