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Marcin Wichary
Marcin Wichary

17.7K Followers

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Feb 7

The Kickstarter for my book about keyboards is live!

It all started here, in a way. I wrote about the Turkish typewriter in 2015, and people seemed to like it. I wrote about how typewriters (sort of, not really) ruined typography and it was a staple of my public talks that year. For years, the book announcement page — the book that started out of these articles — was here at Medium. Today, the book that started is one big step closer to reality. My book about the 150 years of keyboards, from typewriters to the newest mechanical marvels, is now on Kickstarter.

Keyboard

2 min read

The Kickstarter for my book about keyboards is live!
The Kickstarter for my book about keyboards is live!
Keyboard

2 min read


Published in The rectangle behind you

·May 29, 2021

The making of Four Laps

On May 27, 2021, during an internal lightning talk session at Figma, I gave a remote “Ignite” 5-minute talk. (This is a live recording; there was no video editing after the talk.) I love Ignite talks and occassionally experiment with them, but this was the first one I’ve done…

The Rectangle Behind You

25 min read

The making of Four Laps
The making of Four Laps
The Rectangle Behind You

25 min read


Published in The rectangle behind you

·May 29, 2021

The Ignite talk that changed room colours

This is a five-minute Ignite talk I gave at ORD Camp 2019: I got excited about the idea of using the room’s ambient lights after seeing a demo of the light setup and console in the conference room at Google in 2018, and witnessing that room change colours:

Presentations

2 min read

The rectangle behind you: The Ignite talk that changed room colours
The rectangle behind you: The Ignite talk that changed room colours
Presentations

2 min read


Dec 31, 2018

The ghosts of technology in today’s language

Yesterday, on Twitter, I asked: I wonder sometimes what would be the oldest extant word based on technology no longer in use. Taping an interview? Dialing someone? I received many more answers than I expected, although it soon became obvious how my rules were impossible to follow, even by me…

Language

10 min read

The ghosts of technology in today’s language
The ghosts of technology in today’s language
Language

10 min read


Dec 12, 2018

The best laid tracks

Stories of San Francisco’s ghost stations

San Francisco

27 min read

The best laid tracks
The best laid tracks
San Francisco

27 min read


Nov 20, 2018

Follow along and up

I crave follow-ups. When I was little, I loved opening the encyclopedia to learn more about something I just heard — particularly when it felt the volumes were roughly as big as I was. …

The Rectangle Behind You

7 min read

The rectangle behind you: Follow along and up
The rectangle behind you: Follow along and up
The Rectangle Behind You

7 min read


Nov 20, 2018

Choose your own (secret) adventure

As a grandson of someone who worked on the railways I might be predisposed to extreme punctuality, but as a speaker it’d my job to be timely either way. …

The Rectangle Behind You

3 min read

The rectangle behind you: Choose your own (secret) adventure
The rectangle behind you: Choose your own (secret) adventure
The Rectangle Behind You

3 min read


Published in Figma Design

·Oct 10, 2018

Figma’s new finger tips

How Doug Engelbart’s famous demo inspired a designer’s lifelong obsession with keyboard shortcuts — Today we introduced a new way to master keyboard shortcuts: a redesigned panel that shows up at the bottom of your Figma screen. It will respond to your behavior by highlighting patterns in your keyboard use and help you discover new key combinations in a fun way. We’ve taken our…

Design

6 min read

Figma’s new finger tips
Figma’s new finger tips
Design

6 min read


Oct 10, 2018

#10: A time machine behind the cypress trees

This is a newsletter for Shift happens, an upcoming book about keyboards. I’ve had, so far, a lot of luck with keyboard-related adventures. …

Shift Happens Book

8 min read

Shift Happens newsletter issue #10: A time machine behind the cypress trees
Shift Happens newsletter issue #10: A time machine behind the cypress trees
Shift Happens Book

8 min read


Jul 2, 2018

#8: Four hands on one keyboard

This is a newsletter for Shift happens, an upcoming book about keyboards. It was four of us, four teenage boys sitting down to a computer to spend hours playing a videogame known to no one else. It was four of us because the little corner of a room in a…

Shift Happens Book

8 min read

Shift Happens newsletter issue #8: Four hands on one keyboard
Shift Happens newsletter issue #8: Four hands on one keyboard
Shift Happens Book

8 min read

Marcin Wichary

Marcin Wichary

17.7K Followers

Designer/typographer · Writing a book on the history of keyboards: https://aresluna.org/shift-happens

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