Last year in December I attended a design hackaton where I had to create a keyboard for an app called key emoji. The app is massive in across Asia and they wanted to promote the app in the west by hosting a competition. 

The description of the event is below:

Baidu and Facemoji are calling for designersfor a Jam that you’ve probably never seen before: A Keyboard Jam. (Sorry, musicians, not that kind of keyboard jam.)

We all spend hours every day, texting and communicating using that tired keyboard. So if you could spice up your keyboard and personalize it, how would you do it?

Come design what you feel! But, you know, preferably…in the shape of a keyboard.

The Facemoji app lets you customize your keyboard. At Keyjam, meet our team and give the old-fashioned keyboard a makeover, creating:

• Keys, buttons, and fonts
• Animations and dynamic elements
• Backgrounds and color palettes

All of the designs you make are yours to keep, but we’d be happy to buy them from you at the end of the challenge!

The whole day was great fun! Unfortunately (making excuses) my laptop decided to crash half way through the design process and I lost my designs. However, I decided to start again. 

Please see below my examples.

I previously went to a type hackthon and someone won with an Ouija board typeface. So I decided to create an Ouija inspired keyboard. I wanted the planchette to be visible every time you click on a letter.