Assignment 2: Abstraction

So for this week, we're told to simplify an image related to our imaginary company (based on previous assignment). So puzzles, solving puzzles, logic, i chose a chessboard. Easy right? Not exactly. The chessboard is already quite simple, albeit with many pieces. What was hard was choosing what to omit during the abstraction.

I realised there are two ways to do the abstraction. People recognize the chessboard for both its concept, and it's physical appearance. For example, the pawns and pieces, they are the concept of the game, with their rules and objectives. A chessboard is just a board without concept. However, a chessboard is also easily recognised by its physical appearance. This physical appearance being the lines of the chessboard. I realised through simplification that the concept was stronger than the board. The black vs white, showing some sort of puzzle or contest, the squares which show territory and general status of gameplay. I simplified based on these, moving down the chain both conceptually and physically. I reached that point where its meaning is lost, and chose to move on using more of the concept than the physical appearance. This being the very typical black-white orientation of many puzzle based games. (or dual-colour). Backgammon, chess, checkers, etc. This week is just the abstraction, not yet the business card, so i'll put that one in the next posting. Hope my process of abstraction below is clear. See the two main abstractions, one physical, the other conceptual.