Summary: Design of a shield used by a beefy man to protect companions in popular video game League of Legends. Designed and partially built together with close friend Vivian Huang.

Vivian’s Profile (I wanted to link her art profile instead but it seems it was taken down)

Description: My first year of college was extremely difficult for me because I had many humbling experiences as well as crippling health problems that put me in the hospital. I nearly gave up on my space engineering aspirations but through constant encouragement from friends and family, I persevered. One of those encouraging voices was Vivian Huang, who was my wife's best friend from high school.

Since Vivian went to a different college than my wife and I, we needed a way to stay in touch with Vivian. My wife persuaded Vivian and I to play an online team based game together called League of Legends (League for short). There are many different characters that you can play as and Vivian gravitated towards big, beefy, MANLY characters and one held a special place in her heart - Braum.

Braum is all of the above plus has a handlebar mustache and a massive shield made out of unbreakable ice to protect his allies. She played that character for several years and when she learned I was decent at designing and 3D printing, she wanted to do a collaboration project where we would make the massive ice shield Braum wields.

There are two main pieces to the shield: the boxy backing (for the actual blocking) and a ram’s head centerpiece. The plan was that I would design the backing and Vivian would design the ram’s head. Vivian, however, wasn’t exactly with the first iteration of the ram’s head and wanted to make the head perfect before giving me the new design - which would then be printed. Around this time, Vivian got extremely sick and all plans came to a halt when she was hospitalized for several months.

Trying to cheer her spirits while she was in the hospital, I finished a prototype of the base when she was still in the hospital and showed it to her. I reminded her that she still had to finish her portion and in order to do that, she needed to get better, for which she smiled.

About a month after the hospital visit, she went into remission for a third time and left the hospital. The hospital changed her and she religiously focused on her life priorities. She focused on finishing school and trying to live her life as best as she could and wanted to (mostly) get away from anything related to video games and live in the present. However, that also meant letting our project go before it was finished.

As the months rolled on, I looked at the base of the shield and I either felt a sense of foreboding or unease because I don’t like leaving unfinished projects. There was always a part of me that was optimistic that we would start again - to physically materialize and embody the inner strength she showed for whenever she was in the hospital through Baum’s shield. 

Vivian died in early 2019 after relapsing a 4th time from cancer. The base of Braum’s shield now serves as a constant reminder to me to finish meaningful projects while you still have time - to not waste time.