Kings n Queens
Design and 3D print a custom “chess piece” in the aesthetic of a film that has inspired you as a designer.
-Visual and written documentation of your design process including
- Mood board of selected images from the chosen film, including 3 words that encapsulate your aesthetic.
- Ideation and iterative design process through sketching & modelling
.● Screenshot of final 3D design.
● Reflection of your final design.
- Describe your final design, and comment on your favourite (and least favourite) features.
- What was the most challenging aspect of this assignment, and what would you do differently on your next design brief?
To get started, I made a mood board using elements from my favourite movie, "Fast & Furious." To locate features of each image that are different, I used Pinterest's "similar image" search option. For example, vehicle rims and systemic patterns were discovered during the search.
After doing some research, I started working on some rough designs. I built a wide range of chess piece iterations with the three keywords in mind to explore possible themes. I tried to get as many thoughts down as possible, so these were quite quick.
I next drew items with similar "properties" and "aesthetic" to these sketches. I was striving for a curved, geometric look that looked like a car wheel (rim)
This is where I made the decision to make a basic Pawn. Fit in a maximum print volume of 25mm x 25mm x 60mm, according to the aforementioned parameters (length x width x height). I looked up the "standard" height for a pawn piece and found that it ranged from 43mm to 50mm. As a result, I created a piece that measures 25mm, 25mm, and 50m.
Rendering was used to create my final presentation. Due to limitations, I was unable to 3d print my design. Instead, I built my final design in "Autodesk 3dsMax." These, in my opinion, turned out beautifully. The key reason for this was that I had complete control of the scenario due to the excellent lighting and surroundings.
My final design is made out of one whole shape of frosted glass. The middle represents a car wheel (rim) as its geometrical and curved, towards the bottom is the base, which is compulsory for the cylindrical cavity. Then obviously topped with the "ball" to identify as a Pawn.
My favourite part of this design is the middle "part", which is the geometrical aspect. I think this is the most interesting detail of my design, and the part that most conveys my moodboard. Also, it helps maintain an original chess piece silhouette. I feel like, if I went wild in my design you probably couldn't tell that it was a chess piece, rather just an "action figure" or "toy".
My least favourite design feature was quite hard to pick out. In my opinion, it is probably the ball on top that represents the pawn. This is because it is fairly basic. If I were to choose a "rook" as my piece, it could make the top slightly more interesting.
The most challenging aspect of this assignment was definitely creating the moodboard. I spent so much time trying to find a "theme", I still feel I haven't achieved the right criteria for the assessment. My themes were geometric, curvature, symmetrical. I understand these are not "themes". However, I did not want to be held back on my assignment because I could not find some basic themes. I then progressed to my comfort zone, which was the visual presentation. This was the easiest part of the project because I understand how to use a few computer software (Photoshop, 3ds Max, Vray, etc)
In the future, I would work on improving my starting point and symbolism through the themes, instead of picking a word (geometric). I also feel in the future I may need to improve my overall "mood board" skills because it can be an important aspect of any design. Moodboards should be relatively quick. I spent far too much time on it, which resulted in less process shown.
