Infinikey Cabernet is a sharp set inspired by one of the most popular red wines, Cabernet Sauvignon. The set was run as a groupbuy back in November 2020, and while Cabernet wine may be smooth, the process of producing this keyset was anything but that.
Currently, the expected shipping for IFK Cabernet is May/June 2022. This is a 20 month production timeline, and inarguably the longest in Infinikey's history, which begs the question: What took so long?
In short, we had to make IFK Cabernet twice. You heard that right. Twice.
The renders for Cabernet did not coincide with the designer's Pantone color references. The initial production version of Cabernet did technically match the Pantone references provided, but the end product looked nothing like the renders that were used for the group buy sale.
To make matters trickier, there is not an exact Pantone reference for any of the colors used in the render. The pink color in the render was by far the hardest to match because there isn't even a Pantone color that was remotely close to the render. We had to start with a color and then do multiple rounds of tweaking until we created a match.
(5 different color variations trying to get it perfect)
Needless to say, getting this set right was a challenge, but one we were ready to take on to uphold a final product that we were proud of.
(Old Cabernet—purplish sublegends, not matching render)
(New Cabernet—sublegends better color matched to original render)
(Old Cabernet photo—color completely off from render, misprinted novelty image)
(New Cabernet photo—color closely matched to original render, sharper novelty image)
Two production runs and 6 color matching trials later, Cabernet is without a doubt the set we have invested the most time and money into getting right. It's also a set we are very proud to finally release to the community.
We put out a statement that we were going to get things right—and we meant it. We apologize for the time it took for this set to come to fruition, but we are happy with the end result and we hope you are as well.
Now it is just another waiting game on shipping. China is still dealing with COVID shut downs. They have completely shut down transportation in and out of different areas, which include the areas where our factories are located. When we are able to coordinate shipping we will post an update to let people know.
