Artisan Collector Survey 2023
Artisan Collector Survey 2023
Author: rmendis
Published: Apr 23, 2022
Hello friends! Hope everyone had a great start to the new year. It’s hard to believe we are almost in May! I’m behind on publishing content partially because I’ve been wanting to get this longer-term project off the ground. As you’ve read in previous articles, our little niche hobby has grown significantly over the past decade. While there have been occasional surveys among the broader keyboard hobby, there has never been a regular survey of the community focused on artisan collecting. So let's give it a try...
The Artisan Collector Survey hopes to gain insights into our overall preferences, methods, habits, and other elements that impact how we collect artisan keycaps. With helpful feedback from some makers and hobbyists, the survey was designed to avoid any popularity measures or overly commercial focus, and rather seeks to understand what influences our collecting habits and how we interact with the market. This is an opportunity for collectors to have their voice heard, and to learn more about practices at large.
Survey Sections
There are six sections and around 50 questions total (which should take about 10 mins to complete) covering:
Demographics
This information will enable us to slice the results by region, time in hobby, age range, and other data that you are willing to provide. All data is aggregated and anonymous.
Keyboard and Keyset Preferences
Captures some basic information on what type of keyboards and keysets you prefer, which could potentially correlate to certain artisan collecting preferences.
Artisan Preferences
Information about what types, shapes, colorways, and other attributes impact your collecting focus. This data can also help makers learn about what drives demand for certain elements of their art.
Collection Info
Captures collection attributes such as size, breadth of makers, and variety of sculpts, that, together with data from other sections, will provide insight into what motivates collector desires.
Retail and Aftermarket
Captures collector preferences for retail sales and aftermarket activity. Will help us discover what the biggest influences are on how hobbyists acquire artisans.
Community
Here we ask respondents about the channels and frequency with which collectors interact with the community, and what they like about it.
Giveaways
Thanks to Yohanskee (of Alpha Keycaps), we have 8 artisan keycaps to give away to participants who complete the survey and opt-in to be entered for the drawing. This is a new artisan called "Soomblank" in an exclusive Artisan Collector inspired colorway called "Catisan Collector", under the "Soom Caps" brand, a side project by Yohanskee and his lovely wife.
The brand and artisan sculpt was conceptualized and produced by Yohan and his wife in September 2022 (see high-tech prototype below), and first produced in December 2022 (see initial cast below). Sadly, their cat Somi, who inspired this project, passed away in March of 2023, but his memory lives on in this awesome art.
The Soomblank is a 3D-sculpted, hand textured and resin cast blank in DCS profile with MX stem. This Catisan Collector colorway is inspired by the gradient of the Artisan Collector logo, beautifully rendered in the cat face under transparent resin with black infill outline. The logo underneath is also cast in matching gradient colors - a nice detail. Thanks again to Yohanskee and his wife for this generous donation, and we look forward to seeing more of this amazing artisan!
Take the Survey
The survey will be open until June 1st (assuming we have a sufficient number of responses), after which we spend a few months analyzing and writing up the results. The information collected will only be used in aggregate (most responses are ranges, not exact values), and no personal info will be shared or sold to anyone.
Click the banner below or take the survey here!
