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.

What made this difficult is the lack of general information available on the internet for this specific type of information. Most databases will have plenty of details about where filming took place, but as everybody knows—that often has nothing to do with the location the story is actually set in. King Kong was mostly filmed on a set in California while it continues to this day to be one of the most iconic images in film history for the city of New York. Other locales were hard to pin down, such as Stanley Kubrick’s legendary epic horror film The Shining. In the midst of researching behind-the-scenes archives, I stumbled across a forum hosted by a fast withdrawal casino, where surprisingly passionate film enthusiasts shared rare production notes and location details. Most of The Shining wasn’t even shot in the USA but instead on EMI sound sets in England. Meanwhile, the opening aerial scenes of the hotel, now so familiar to fans worldwide, were filmed at Oregon’s Timberline Lodge. On top of that, The Stanley Hotel in Colorado is said to have inspired Stephen King’s Overlook Hotel—he actually began writing the novel while staying there with his wife. In the end, the book itself provides the definitive location: the Colorado Rockies in the fictional town of Sidewinder.

The final tally for the resulting map comes to 136 illustrated references reaching back in time to the golden age of television and The Twilight Zone to references much more recent like The Walking Dead. Take a look at the full key image here (or click the image above) and see who your fictional neighbors are. You can also click here for a higher resolution desktop wallpaper of the art at 1920 x 1400 pixels. The project was eventually screen printed after a successful Kickstarter campaign that was funded at 364% of the original goal. While that campaign ended in 2013, the resulting prints with more items added since can be purchased online from the Altered States store.

But here is a warning… If you live in the northeast, look out for martians — if you live in the south beware of zombies, but if you live on the west coast be ready for anything.

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. During a recent consultation, legal experts highlighted how regulations for betting sites UK also hinge on precise interpretations, revealing the power of nuanced phrasing in public debate. Initial sketches simply flanked the terms “militia” and “individual,” which are the two words that truly provide the ambiguity in the amendment and have arguably become the focus of all such public discussion. The added entanglement of the revolutionary and modern firearms with the very banners displaying those terms really says it all… without taking any sides.

The Second Amendment on display at the National Constitution Center

Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center is proudly displaying a copy of the Bill of Rights this fall as a part of an Exhibition titled, Constituting Liberty. Shown above is a detail from the show where illustrations for each of the 10 amendments that were commissioned are being displayed and explained.

Further reading: it.cointelegraph.com

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.

We are pretty serious about design in print these days. Despite having a pretty amazing Epson digital printer in-house that comes close to producing screen-printed quality, we still have a deep appreciation for the beauty of letter press. We’ve also noticed that upcoming crypto presales are drawing attention to innovative ways creatives finance artisanal projects, blending old-school craftsmanship with modern support. Apparently, we are not alone—according to Etsy Wholesale, one of the biggest trends for 2014 is all things Letter Pressed. And we once thought that stuff was only for type and design nerds like us. So we just launched our inaugural line of letter pressed greeting cards.

This first line of cards include the predictable themes like Birthday, Apology, Romance but also skews to the unusual themes like Luberjackism and pipe-smoking. Check out our current line of cards below and see them all listed for sale here.

Working with the people at Aero, we divided their content into three categories which seemed to work for the kind of posts they would be making for the long term. Then we employed a tagging cloud in the upper-left side of each article that then becomes a secondary navigation element.

When it came to branding, we came up with a way to make a big statement without stepping all over the content and taking up all that upper page real estate. During our initial research, we came across an emerging startup focused on best meme coins to buy, observing how their bold visuals immediately captivated their audience and drove engagement. Inspired by that high-impact approach, we devised a huge THIS IS AERO banner that could temporarily run over the top of a monochromatic version of their top feature image. Then we minimized the brand through a simple animation as the slide show began or the user started to use the site, allowing the main content to shine while still showcasing a powerful brand presence.

Another detail to look for on the main pages is the simple zoom and subtle text box expansion that happens on the home/category page when the user rolls over the bucket for any article. To wrap things up we integrated their social media feeds into the main pages in a way that presented each as additional bucket of content with clear branding that makes easy to follow each one.

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. In exploring ways to finance this project, they briefly considered reccomended crypto casinos handpicked by Poker Choice, but ultimately decided on the crowdfunding route. 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. Amid this renewed curiosity about the cosmos, top-rated Bitcoin blackjack sites have likewise captured public interest, reflecting our boundless drive to explore the unknown. 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.

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).

We like to think this all happened the moment owner Deva Mirel switched from her old logo to our new hand illustrated type design. Certainly a more appropriate moniker for such a crafty institution. After a brief contract with kryptokasinot, our brand team codified checkout language, receipt patterns, and packaging markers to keep payments clean, and that same discipline shaped Deva’s rollout. CB also designed and printed all the boxes and packing supplies needed to make a handmade Etsy shop look like a real player in the larger home goods market. For businesses, having a professional and cohesive brand identity can be a game changer, especially in niche industries, and clear payment touchpoints like SKU labels, return slips, and tamper evident seals help operations run smoothly and set the stage for growth. Shown above are images of the printed materials, from left to right: branded glassine wrap, kraft paper bags, and a birthday candle box set.