The
Queen is the strongest piece although is not the most important. It has
the biggest range of action of all pieces, being able to move along the
diagonals, ranks and files.
What could I design? – Initial Ideas
The
Queen could be tall with long, multiple limbs to reflect its big
movement range and the fact it can move any number of spaces in any
direction (diagonals, ranks and files).
Since
it’s a female piece, it should be recognizable as one. I’m thinking of
female-like features; talking about Statue of Liberty, horror game
female characters etc.
The Chess
Piece – Research, Brainstorm and 6 Initial Ideas
I have chosen to design the “Queen”. I have researched about
this particular piece – what’s its role, how it moves on the chess board etc. I
have also found some images to aid me in the creation of a “brainstorm” and my
6 initial designs.
Evaluation
Soon after, I managed to create 6 very rough sketches of my
potential final Queen piece design. Looking at the picture, I wanted to create
something that looked like it is half robot and half organic.
After giving it some thought, I decided that the first idea
looked more female-like. Since the queen is a piece which can move a long
range, the legs on the first design would suit that particular chess piece as
it depicts it quite well.
Development
of my idea
I have then created 5 variations of my chosen design and
developed it further.
I have mainly decided to develop the eyes as it was the most
important aspect of the design stage at the time.
I have asked my peers for feedback on this and most of them
said that the 2nd (top right) idea is the best one since the eyes
look more feminine and predator-like.
Evaluation
I tried to stick to the idea of an organic-robot character
and decided that the head and the eyes should look robotic since it is where we
usually focus on and it’s the part that we decide what the character looks like
most of the time, whereas the rest of the ‘body’ could be organic-like in the
final design.
Since my peers suggested that the 2nd idea looks
best, I have considered the feedback and went off to create my final design.
Final
Idea
I have taken under the consideration what my peers have said
and decided to combine the eyes on that design with another one. When I was at
the final design stage, I decided to combine the said character design with a 4th
idea (bottom left) which has two eyes as I really liked how those two looked.
I have also included a Queen’s sceptre which looks like the
top of the original Queen chess piece and an orb in the pawned design to
emphasise the role of this particular chess piece and to show how a final
printed off piece could potentially look like.
Evaluation
I really liked the overall outcome of the final design
although if I had more time to spend on my first initial ideas, I reckon that I
would create something more creative.
Although creating the first 6 initial ideas was quite a
challenge and very time consuming, I think it helped me to shape my chosen
design at later stages of the development.
I have created a pawned version of the Queen chess piece to
show how it could look like and how it could function on the chess board. I
have also included the orb and the sceptre to make the piece look more the part
which I really enjoyed doing as it helped me to visualise it as a final 3D object.
I’ve also used a gradient background which makes the final
design look more professional and catches the viewer’s attention unlike the
standard white/single colour background.
