I listened to an interesting interview with the founder of the Bamford Watch Department (BWD). George Bamford started disassembling expensive watches as a kid and built a business customizing Rolexs and eventually partnered with Zenith watches to create his own watch. He sought to bring back the lost art of luxury personalization to the watch industry. In visiting his website, I learned that there were several high-end accessories, including a chess board, but there was no backgammon board. With BWD’s lack of a Backgammon offering, I sought to create a board that would fit their aesthetics. I used their branding for each of the pieces and in place of the 3 dots on each die, I used the BWD letters. The board is designed so that the hexagonal pieces fit perfectly into the troughs that they are placed in once they are removed from the board. I redesigned the dice cups to have a slim profile. When the hexagonal base, fitted with the polar opposite magnets, is joined with the flexible panels, a sturdy cup is created that can be used to roll dice during the game. Once the game is over, simply remove the magnetic bottom and fold the top part flat for transport. After posting my work, I was contacted by George. This eventually led to a conversation with their Director of Design. While we didn’t produce the game, it gave me some validation and led me to create other products with founders and companies that I admire.
