I loved this challenge and tried out a new coloring technique for the poster. For this design I wanted to reference the pawns ability in some games to become a king once it reaches the other side of the board and made on pawn in the kings place on either side larger and more unique. I also referenced a tactic I use in my own chess games for some of the pawn designs.

The rooks main job is defence as it can only move sideways and up/down. This design references thsoe moves as well as the Castling tactic where the rook protects the King once the king is in the corner of the board. I loved using the new techniques I learned and having 100 items to work with gave me a fun challenge where I wanted to incorportate everything without overwhelming the piece.

For the knight, I tried a new color palette, and while I loved the colors, in hindsight it stands out too much from the rest of the series. However for this design I focused on the L shaped movements of the Knight and attempted some new composition techniques to make it more unique.

This was by far the hardest composition challenge, because from the outset I knew I wanted to highlight the diagonal movements of the Bishop in chess, however I needed to design in a way that didn't over crowd the piece. Overall I loved the solution I came up with to get all 100 peices on the design while also not over crowding the design.

For the Queen, I wanted to reference the Queen of Hearts with the pink color palette. The composition was tricky because the Queen is the most powerful piece in chess and I wanted to find a design that represented that power, presence, and command. I attempted to create a crown around the main queen, and played around with reflections along the bottom. I also have two queens protecting a 3rd smaller one along the top to reference how the Queen protects the king throughout Chess.

For the final piece in chess mania, the King, I honestly struggled with the composition. For me, the King is the most useless piece in chess because its only purpose is to be captured to win. While considering this dilemma with my boyfriend, he suggested that I try an optical illusion design using a spiral. I loved this idea because it represents how the King is perceived as the most powerful piece due to its nature; however, in reality, that is an illusion, as its movement is limited and mostly used to avoid your opponent's approach.