Versio and Legio overlays are now available!
Many of you have asked when Versio overlays would make their triumphant return. We’ve had a number of manufacturing and design hurdles to overcome, but we’re thrilled to announce that Versio overlays for all firmwares are now available – and so are overlays for Legio!
If you can’t wait another second to order yours (and we can’t blame you), you can head to our webshop and buy them now (or ask your favorite retailer to pick up a pack for you).
If you’d like to learn a bit more about the details and the design process, read on!
How do overlays work?
These overlays are quite simple to use. The holes are cut to fit over the pots and jacks on the module, so you can put them on and take them off without any tools (or even taking the module out of your case). They’re designed to fit snuggly, so even if your modules are mounted vertically, they should stay on.
We designed overlays for all current Versio and Legio firmwares, so whether you just want an overlay for your favorite alternate or want a complete set we’ve got options for you. We’ll continue to release new overlays as new alternate firmwares are released for both platforms, too.
We had previously offered Versio overlays, but due to manufacturing difficulties they were off the market for a while. In that time, we released the Legio platform and some new Versio firmware as well, so if you had an old set, there are new overlays for you now as well!
Did we mention that there are LASERS?
Not only are these overlays practical, they look really nice, too. But the best part? They are made by LASER ROBOTS. Yes, you read that correctly: your modular system will now be laser robot approved.
These overlays are made out of impact acrylic that is CNC’d (read: made by robots) to fit over the modules, and then the art is laser etched (read: even cooler robots) into the acrylic. This means that the overlays are resilient, easy to read and install, and have an über-coolness factor of +10.
Environmental impact of plastics
If you read last week’s blog post, you’ll know that we’re committed to making sure our products have the least environmental impact possible. So in the process of developing our new overlays, we had a lot of questions about the best material to use.
When we think about the footprint of an item, we look at the whole lifecycle. We tried a lot of ideas for the overlays (we’re still interested in a felt option one day!), and two materials stood out as functional, durable, and potentially recyclable: acrylic and aluminum.
Although we were able to get aluminum overlays made, they were heavy, and after doing some research, we learned that the lifetime carbon emission for production of aluminum was substantially higher than for acrylic. So we turned our focus to acrylic, and learned that a big part of its environmental cost is that it’s a group 7 plastic, which means many recycling facilities will not accept it. But it’s actually quite easy to recycle for places that do take it! As more and more recyclers accept acrylic, the footprint of this material will go down. Not to zero, of course, as it’s still a plastic, but it will be on the better end of plastics.
While we don’t love the use of plastics, we find it to be the best option at our fingertips. If this is still unpalatable to you, we offer free downloadable panels on the World of Versio and World of Legio pages that you can print out or just view on your phone.
Get yours today
Overlays are available now individually or as discounted multipacks in our shop, so you can create a library of swappable firmwares in your rack. Packs are also available to retailers, so you can ask your local shop to add some to their next order!
