Checkmate: Process

Statement of Intent

Our design is titled “An Ode to Foundations”. It is a conceptual redesign of the classic chess pieces that aims to explore the potential use of this timeless game as a narrative device. We look to draw inspiration from the six aspects of our Foundations class projects including grid perspective, shape grammar, Notan, 2D to 3D, mapping of Ohio State, and a representation of Hayes Hall, to create a new set of pieces that emulate the behavior of each established piece. Our goal is to use the existing rules, mechanics, and goals of chess to structure a new narrative experience, while also exploring the past design elements and principles of each project that has made up our semesters in Hayes Hall. We wanted to focus on using elements and principles we have developed throughout the year to create literal pieces of movements that coordinate with each piece, enhancing the overall narrative and allowing the players to engage with the story on a deeper level. Through this project, we hope to showcase our journey throughout Ohio State and focus on using design elements, principles, and techniques to create a new narrative and experience for the pieces of chess.

Research

To begin understanding the purpose and cause of this assignment, we wanted to make sure that we understood chess completely before attempting to restructure the behavior of the pieces. For this, we began conducting bulk amounts of brainstormed information about the rules and history of the game. For this, we began scrubbing articles, web videos, and even ChatGPT to generate as much broad information as possible. We decided to create a shared document of full information for a collaborative space to store our findings. We began to find the following:

Chess is believed to have originated in northern India in the 6th century AD.
The modern version of chess, with its familiar rules and pieces, was developed in Europe during the 15th century.
There are six different types of chess pieces: the king, queen, rook, bishop, knight, and pawn.
The pieces move in specific ways: the king moves one square in any direction, the queen moves diagonally, horizontally, or vertically any number of squares, the rook moves horizontally or vertically any number of squares, the bishop moves diagonally any number of squares, the knight moves in an L-shape, and the pawn moves forward one or two squares on its first move, and then one square forward on subsequent moves.
The objective of the game is to put the opponent’s king in “checkmate”, which means that the king is under attack and cannot escape capture on the next move.
The world chess championship is the most prestigious title in the sport, and has been held since 1886.
The longest game of chess ever played lasted for 269 moves and ended in a draw.
There are many different variations of chess, including blitz chess, bullet chess, and Fischer random chess.
The word “checkmate” comes from the Persian phrase “Shah Mat”, which means “the king is helpless”.

Exercise #1 & ACCAD visit:

Following this compilation, we visit ACCAD to study ways that students interacting with games. This was a main focus on forms of User Experience. After this, with our generated set of notes we were tested by playing a game of chess along with a focused game of Jeopardy over the rules and history of chess. Once we completed these visits and practices, we conclude a few of the notable findings that we used to begin ideating the basis and structure of our alterations to each piece. Taking into account the behavior and structured hierarchy of each piece became a very important focus for us throughout our forms of ideation. We began to throw out a list of ideas to begin constructing various amounts of slice forms. This began to be a challenging part, as I found it really challenging to convert forms into separated planes of slices.

The easiest way to begin making progress was to simply do and make mistakes I created. Rather than drawing on paper or 3D modeling, I had to truly create with my hands. As we began to ideate lists:

Researching Ideas:

bolded = topic names
* = interest in pursing further

Picnic Theme *
Hiker

Ants

Watermelon

Ritz Cracker

Strawberry

Peanut Butter

Grand Canyon Theme *

Yosemite

Ol Faithful

Rocky Mountains

Niagra Falls

Food Fight Theme
McDonald’s vs Wendy’s

Coke vs Pepsi

Fries

Burgers

Milkshakes

Geographical Theme

Beach vs Mountains

Gnomes vs Plants

City vs Country

Astronomy vs Anatomy

Summer vs Winter

Classic Versus Theme

School of Rock vs Pokemon

Plants vs Zombies

Pirate Ships vs Each Other

Technology vs Traditional

Hot vs Cold

Magicians vs Scientist

Fantastic Mr. Fox vs Bogus, Bunce, and Beans *

Construction and Iterations

Testing:

As we began to narrow down our list of topics, we realized the importance of exploring and narrowing down the most attainable and effective options. To achieve this, we started creating forms through sketching and cross-section to create slice forms. By breaking down the larger concept into smaller, more manageable pieces, we were able to visualize and manipulate the design more easily. This allowed us to make changes and adjustments as needed, which was particularly helpful when working with complex or abstract ideas.

By taking a structured and iterative approach, we were able to refine our ideas and develop more effective solutions. This process was crucial to achieving our desired outcome and helped us to identify areas where we needed to focus our attention and resources. Overall, the process of narrowing down topics and creating slice forms is an important part of any creative or problem solving process. It requires a combination of critical thinking, creativity, and attention to detail to develop successful solutions.

Constructing Ideated Forms

1.

Constructing a vehicle

2.

Constructing a building (what would become Hayes)

3.

Creating a larger sphere

We also began to focus on finding roles for the themes we found most interesting in. This took research and meaningful thinking to assign each piece intuitively to our hypothetical players. Following the conclusion of that introductory slice form investigation, we began to look at structuring the characters and assigning them to pieces. For this, we began to ideate with the Fantastic Mr. Fox vs Bogus, Bunce, and Beans. Below is a diagram I began to layout to focus on a story:

With further consideration and storytelling of these pieces and rolls, we began to realize we were simply creating a themed chess set rather than focusing more on creating our hierarchy and roles assigned to each piece. This caused us to go back to ideating. As we continued to process through each of these exercises and iterations of research, we wanted to really focus on creating effective structure and sturdy bases along with how each piece took up its square upon the board. We became intrigued in focus on creating notable forms to give an impactful role for each piece depending upon if in the middle of any game, you could assume which each piece was. This gave the focus on hierarchy and scale to create fulfilling pieces. We also wanted to visualize the pieces lined up in their neutral location. For this, we needed to define an idea.

Focusing our ideas in Construction:

We really enjoyed the previous construction in the #2 slice form construction. This building has a very prominent board setting a commanded the board. We also realized this could be representative of Hayes Hall itself. Focusing on this, we began to finalize our ideations and draft each into a cohesive concept. We began to reflect on the forms and projects we had completed during our time in design foundations. From this, we began to narrow each down into shape grammar, grid perspective, Notan, 2D to 3D, mapping of Ohio State, and a representation of Hayes Hall, to create a new set of pieces that emulate the behavior of each established piece. This required a focus on the past projects we had previously completed and a determination of the behavior of each. Creating a drafted map for each of these became our next goal as we focused on conceptualizing these pieces:

Once we had finalized the ideas for each piece, we moved on to the next phase of our project, which was to create digital files and iterations using Adobe Illustrator. This stage of the process allowed us to explore various materials and experiment with different design concepts. While we were open to using a variety of materials, we found paper to be particularly flexible and easy to work with, especially when it came to laser cutting availability. To bring our ideas to life, we began by creating simplistic slice forms for each of the projects. This involved carefully crafting the designs using Adobe Illustrator and ensuring that each element was precisely measured and aligned. Once we had completed the designs, we moved on to the next stage of the process, which was to prepare the files for cutting on the Cricut machine. Using the drafted files as a guide, we carefully set up the Cricut machine and prepared the paper for cutting. Our files are depicted below:

Focused file for the rook

Focused file for the pawn

Focused file for the Queen & Bishops

Cutting with the Cricut was not free of issues. We had many late nights focusing on crafting high-quality pieces. Photographed below is a common issue and limitation we had to evaluate with detailed files and a focus of the 0.0181 thickness of our paper:

Finalizing our pieces

By calculating the thickness of the paper and the length and width of the squares we finalized scaling and began to construct the final piece. After conducting a thorough examination of our project ideas, we proceeded to finalize each piece with a focus on sturdiness and detail. We recognized the significance of a side-by-side comparison in terms of discovering inspiration for the movement, hierarchy, and scale of our work. As a result, we reflected on several key factors including shape grammar, grid perspective, Notan, 2D to 3D, mapping of Ohio State, and a representation of Hayes Hall. By carefully considering these elements, we were able to refine our ideas and ensure that each piece of the project met the goal behaviors of each piece within the concept:

Pawn Design

Rook Design

Knight Design

Bishop Design

Queen Design

King Design

Reflection

As I look back on our design project, I would definitely say I am am happy and think this set is truly an a accomplishment. It was a rewarding experience working alongside my classmate and coming up with a joint concept that we were truly passionate about. From the beginning, we struggled finding a true idea we thought was impactful and original. Overall it was very interesting exploring the potential of chess as a narrative device to summate our time with Design Foundations. As we drew inspiration from the six aspects of our selected class projects and used these elements to create a new set of pieces that truly emulated the behavior of each established piece. As we worked on this project, I was continually impressed by the level of effort and dedication it truly took challenge myself to move out of my comfort zone and pushing through setbacks. We both pushed ourselves to think creatively and critically, exploring the limits of what was possible.

Looking back on it now, I am incredibly proud of what we were able to accomplish. I feel we were able to use our design skills and techniques to create a new narrative and experience for the pieces of chess, showcasing our growth and learning as designers. Overall, this project was an successful concept and process, and I’m very satisfied with the united achievement.