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The Altar I Keyboard Types Out a Future for Sustainable Electronics

04.07.23 | By
The Altar I Keyboard Types Out a Future for Sustainable Electronics

Electronic Materials Office is a new London startup inspired by the tactile-detailed consumer electronic designs of the likes of Teenage Engineering, Frog Design’s Hartmut Esslinger, and industrial design icon, Richard Sapper. Think “timeless functional simplicity” with a few subtle eye-catching details. The sum of those inspirations are to coalesce in the form of the startup’s first release, the Altar I, a minimalist, ultra-low profile mechanical keyboard sharing many of the same holistic hallmarks of design engineered to engage the senses.

Black minimalist ultra-low profile keyboard shown from top view showing keys against black background.

Black minimalist ultra-low profile keyboard keys floating in midair.

Detail of numeric keys with indent design and large thin typographic numerals in black.

German-born industrial designer Richard Sapper’s black and boxy aesthetic so closely associated with the IBM Thinkpad is very apparent in the Altar I’s mildly Sith Lord impression, right down to the deliberate striking em-dash of orange-red. But a closer look reveals an additional layer of playfulness, including a large typographic treatment across the span of the keyboard’s numeric keys, concave chiclet keys, and a boldly-hued rotary encoder knob that seems to beckon the fingertips for a turn.

Back of black minimalist ultra-low profile keyboard shown from top view showing keys against black background.

Flip over the keyboard and the Altar I’s commitment to subtle minimalism theme is revealed.

The aforementioned work Sapper created for IBM has often been described as the yin to Apple’s yang, dark and boxy, and the Altar I could similarly be compared to Apple’s own Apple Magic Keyboard in their differing approach to creating similarly sleek wireless peripherals. But imagining the colors inversed, and it’s equally easy to envision the keyboard as a descendent of Hartmut Esslinger’s work for Frog Design and their prognostications of portable computing for Apple decades ago.

Black minimalist ultra-low profile keyboard shown from top view showing keys against black background.

Black minimalist ultra-low profile keyboard shown from side view showing keys against black background.

A USB-C charging cable delivers power to a 200mAh cell battery for wireless use via Bluetooth.

Black minimalist ultra-low profile keyboard shown from top view showing keys against black background.

Side image of Altar 1 mechanical keyboard in black against black background showing slim profile.

Black minimalist ultra-low profile keyboard black dial with red-orange detailing.

Each of the Altar I’s plastic pieces are made from post-consumer waste, an extension of Electronic Materials Office’s “sustainability is luxury” ethos, and one more directly communicated by the brand’s boldly direct mission statement: “The world is fucked unless we, collectively, do something about it.”

Altar I is estimated to begin shipping in autumn 2023, with pre-orders for both 77-key US and 78-key UK English layouts arriving before E.U. and World iterations are made available.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.