Wooden artistry adds warmth to Apple's 'cool' keyboard design

Independent manufacturers can find it difficult enough to get their products to market without adding unusual construction techniques into the mix — just ask ADzero about the struggles they've had with their bamboo smartphone. But Orée, a hardware startup based in the south of France, is a little further along the line.

The company has been operating a pop-up store in Tokyo this week to promote its first product, the €150 ($193) Orée Board. It's a wireless, wooden keyboard carved from a single block of walnut or maple with customizable laser etchings. By demonstrating the product in a public setting, Orée hopes to sell customers on its unique properties.

"Apple's design is really great and cool, but it's cool," he says. "It's not really warm. We would like to make objects that carry empathy and warmth as we use them." Gesturing to his own personal Orée Board, Takata continues: "I have been using this piece for the past four months, and as I use it I realise that this keyboard actually grows. The color changes as I use it because of the oil from my fingers, but this doesn't really look dirty — it really grows."

Orée plans to launch "a couple more" products around September; the company wouldn't be drawn on what those might be, but Takata says it "won't be a mouse," and designer Franck Fontana told me he wants to work with "raw materials, like leather or stone." While the Tokyo workshop will close this Sunday, Orée hopes to return in October, along with similar pop-up projects in New York, Berlin, and Paris this year.