UNIVERSITY PROJECT
WHAT WAS THE BRIEF?
Come up with a packaging concept & design for a chess set called Zugzwang. The set is to be produced by the International Chess Federation (FIDE), with the explicit aim of getting more females into the game. You should showcase the game as intellectual and historic but in an exciting and contemporary way to engage potential female consumers.
WHAT WAS THE SOLUTION?
Female interest in chess has been unjustly lost due to a history of misogyny surrounding the game and in particular, an institutional sexism within competitive chess that persists to this day. It isn’t that girls can’t play chess, but rather social inequality and gender stereotyping means that they don’t — and this discrimination starts early; according to Rothgerber & Wolsiefer (2013), girls as young as six are aware of the stereotype that “good chess players are usually boys”. If girls are made to believe that they aren’t naturally gifted at chess, then why would they take it up?
My packaging concept signals a reinvention of FIDE: The Zugzwang chess set is an honest acknowledgement of the sexism FIDE have nurtured in the past and a strong display of their intention to prevent it going forward. This brand transparency and integrity is valued immensely by my target audience and has the potential to transform chess from what is viewed by many as an outdated, dull sport, into an exciting, inclusive and modern game.
Inspired by protest movement ephemera, the typographically-led design of the packaging exposes misogynistic comments made by influential figures in chess, with the ripping motif representing the removal of prejudice from the game, as well as the rediscovery of female interest in chess. The colours used are derived from Women’s Suffrage movements of the early 20th century, but elevated to a wider, brighter palette to reflect diversity and inclusivity.
The instruction manual doubles as both a guide for playing chess and more importantly, as an educator of the female figures that have significantly impacted chess throughout the game’s rich history. This aims to increase awareness of the profound influence women have had on the game of chess and therefore show girls (and everyone for that matter) that a female interest in the game is not only as valid as a male’s, but that it is in fact crucial to chess itself.
In a game that is all about movements, Zugzwang is making the first move towards gender equality in chess.
