[zoom in screenshot - 114K]

Chopping Block, The
http://www.choppingblock.com

Category:
Graphics & Web Design > Studios

Created by:
Chopping Block, The in 2001

Rating:
7.3 (23 votes)

Date added:
May 16th, 2002

Last updated:
May 16th, 2002

Suggested by:
dazed (1)

Our comments:
Definitely obsessed with oranges and orange farming (!), this NYC based graphic design studio founded by Cooper Union graduates has a unique web site that features many pieces of detailed vector graphics and animations. In fact, to see the actual level of detail, you need to use the zoom in feature of the Flash player because the design window is optimized for 640x480, and is therefore too small.

An interesting menu system is used in this design: when you click on a menu item, that particular item moves from its original position at the top to the bottom and a drop-down (actually up) menu appears just underneath.

As a final note, don't forget to take a look at the "friends section" to see what others have done with the company logo.

--Aycan

mlocke (26) - Jun 24th, 2003 Presentation  8 Graphics  8 Usability  6 Technical  10 Personal Slant  9 Overall 8.2 Great idea! Taking a look at their older web sites, I love what they've done with the different themes and concepts. They're different, creative, and funny. Also, besides all the laughter, they're great designers with a a comedic twist. Persnal slant 9 out of 10. ml. chemcical 9 (10) - Mar 18th, 2003 Presentation  8 Graphics  8 Usability  6 Technical  7 Personal Slant  8 Overall 7.4 I think this site works well in separating themselves from there competition. You don't see to many design firm sites that take the chances they do here with the whole orange thing. But it works, because right away you think of them as a creative, somewhat wacky company that is going to treat your project differently than the myriad of design firms in NYC. adamjw (11) - Mar 6th, 2003 Presentation  7 Graphics  7 Usability  6 Technical  6 Personal Slant  10 Overall 7.2 Great concept and graphics. The song is very funny can be switched off if needed. Has an interesting portfolio with some great artwork. Some great Stuff. More sites like this! Diamond (4) - Jan 17th, 2003 Haters. This site is awesome, even though the song is cheesy alot of work went into making the song cheesy. This site is 4 years old what do you expect. Get a clue. fohsman (11) - Jan 10th, 2003 Presentation  6 Graphics  6 Usability  5 Technical  7 Personal Slant  4 Overall 5.6 Compared to the others this site isn't even on the same level. didulica (44) - Dec 5th, 2002 Presentation  7 Graphics  7 Usability  6 Technical  7 Personal Slant  6 Overall 6.6 this one is getting old, and it looks pale in comparison with the other top contenders by project.rodger   (unregistered) - Nov 9th, 2002 mmmmm....the song and the theme they use is so weak , i can't say that i can do a better job but i would not want to, CHEESY. what is up this that song????? aarondesign (15) - Sep 26th, 2002 Presentation  8 Graphics  8 Usability  9 Technical  10 Personal Slant  8 Overall 8.6 The song, while as humorous as it is, doesn't make up for the just mediocre quality of the website. Overall the animations are not impressive, nor is the navigation, although their portfolio does show quite a bit. Finally, the song isn't exactly foreshadowing a professional and renowned design house. Amarelito (44) - Sep 22nd, 2002 Presentation  10 Graphics  10 Usability  6 Technical  10 Personal Slant  10 Overall 9.2 Greeaaaaaaat!!!!! and they are fun! Loved it! ErrOnReq (11) - Sep 1st, 2002 Presentation  10 Graphics  10 Usability  8 Technical  10 Personal Slant  10 Overall 9.6 You can turn off the music. If you look in the bottom left corner, you will see a bird sitting on some plants. Mouse over that for audio controls. I hate mystery meat navigation, but you CAN turn off the audio. Kireth (13) - Aug 31st, 2002 Relatively interesting look for the site, but not being able to turn off the music is highly annoying (especially if you don't happen to be a TMBG fan). A serious negative was that it took me a few minutes to realize that the "Feed the Little Chopper" thing at the bottom (with the oranges you drag and drop) was supposed to be a way of viewing their portfolio sites or whatever. I thought it was one of those fun little Flash loading games like "see how many times you can smack the fly" kind of things. I was getting pissed off at all the popup windows until I figured out what it was that was making them come up. Another big negative is restricting the site to a tiny little window. I do not use 640x480 and one of the nice things about Flash is that you can zoom, but that does little good when it's stuck in a non-resizable window. angie (3) - Aug 29th, 2002 Presentation  7 Graphics  10 Usability  6 Technical  7 Personal Slant  6 Overall 7.2 i hate that song! James (2) - Aug 1st, 2002 "you can't turn the music off!" if these guys have corporate accounts they will hear this sentence a million times. Jen Segrest (2) - Jul 22nd, 2002 Ok, first off,the song is They Might Be Giants. TMBG is a client. A very cool one at that. Thats why the song is there, if you could get TMBG to do a custom song for you, you'd bet you'd use it, I know I would! They are so much fun. Long time fan here though. Anyway the site didn't annoy me, I liked it . It needs more info I think. I want to click on names and SEE the stuff they did for that name, but not getting it. Fun site, just need more stuff to see. iMiles (2) - Jul 19th, 2002 It would have been better if the pop-up hadn't sized itself to a tiny strip and refused to allow me to make it any larger. As it is, it's impossible to see anything. Alienating Mac users isn't good in my book. by Brian   (unregistered) - Jun 14th, 2002 I really like this site. It is fairly easy to use and has a good visual layout. It is impressive how they managed to succesfully integrate webdesign with oranges. It is very unsual, in a good way. One thing that could have been better is using oranges for links on the main page. They are not at all descriptive of the link destinations. Those are an example of a navigation nightmare. Otherwise, great site. by dean227   (unregistered) - May 17th, 2002 Don't get the whole "orange thing". Spent waaaaay too much time on a joke noone gets. Here's a good tip for anyone. Don't ever write a song about your company and if you do, don't ever put it on your website.