Mischen came to The Chopping Block for a simple and elegant flash presentation of their 2006 collections which would also become their official home page. The home page consisted of 3 randomly generated and placed geometric shapes, intersected by a single thick stripe which their logo sat atop. The look of the splash says high fashion in its simplicity and elegance. The collections pages exhibited the work in both a standard, yet imaginative interactive gallery. The usual dash of thumbnails is flanked by the expected large scale presentation to its right. The difference comes in rolling over the presentation scale image which then zooms in and pans around the image as the user moves their mouse. Allowing the finer details of the product itself to be observed in an intuitive way.

The Museum of Modern Art approached The Chopping Block to design what would essentially be an online resource that displayed the various steps in each of the processes. What was delivered instead was an highly interactive flash site that allowed the user to learn each process by actually doing. Instead of simply being presented text and accompanying images, the user actually grabs a brush, a roller or any one of the various printing tools and completes each task progressively until a print is produced at the end of each method.

The project was awarded many times, including: Flash Forward, Communication Arts, The One Show and several others. To this day, many instructors and other sites dealing with any one of the processes still link to the site and use it as a tool to educate future print artists.

Movement Studios is a studio specializing in swing and other forms of dance. The design is retro 50’s or early 60’s in style to give it a swing era feel. It is simple and is a great example of what Flash can do on a smaller sized budget.

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 goal of “Save the Date” was reveal where the long awaited next Phish Festival would be held – the first since the band disbanded back in ‘04. This was done by presenting users with an open map of the US and over time remove states not in the running with some kind of bizarre animation. First to go were New Hampshire, Idaho and West Virginia by having what seemed to be some kind of national cardiac arrest and they expired. Many more were to follow with strange eliminations such as getting blown off the map by God himself (image at top) to being flipped to death by a squid-headed Vanna White.

Launched in 2006 by Rachael Ray, Yum-o!® is a nonprofit organization that empowers kids and their families to develop healthy relationships with food. It focuses on teaching families to cook, feeding hungry kids and funding cooking education and scholarships.

Chopping Block was responsible for the design, content management system, and database. Chopping Block continues to support the site with a re-design of the overall look in 2009.

Before working with the Chopping Block, Rachael Ray’s web presence was broken up into many different parts. The Chopping Block helped Rachael Ray to establish herself as an individual commercial entity online, creating an official site apart from her Food Network show, daytime talk show and other various publications. This new website has now surpassed the other Rachael Ray franchise sites and has in-effect become the new go to site for all things Rachael Ray.

In 2009, the site was re-designed with an all new front end and a very active and popular blog.

The animation for “What is Lupus?” may seem to be a basic to the average user, but the project required an deep understanding of the theories behind what Lupus. To do this, CB attended multiple educational meetings with one of the top Rheumatologists in the US. When executed, the animation needed to remain as close to the scientific facts as any animation can possibly do.

The result is a 17 minute animation that both entertains and informs in equal parts. With characters that illustrate the many effects of the disease without being either too scary or too lighthearted.

Due to the various complexities of dealing with kids and teens online, there has yet to be a social networking site made especially for kids on the same level as Facebook or YouTube. Scholastic asked Chopping Block help develop and conceptualize a such a network with consideration to all the snafus that come along with dealing safely with kids online. The site presented a forum where kids were able to express their creativity as well as compete with one another in various fan clubs. While the site is expanded by the interaction of the users, the contents were primarily developed and provided by Scholastic in order to maintain a safe environment. As an example, kids would be asked to choose a pre-existing image icon for their avatar or use the avatar builder conceptualized by Chopping Block in order to maintain visual anonymity while at the same time expressing individual creativity.

Following the publication of the final Harry Potter edition, Simon & Schuster approached the Block to bring the world of Spiderwick to the web. Another member of the children’s fantasy genre, popular with that same growing audience. The concept was to create an interactive game within a website where the user can discover hidden sprites simply by using the site. Similar to what happens in the actual books, the user can collect these sprites as they take in the world around them and browse through them all in a separate section at a later time.

BAADASSSSS! is a 2003 American biopic, written, produced, directed by, and starring Mario Van Peebles. The film is based on the struggles of Van Peebles' father Melvin Van Peebles.

The Fog of War is an Errol Morris documentary, that tells the story of Robert S. McNamara. A key witness and participant in many of the crucial events that defined history of the 20th century.

The site is intended to give the user a grand overview of McNamara’s life through images, video clips and supporting texts. It is an interface rich with materials included and much not included in the final film. The site received many honors, most notably one of Communication Arts picks for the best of 2003.

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.

The band They Might Be Giants’ best known web incarnation was this second design, which won numerous awards and was the active official site for over 8 years.

The site was a strange shooting gallery that included an accordion, several targeted icons and the heads of presidents Lincoln, Roosevelt, Nixon and Taft. The site was one of the most recognized sites in our portfolio during the years of the dot com boom. We were able to convert many TMBG fans to Chopping Block fans by successfully representing the truly unusual nature of TMBG music with an equally unusual web experience.

One of Chopping Block’s earliest Flash/html hybrid sites. Elvis is a fun mini-site used to promote TCM’s acquisition of the only documentary ever created on Elvis when he was still alive. The design itself is Vegas-Elvis meets younger Elvis in an overall retro presentation via 1960’s typography and color. The site is littered with goodies like ecards, interactive band line-up and even video which was a novelty online in the year 2000.

Engaging flash interactive homepage followed by an elegant straight-forward e-commerce solution. The design is intended for a high-end, tech savvy audience already used to being dazzled by a slick presentation. Chopping Block delivered all that plus a beautiful way to display featured products right on the front page that cycle through at a display window scale. Additionally, Chopping Block helped establish an identity for the shop based upon some of the architectural details of the interior of their physical space. An overall look with a vast amount of potential to expand to their overall brand.

The Mousetrap Project is an initiative to protect America’s children from online predators. The Chopping Block partnered with the truly inspiring folks at the Virginia Community Policing Institute to build a beautiful & captivating education resource about the danger of online pedophilia. Originally created for release on disc and later published online, Mousetrap is an interactive data driven experience for parents and kids. Telling stories & using our design skills simplify the complex is our favorite challenge, and with Mousetrap the complexity was emotional. The studio designed, illustrated and animated the entire project. Successfully tackling a difficult subject is rewarding enough, but hopefully, this educational resource will also help some parents keep their children safe from online predators.