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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.