The Kuler Desktop AIR application was one of Adobe's flagship cross-platform AIR products. Drawing on the user experience established on kuler.adobe.com, The Chopping Block consulted Adobe on functionality, wireframed parts of the user interface and designed the application elements. The studio built out semi-functional prototypes of the designs, which drastically sped up the approval process, emiminating the production time going into development.

Kuler is Adobe's web-hosted application for generating color themes that can inspire any project. It's a creative social micro-network that aknowledges that color relationships are a design commodity worthy of discussion, collection and fandom. It serves as a fantastic example of how online crowd-source social networking can empower creatives and seamlessly add value to supporting Adobe applications. The Chopping Block is proud to have played a part in the creation of Kuler. The studio consulted with Adobe during the concept phase, helped build the initial back-end and designed the UI for integration within the Creative Suite. Additionally, we assumed responsibility of the design, working closely with gskinner.com and stamen.com to add additional functionality and convert everything to Flex.

Knowhow was an Adobe Labs project that brought real-time, contextual based help content into Adobe Illustrator CS3. The Chopping Block worked closely with Adobe to define, prototype and build the Flex based application. The panel & supporting server application seamlessly integrated user generated tutorials into Adobe Illustrator CS3.
As a users switches from tool to tool, the Knowhow application panel updates to display all available keyboard shortcuts and a dozen of the best (Adobe certified) user generated tutorials on the web. Because the panel is driven by the context of what the user is currently doing, all the information presented is accurate and genuinely helpful. Never before (and never since) has Adobe achieved such a tightly integrated solution for help, education, inspiration & productivity.

Design and concept by Anomaly. Anomaly asked Chopping Block to conceptualize the animation from supplied storyboards. We then took the concept from animated samples to reality and executed the technology to visually synchronize two physically separate flash banners on a full range of host sites from Google to Gawker. As if that weren’t enough, the banners displayed rich content based upon a pre-existing television schedule. This was rounded out by the construction of a mini-site which also pulled content from the same database as the larger banner ad campaign.

Brooklyn Children's Museum returned to The Chopping Block with a specific goal: Make a brand-new site that reflects the modernized and expanded museum designed by the world renowned Rafael Viñoly Architects group. The site, like their new home has been greatly expanded since the original site which was also built by The Chopping Block in 2000. It now reflects all the new offerings the museum now boasts. Project comes complete with a client-ready content management system also designed and developed by The Chopping Block.

Working with long-time client COA, The Chopping Block helped develop a website for The Department of Defense whose goal was to, “expand the number of civilian quality child care spaces available to military families”. By providing essential information to potential candidates through a simple, easy-to-understand interactive map.

The Council on Accreditation came to Chopping Block to solve a problem… how do we serve our many clients with all the specific standards and guidelines while keeping the process customized, simple and easily accessible, not to mention cutting down on the printing of millions of pages of manuals that 95% of which do not even apply to every given client’s needs? The answer was to take the process online with personal or group customized standards manuals. Final product included full Content Management Solutions from editing to managing individual accounts and online standards manuals.

The Chop Shop Store is the eCommerce wing of the Chopping Block. It was created as a place where Chopping Block designers could showcase and sell their work on tshirts, posters and other printed goodies. The Chopping block wanted a site that showcased our beautiful, cleaver and funny products in an unusual and distinctive way that was still intuitive for the user. The Chopping Block designed, wired and built the site to be a fully functional eCommerce experience.

In an effort to merge print advertising with web, this site converted each ad into an online rich-media interactive by adding data and links to each item visible in the ad. The site was then updated each month to reflect the current full and half page advertisers reflected in the most recent edition of Home & Garden.

The Guitar World people wanted Chopping Block to bring their online identity into the next generation by keeping their hard-rocking overall look intact but giving it a major facelift. In addition to the general look of their site, we then helped them to forge a new site for their guitar tabs at tabs.guitarworld.com. For those who don’t know — tabs are sheets of musical notation that are specific to the instrument. Their history is that of crumpled up paper at the bottom a guitar case or always having multiple pages missing from a favorite song book. By building an online tab display/player and associated tab shop, The Block and Guitar World helped to bring the tabbing culture into the era of the MP3.

Chopping Block worked with the acclaimed viral/guerilla leaders at Campfire (best known for their work with “The Blair Witch Project”) to produce a short-lived web component to their campaign in support of HBO’s “True Blood”. The web side of the campaign included two public web sites that were intentionally leaked to create a buzz. “Blood Copy” was an blog open to the public that was intentionally leaked through proper channels to create a buzz. From that blog, a user eventually posted a link to the “Gatekeeper” who was a live actor on a web cam that only allowed “real vampires” selective access to an online forum named “Revenant Ones” which provided a plethora of media that illustrated a back-story to the central True Blood series.

Lexar’s Image Recovery software needed an identity from the ground up and asked The Chopping Block to build an entire visual package from splash to error page and from icon to logo. Additionally, The Chopping Block built and wired the visual “front end” of the interface to the more technical “back end”.

Papermill Playhouse is a well-known theater located in Northern New Jersey with a rich history in the stage arts dating back to 1938. Chopping Block built papermill.org from the ground up, including design, the content management system and database.

The game is based upon an episode of the TBS original series “Ten Items or Less” and apparently something people who work at grocery stores are actually known to do after-hours. Using the newest 3-D technology available to Flash known as Papervision, Chopping Block was able to simulate both the visual of a grocery market isle as well as the physics of real turkey bowling!

We invite anyone to compare it to the real thing.

Gretchen Rubin has made a name for herself in the arena of happiness with her www.happinessproject.com blog. Timed to be released in conjunction with her first major publication, the toolbox puts many of her theories to work in the form of a social network that anyone can participate in. The Chopping Block was asked to not only execute the designs, but was brought on early in the stages of building an overall concept. We helped to define each of the modules and in some cases worked to expand their usefulness as well as creating some intentional limitations. HPT is a network with purpose, so limitations can be as important as flexibility in many ways.

“No!” was the first album by They Might Be Giants specifically geared for children. The Chopping Block created the entire identity and a whole imaginary world for “No!” to exist in. The print material was actually based upon the creative work executed for the interactive CD/ROM included on the disc. Most of the illustrations that adorn the booklet along with the lyrics are re-drawn scenes from the interactive portion of the project also designed, programmed and conceptualized by The Chopping Block.

“No!” was the first album by They Might Be Giants specifically geared for children. Chopping Block created the entire identity and a whole imaginary world for “No!” to exist in. In addition to that work, the interactive portion of the project was also designed, programmed and fully conceptualized by The Chopping Block. 14 of the CDs 18 songs were fully animated and most had an interactive component. In keeping with They Might Be Giants bizarre world-view, the interactive parts stay true to what is happening in the lyrics. For example, in “Fibber Island” a real house and dog become a house made of pie with the dog two-miles wide. Perhaps the key moment on the disc is when the user is able to sort through quarter segments of George Washington’s head which culminates in four segmented presidential heads of Mount Rushmore in “Violin”.

During the time that The Chopping Block's Thomas Romer was making his new-born daughter a custom flash website, Parents Connect had simultaneously been planning an online scrapbooking tool for their users. They saw Lulu’s website, were highly impressed, and “Lifebook” was born. Chopping Block presented an overall look and design for the application and helped plan and conceptualize the individual modules.