Turn Around Design Chess Set

Graphic, Brand, Research and Development, Modeling & Industrial Design School Work

Goal:

To create a product from any recycled materials while also maintaining a sustainable production process.

While a student at the Art Institute, I undertook a course that challenged us to find a throw-away material and then make a viable product from it. We began with grand ideas of chairs made from old carpet or coffee tables from old abandoned tires. As time wore on, however,  it became apparent that narrowing both this massive collection of material and product possibilities was a bit overwhelming. Plus the idea of making whatever product with little to no added adhesives (to make the product completely sustainable and recyclable) was more and more difficult. Dubiously we continued on and after copious cups of coffee, gobs and dabs of  various adhesives and heat guns, shop time,and lots of swooping in and out of  recycled good yards, we came to the “end” of our struggle. Voila… an upcycled, sustainable product was born, unfortunately, this ideation and creation phase was just the first part of the course.

The second part of this course was replicating your painstakingly detailed product 24 more times for a school bazaar… in a week. A slight reminder this took 8 weeks to create (ideation to experimentation to fabrication).

I ended up laser cutting for over 18 hours straight to cut out the logos, acrylic chess pieces, corner covers, squares of album covers, and the backs of chess boards. And I spent more than a few hours heating, slicing and cutting holes into vinyl records (heavily masked of course cause you know heating up vinyl is… not good for you to say the least). The process of assembly took about another 15 hours. In the end- it was totally worth it.