ai03 Joining CannonKeys

Note: This is an old article written before the most recent site reconstruction.
Information may be out of date.

Happy new year - a time of celebration, and also time for an equally exciting announcement.
Getting straight to the point - I’m happy to announce that I am now working full-time at CannonKeys as a dedicated designer and web developer.

Why so sudden?

• We’ve always had a common goal of wanting to deliver the best possible keyboards regardless of style or price, and it was natural to combine our efforts. Working together as a single CannonKeys team means more combined effort, more combined power, and more keyboards.
• I’ve always wanted to pursue a job that involved software development - which is one of the major reasons I started making keyboards to begin with as a tool to aid my journey, and eventually led to the means becoming a goal of its own. At the same time, I didn’t want to forgo designing keyboards for it, and CannonKeys allows me to tackle both of my passions at once.
• It actually isn’t as sudden as it seems - I’ve been employed for a few months now after an even longer period of discussion and consideration, and so many people I work with have already known about this and kept the secret for the surprise announcement. Many of my past and present projects were made possible by CannonKeys support and expertise; this decision extends from these past collaborations into a path for future designs.

What changes?

• More keyboards. Working full-time means I can dedicate more time to creating more designs rather than stressing over finances, restrictions, and customer support. In addition, CannonKeys will be able to produce and ship my designs in high volume, meaning higher chance of being able to obtain the keyboard if you want one.
• Better keyboards. More dedicated designing time and powerful vendor support means more freedom to tackle the most important part of keyboard design - refining, testing, and improving.
• Software development. I’ll be building tools to help CannonKeys grow - whether speeding up and automating logistics, making limited keyboard runs more fair to all, or helping newcomers choose their first keyboard parts, the knowledge earned from my crippling 6 digits US dollars of education debt will be put to real-world test as I automate the world to get keyboards into your hands quickly and stress-free.

What remains the same?

• Existing relations. Just because I’m a dedicated CannonKeys employee doesn’t mean I’ll suddenly stop working with everyone else - existing projects will continue to evolve with their original vendors, and collaboration projects will keep happening whenever they’re possible. If the Polaris V2 IC launched a week ago isn’t enough proof, I don’t know what will convince you on this front.
• ai03 designs. My design philosophy won’t change overnight or whatnot, nor will my design decisions suddenly be dictated by anyone else. It’ll be the same as before - both designing things that come to mind either randomly or out of excruciating effort as well as collaborations that merge design language and expertise, and shaping them to work in the real world.
• ai03. For better or for worse, I’ll just be the same person you’ve known from before - just supercharged and in turbo mode. Maybe this increases the chances of me creating your dream keyboard faster. Who knows.

And with everything needed said, it is time that I get back to designing the next project. Until it’s ready, here’s a sneak peek at some upcoming things: