I was approached recently to do a collaborative chess set with someone. I’ll make the pieces and he’s going to make the board. I think it’s going to be a fun project really. The interesting thing is that it made me think about how I design pieces and the thought that goes into them.
There’s sort of a philosophy behind them really. At least with a Staunton-esque type set the pawns are fairly easy since they’re pretty utilitarian and generic. Once you figure out the colors you want to use and get the shape down, there’s a zen like state when you bang out 8 of them.
The king and queen are fairly simple as well. They’re simply a lazy and vaguely grand reflection of the rest of the set. Given monarchs are so far above the rest of their subjects, aside from the color scheme they barely even have to match the rest of the set.
Bishops are their own little bastions of thought and sort of run on their own design wise, again, mainly staying within the color scheme, much like the way religion and government stay apart in today’s society (…in theory).
But the rooks and knights…..those require some thought.
Think about it. The pawns are expendable, the monarchs are merely protectorates of the others, and the bishops, while mobile, really protect only themselves. But the rooks and knights are offense and defense, side by side, and all over the board.
So the rook and knight get special attention when I work. They sort of have to be right, and often they’re the hardest pieces to make. Horse heads can be tough to do on their own, but the pieces need to balance vertically so the piece stays upright, and the rooks need to be simple but sturdy in their design.
The design of the pieces is only half of the problem. There’s a lot of thought and experimentation that goes into the color choices. The colors have to be compatible with each other, but they should be complimentary as well.
Once you have that sorted, you need to figure out how to apply the color. Will all the pieces use the color in the same way or will the pawns differ from the rear pieces? If you go that route, it becomes more difficult because the color becomes used for accents on the rear pieces, adding complexity to your design.
Ahh, so for this collborative set….what to do, what to do, what to do?
Tune in next time, and don’t burn yourself.