Research

In order to begin this project I had to become familiar with the game of chess. I researched strategies, the general rules, why the the pieces are shaped the way they are, and how each individual piece moves.

I looked online for ideas on how to possibly construct some of my forms.

View more in-depth research and slice form inspiration links

>Exercises/Activities

To practice constructing slice forms, I cut out different shapes with Bristol and put them together to create a 3D form.

Iterations

My partner and I made a list of contrasting themes to choose from for our narrative.

To narrow it down we highlighted our top 5 favorite ones.

At first our favorite idea was heaven vs hell so we started to outline what roles would fit with the theme.

View Heaven vs Hell Research

Sketches

We got to a point during our research stage where we struggled to pair the Heaven vs. Hell theme with the chess piece roles, so we made it easier on ourselves and changed our narrative to fit cowboys vs. aliens.

I started working on the cowboy side and create a chart to organize my thoughts and design ideas.

Mars iterations

Iteration 1: I used a 2-inch circle as the center piece and went down a half an inch for the rest.

Iteration 2: I tried to do the same idea as my first iteration but changed the sizing

Cowboy Iterations

Iteration 1: I used different sized ovals to form the torso of the cowboy while leaving the top and bottom flat.

Iteration 2: I continued to focus on the torso but constructed it from the side view.

Iteration 3: I didn’t know how to connect the top and bottom of him so I used the full body silhouette and used only one slice joint

Cowboy hat iterations

Iteration 1: I used different sized circles to create the shape of a hat but it looked more like a cake.

Iteration 2: I then focused on the front view of a hat and scaled them down to make it 3D but the side wasn’t distinguishable.

Iteration 3: I looked at the shape of a hat from the side and front view but added the rim of the hat as a separate piece.

Horse iterations

Iteration 1: I used the horses silhouette as the middle layer and used the body shape on both sides.

Iteration 2: I added a tail and mane to the middle shape for more detail but I didn’t like how the front and top view looked.

Gun Iterations

Iteration 1: I wanted to make the revolver of the gun connected the front and back piece while also layering the back to make it extrude.

Iteration 2: I used the same idea but used one layer for each piece while adding detail to the front of the gun.

Cactus Iterations

Iteration 1: I wanted to intersect the two forms together to give it a 3D effect but it was too big.

Iteration 2: Our initial plan was to use wood so I cut the shape out using the laser cutter.

Iteration 3: I switched to using card-stock and cut this out to see if the size was good.

Concept Statement

My overall goal for this project was to redesign traditional game pieces in chess to fit the narrative of Cowboys vs Aliens, while still using the original rules, mechanics, and goals of the game. After researching and studying the history of chess, my partner and I worked together to pair the roles of the original game pieces with our theme. We specifically chose to use the clear board because the “battle” takes place on the moon. Each side is fighting to take back their home planet, Mars, the cowboys king, and earth, the aliens king. I focused on designing the cowboy side while keeping the original roles in mind. For my pawns I chose to use cacti because they are a defense mechanism. For my rooks I designed a pistol gun which protects the higher class pieces. Like the original knight in chess, I chose a horse which cowboys ride. For the bishop I chose a cowboy hat which protects cowboys from different elements and is a very important item to the queen and king. For the queen I have a cowboy because it controls a lot of the board and is the most important piece. For our materials, we used cardstock and layered the paper to create stability. My partner and I both focused on color and shape as our main design elements. To bring more emphasis to the opposing sides, I have my pieces as orange to give them a western feel and hers as green to fit alien colors. To harmonize each piece, we focused on the contours of each shape to create a 3D form using slip joints. Overall, each piece has its own story that comes together to create a narrative that relates to a traditional chess game.

Production

After many iterations of each piece, I finally finished designing each of the files and began constructing the final chess pieces.

To give each piece a stable base and an accurate height, I made 2 inch rectangles and adjusted the height depending on the piece.

King/Mars

Queen/Cowboy

Bishop/Cowboy hat

Knight/Horse

Rook/Pistol Gun

Pawn/Cactus

Final Chess Pieces

My favorite part about this project was getting to learn about how the game of chess works and its history, then taking that information to create and redesign a whole new narrative. Considering that I had never played chess before, I caught onto the rules and roles of the pieces pretty fast. I felt comfortable with my ideas and did a lot of research in order to start the iteration process. My initial plan was to use the laser cutter to cut my designs out of the balsa wood sheets I purchased. However, late in the iteration stage I hit an obstacle with the laser cutter due to its availability and had to switch to paper. I had to redesign all of my laser cutter files to work with the card-stock and had to figure out how to make the pieces sturdy. I used the Cricut to cut out my final pieces but the paper kept tearing and I faced additional challenges with the few resources available. I was able to come up with a plan and executed what I could in the time that I had. In the end I wasn’t happy with the sizing and craftsmanship of my work but felt that my concept could’ve been fine tuned if I had been able to redo everything in the proper proportions that I imagined.

Portfolio Project

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Checkmate: Process