Teacaps

On LegendsNov 26, 2022

Hey there!

This is going to be a place where we can share updates on our releases, post news that might not be worth an announcement of its own, and just chat about what's been going on behind the scenes.

For this blog's inaugural entry, I thought I'd take some time to talk about how our design has evolved over the course of the year or so since Teacaps started out. More specifically, to discuss the process of developing our legends, and what you can expect Teacaps sets to look like going forward.

When I say legends, I'm referring to the text and icons on all the keycaps in a set; our font choice, the size of text and icons, and so on. When we started out designing Brown Sugar Boba, our first set, our goal was a reasonable one; come up with legends that are unique and let our personality shine through, while being subtle enough to let colours and illustrations take center stage. This resulted in a sensible, not-very-complicated set of legends; all text, all on one line per key.

A black keyboard with Teacaps Brown Sugar Boba keycaps.

This worked more than well enough. The centered legends were unique, and more importantly, we loved them.

After we released Brown Sugar Boba, however, we were super eager to get as much feedback as we possibly could before we released Ritual. We wanted Ritual to be absolutely perfect, learning from mistakes we made with BSB so that we could deliver the perfect experience. Looking back, though, we were so keen on doing everything we could to make Ritual even better than BSB, we lost sight of a large part of what made it so unique in the first place.

Not everyone was big on our design (which is totally fine, and should've been well expected!). As a result, while designing Ritual, we took a step back and decided to avoid taking risks and instead go with corner aligned legends, as you would expect to see from most other manufacturers. We figured we could still set ourselves apart with a soft, simple icon style, still conveying everything we aspire to stand for. This formed the basis for what we called our version two legends.

Teacaps Ritual on a black 75% keyboard with a silver knob.

Right after this, things got hectic as we got ready to launch Ritual. In hindsight, we were so busy, we didn't take the time we should have to make sure the direction we were headed in was what was best for us.

It took until the end of Ritual's pre-order period, as we got to work preparing what's next, for us to take a step back and wonder whether we really made the right decision here. Next came many long discussions as we tried, perhaps much later than we should have, to verbalize just what made Teacaps, well, Teacaps. The answer to this, we realized, was two words: having fun. Our goal had always been to make this hobby just a bit more lively, a bit more interesting, a bit of a happier place for everyone, including ourselves. We also realized that it went against all this to go back on part of what had made us interesting to start.

With this, we set out to make it clear what we were all about. Some of you will remember the changes to our branding that followed soon after; we updated our logo and colours for consistency and so that we could redesign the Teacaps website to be faster, smoother, and to better represent us.

This also led to the creation of our version three legends.

A black 65% keyboard with Brown Sugar Boba, with updated legends.

In designing these legends, we made sure to prioritize what truly makes a Teacaps set unique — fun, lighthearted vibes. Our updated legends pay homage to the legends that got us started, while keeping the over 12 months of learning we've done in the meantime. We've gone back to centered text legends, but the rounded icons are here to stay.

This is what you can expect the legends for all Teacaps sets to look like going forward, beginning with Brown Sugar Boba round 2. And this time, we're certain these legends are here to stay.

Thanks a ton for sticking around as I recounted and reminisced over a year's hard work! Cheers!