Knap is a design system used to create business information systems. If you are all about automating processes, this is the read hand-tailored for you.
Let us begin from the end.
This year’s Web Summit was a complete success for Bild team and our colleagues from ICT Cortex. For the first time, we went to Lisbon – all guns blazing. And the spotlight was on the booth A-454 in FIL 3, ALPHA 4.
Behold the story of a wonderful inception and of that – how a baby was thrown onto the big scene and became an adult straight away.
Let’s now take a step back and talk you through the basics of Montenegrin language.
What does Knap mean?
In Montenegrin “Knap” is considered to be the right measure, the right fit. You know the feeling when you’ve had just enough to drink before you passed out? That’s the exact moment when you’d use the expression: “I was Knap drunk”. Even though drinking genealogy isn’t the right one for this piece… You have to understand. We still have some port in our veins.
So, Knap represents the right fit and in our case, Knap is considered to be our new, awesome, ass-kicking, adorable startup. It’s a design system, created for big business systems that are in need of cutting costs, saving time and those that want to be on top of the game, all the time.
That’s what booth A-454 in FIL 3, ALPHA 4 was all about: Knap design system and talking people through it.
The idea came years ago, but only now did we have the time, the right experience and resources to bring it to the world. The story begins with two masterminds behind it all. Danilo and Danko are long-term friends and colleagues and it’s safe to say that they are kinda backbone of Bild Studio’s operations for years now. Their love for design and technology and vision for the future is the main catalyst behind the whole Knap project.
What does Knap do?
What exactly is the Knap Design System? Let’s hand it over to Danko:
“Knap is a design system used to create business information systems. It is based on Google’s Material Design language and expands upon it with additional guidelines, rules and components, all of which are going to be open-sourced (according to the current plan). Gradually, these will be complemented, on the commercial side, by Figma UI kit, pattern library, boilerplate code, low-code production tool and, on the long run, no-code production tool.”
2021. was all about setting the structure and it’s a gargantuan process. So far the team’s been working on:
- UI regions and variants
- Navigation layers and forest
- Suite Navigation Drawer component
- App Navigation Panel component
- Low-code production tool for App Navigation Panel (as a proof of concept)
Prior to Web Summit, Milica had the pleasure to present Knap to the masses. And boy, did she do it. Knap got the funding for the team to go to Lisbon, in the first place. That’s where things get interesting. A medium company from the small country of Montenegro presenting its brand new startup got loads of heat. Investors from all around the world came asking questions and taking interest in what’s to come. With that said, it seems that Knap is already getting some traction. But, there is one more thought that crossed our minds. Danilo says:
“It was in Lisbon that we were reassured about the potential Knap actually possesses. Basically, there’s no similar systems around, if there are any. This speaks to our decision as a company to invest in this kind of project. Now, we can proudly say – we made the right choice.”
From this point on, Danko and the team continue to develop Knap and hopefully MVP will be fully operational until 2022’s end.
Lest we forget, there is one more piece of this puzzle worth mentioning. It’s an old metalhead who “baptised” Knap. Milivoje’s ingenious proposal for the design system’s name was adopted with no further negotiations. That’s all the more reason to believe that this project was spot-on from the start.
