Project Statement
Our trio of chess sets is based on the three main gods of Greek Mythology and their power struggle between the three of them. Alex had Zeus, god of the sky, Sarah had Hades, god of the underworld and I took Poseidon, god of the sea. To create a sense of unity we all used the god themself as the King and their weapon of choice to be Queen. For Poseidon, I used his trident for the Queen as that is his main weapon of choice. For the Bishop, I choose to use Orion since he has the ability to move through the stars but he can only stay in the sky so that relates that the piece is confined to color on the board. For the Knight, I choose Pegasus to play on the natural connection of it being a horse. I also related with the knight being able to jump and the wings of a Pegasus. For the Rook and I went with Atlas since I get since of the Rook being very strong and also I related to Atlas moving straight. The last piece was the pawns which I choose to represent as Dolphins. In some myths, Poseidon has a fleet of dolphins. I also felt a dolphin could accurately depict the pawn’s ability to become Queens upon reaching the other side of the board because of their intelligence. I based all my pieces bases to their traditional base seen on chess boards.
Process
View detailed project process at Chess Board Redesign
Reflection
This project was very interesting because it took two 2D designs and combined them to make a 3D dimensional piece. I found the design phase quite fun, to have some guidelines of what a fundamental chess piece is and find a way to combine that with a completely different theme was a fun challenge. The process of making sure everything would connect and make sense was rather difficult and went through quite a few iterations. I was in love with the final result however, this one project I could actually see myself using for myself in the future, and was really cool to see such an iconic design be modified to our liking.