First off the mood board and inspiration. I am a fan of the first Pacific Rim movie directed by Guillermo del Toro, a movie basically about giant monsters called Kaiju fighting giant human piloted mechs called Jaegers. The dull color palate and designs of the Jaegers and Kaiju surrounded by the gloomy setting really created a more realistic approach to the Mech and Kaiju genre of pop culture. Unfortunately like how most things go, this was soon followed by a sequel literally comparable to excrements where they forfeited all previous themes of dark and realism and went full child-orientated anime style where the sudden change of color palate to bright colors would make anyone bleed their eyes out while crying in disappointment. Well as the famous Chinese saying goes: a spoon full of sugar and a spoon full of sh#t. Nothing can be perfect. 

 

Nevertheless I have taken themes such as the dark color palate along with the glowing blue neon from the blood of the Kaiju. My mood board have also included hexagonal patterns, bright lights in a dark setting, cyber punk inspired images and of course images from the franchise. I have taken the pictures and derived key word themes relating to them as written next to the images.

First, I built the restrictions of the project defined by the given dimensions. By using this as a starting point I am able to work around what I can do and what I can’t do during the design stages rather than create a finalized project before realizing something is wrong. 

 

I used the hexagonal pattern and incorporated the crest from the movie into it. There are other ways to display a symbol rather than sticking it to the top like traditional chess pieces so I experimented with the placement.

 

 

With a base created, I did some ideation on the main focal point of the chess piece. I have taken key props from the film such as the Kaiju and Jaegers but I felt that it would be too cliche and I would have done little of my own interpretation of the film.

I thought I needed a more in-depth exploration of the design of traditional chess pieces and the meaning behind each individual. I have noticed that the origins of each piece affect not only the physique but also the movement on the board in terms of what it can do. For example, rooks are based on the castle wall and this can be seen with its guard tower like appearance but also by its ability to cover the length of squares on its horizontal and perpendicular axis, a barrier like a wall. 

 

I noticed a key connection between the King and the main plot point of the movie. In the game of chess, the goal of the game is to protect your king from enemy attacks. This is identical to how Jaegers and humans in the movie fight off the Kaiju to prevent them from destroying their homes. I came to the realization that to be inspired by the film, the piece doesn’t need to incorporate aesthetic features but the inspiration can be linked to the idea behind the creation.

Taking into account the catch phrase of the film: ‘Go big or go extinct’, I wanted to still capture the theme of scale as identified earlier on during the mood board. These are humongous mechs battling with titanic creatures. If I were to design the whole chess board, it would be a continent and the pieces would be Jaegers on one side and Kaiju on the other. And with the goal of the game to be protect the king or lose, what difference is that to Kaiju  attacking cities and jaegers fighting to defend them?

 

Thus for my final iteration I have made the main focal point of my king piece, the city itself. Still wanting to include the interesting wing design taken from the Pan Pacific Defense Corps crest and symbol, I played around with the placement of the skyline adding layering force perspective.

Beginning with the base which was constrained by the requirements of maximum size the piece could be and the hole for production.

Brain cells were lost due to technical difficulties.

To ensure I would get crisp shapes and measurements I like to create a grid based on the image plane before creating each section as a solid.

As you can see, the two layers are at different angles, heights and locations. Thus I have made two individual grids for each specifically.

And here is the final 3D model on Rhino. From bird’s eye view, you can see that the form of the skyline silhouettes are placed as a divider to show the original symbol of the Pan Pacific Defense Core. However, from almost all other angles, the image of a city skyline can easily be identified from two layers of form. 

 

And thus I present the King, inspired from not the aesthetics, not the characters of Pacific rim but the plot point of survival and the theme of scale.