Ever wondered what legendary stories from science fiction, horror and fantasy took place in your neck-of-the-woods? Maybe just curious exactly where those raiders finally put that Lost Ark into deep storage? This subtly distorted map of the 48 contiguous states does exactly that, and is aptly dubbed The Altered States of America (click the image for a better view). For this task, Chop Shop researched a large number of films, television shows, comics and more to discover not some these things were filmed or produced, but where according to the scripts and scenes these stories are supposed to have actually taken place. Continue at the jump for the key to the above map. Read More…
The National Constitution Center recently asked for The Chopping Block to tackle a very prickly issue… The Second Amendment. The challenge was to somehow illustrate the controversial amendment in a way that simply speaks to the amendment’s meaning. Taken directly from the ratified document:
“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
Considering that the controversy surrounding this amendment has been ongoing for well over 40+ years, it seemed fitting that some kind of struggle should be depicted in the illustration. Initial sketches simply flanked the terms “militia” and “individual” which are the two terms that truly provide the ambiguity in the amendment which arguably has become the focus of all such public discussion. The added entanglement of the revolutionary and modern firearms with the very banners that are displaying the two terms really says it all… without taking any sides.
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Cassini / Hugens mission to Saturn
Seen above is Poster #2 from our Historic Robotic Spacecraft Poster Series for the Cassini/Huygens mission at Saturn. Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004 and has generated some of the most striking images ever taken in planetary exploration history. Consider backing our Kickstarter project and receive a limited edition Cassini, Voyager or Curiosity screen printed poster for your trouble.
Our new Kickstarter project proposes the creation of three screen-printed posters celebrating the most popular and notable interplanetary robotic space missions in history. Going into this, we knew that poster #1 had to go to the hugely popular Voyager missions. However, we need your help selecting the themes of posters #2 and #3. So head over to The Planetary Society now to vote on your three favorite missions, but do it by the 19th to have it count for the poster selection. If this goes better than expected we could even wind up designing a fourth or fifth.
We are pretty serious about design in print these days. Despite having a pretty amazing Epson digital printer in-house that comes pretty damn close to making things look screen-printed, we still have a deep appreciation for the beauty of letter press. Apparently we are not alone — according to Etsy Wholesale, one of the biggest trends for 2014 is all things Letter Pressed. And we were thinking that stuff was really just for just for type and designerds like us. So we just launched our inaugural line of letter pressed greeting cards.
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Our newest little project to hit the net is thisisaero.com. The goal here was simple. Resuscitate the existing Aeropostalé blog and create a destination for their audience that doesn’t look like just another blog, while serving up the kind of content one would expect to see on a youth-culture based fashion blog.
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Charles Michelet (a former designer and close personal friend of The Chopping Block) and The Dad Beats, have launched their first Kickstarter campaign to record their first album. You know. For kids. It is kid music for smart kids and even smarter parents. The best part is that these guys are all real live Dads and so they how parents feel about terrible music for children… they hate it. Hate it so much that they decided to make their own! Now go on over to Kickstarter and make their music yours too.
“Billions upon billions of stars…” and rockstar-astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. The redux of Carl Sagan’s perennial classic series on the origin of life and the universe is being revived courtesy of Tyson and Seth MacFarlane. The 13-part docu-series titled “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” is due to air in Spring 2014, and has the stargazing set abuzz with anticipatory ferver. We know Tyson will do Sagan’s legacy homage; we hope Fox Broadcasting will do the same – the future of the human race could ride on it.
We, Chop Shoppers love space exploration and even maintain a space imagery blog at wanderingspace.net. This time around, we hope The Age of Aquarius will portend a time of looking up from our phones and back into the sky. After all, “The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.” Fin.
A scifi revision to the well-known mantra from The Wizard of Oz. Get a copy of Monsters, Aliens and Bots, Oh My! for only $1 plus shipping. You can also get it on American Apparel for only $2. Consider it a gift from the Chop Shop for 2014.… Since you are paying for the shipping anyway, why not grab an additional $5 tee (see below).
In addition to the $1 tee we thought we might also offer a few other titles running low on stock that are not planned for reprints. Lets call it making room for something new. You will not even need a coupon code or take up smoking to take advantage of this offer. Just make the purchase before midnight tonight. Get Ham Shot First, Explore Space, Right Might, Four Endings or Agent Rawhide Reagun for only $5 each (add $3 for styles on American Apparel).
A good frined recently worked with The Chopping Block to establish a new identity for her burgeoning new business Fresh Pastry Stand. What began as a modest Etsy shop has snowballed into a small business thanks to recent attention from the likes of Martha Stewart, Fab.com and even Bob Villa?! Read More…
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