TYPO Slim
With the success of the TYPO keyboard for iPad Air and IPad Mini. Bluemap Design’s product design team creates the TYPO Slim an ultra-thin wireless keyboard. Made of CNC machined aluminum with a super matte anodized black finish. It is feather light and less than 5mm thick. A perfect on the go keyboard that is stylish and functional.
We want to make the keyboard look as thin as possible. However, the keyboard mechanical components required a fix height dimension to work correctly, and we cannot change that. So we made a tapper form toward the front to be a wedge-like shape. The block contains the mechanical components intersect the wedge shape creates a contrasting form. We choose to CNC the keyboard housing out of high-grade aluminum to achieve a thin wall section while maintaining the structural integrity requirement. The aluminum is anodized with a super matte black finish. The idea is to minimize the reflection that distracts your eyes. It looks cool at the same time.
We use a combination of software such as Solidworks, Keyshot and Adobe CC. We always start the project with research to understand the market and competitive products. It establishes design criteria and guidelines to evaluate the concepts. After that, we begin the creative work with sketches. We took the most promising sketch ideas into 3D CAD and create renderings and rapid prototypes for client presentation. We refine the selected concept, make more prototypes, then finalized the CAD with all the internal mechanical features. The final CAD, CMF, and documentation are later released to the manufacturer for production.
The respond for the project has been overwhelmingly positive. We learn a lot about how to push the limit of aluminum and CNC machining. It was challenging to make a product that thin. The key is to juggle the balance of creating something ultra-thin while maintaining structural integrity.
