The Office of Creative Services is proud to report that the Von Lee Theatre building that houses our office has received the prestigious Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification from the US Green Building Council. The Von Lee is the first LEED certified building in the City of Bloomington and the first LEED building to be occupied by Indiana University.

The LEED Green Building Rating System provides standards for environmentally sustainable construction. Among the elements incorporated into the Von Lee that contributed to the LEED certification are these:

• Reused a previously developed site, minimizing the environmental impact
• Utilized proximity to bus routes
• Installed a green roof and reflective roof
• Maximized water efficiency/usage by 20%
• Optimized energy performance levels
• Enhanced refrigerant management by reducing ozone depletion
• Managed construction waste by recycling and/or salvaging 50% of non-hazardous debris
• Purchased building materials with recycled content
• Purchased building materials that have been extracted, harvested or recovered, as well as manufactured within 500 miles of the project site
• Implemented an indoor air quality management plan
• Installed low-emitting materials to reduce air contaminants that are odorous, irritating, and harmful to the comfort and well-being of installers and occupants
• Reduced indoor chemical pollutants by providing a permanent entryway system to capture dirt and particulates from entering the building and provided proper ventilation in areas where hazardous gases or chemicals may be used
• Provided thermal comfort that supports productivity and well-being of building occupants
• Purchased green power (renewable energy certificates - 100% biomass) which assists in “greening up” electricity and neutralizing carbon

In addition to receiving the LEED certification, the Von Lee redevelopment project has won a Revitalization Award for Historic Preservation from Downtown Bloomington Inc., an Outstanding Design award for renovation/modernization from American School & University, and a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Bloomington Historic Preservation Commission.

The project team included: Tartan Realty Group, Inc. (developer), Gilliatte General Contractors, Inc., OKW Architects (design architect), Tabor Bruce Architects (architect of record), Sieben Energy Associates (LEED consultant), Smith Neubecker, Inc. (structural engineer).

I got a video Flip Video for my birthday last year. You know, to catch those “special” moments with my two little girls, mainly for the grandparents and for posterity. (Who knew that a video of my husband swinging our two-year-old by her ankles would get 1,810 views?) This was big for me. I’ve never had a video camera. Never been videotaped. It’s just not me—at least that’s what I thought.

But ever since I created my own YouTube site, I’ve discovered something about myself: I like watching other people’s videos. I like to see the funny things people do, their little domestic habits, what they love and hate about the world.

So, naturally, when I was back at work and thinking of ways to get the word out to IU students about the Celebrate IU festivities, how to get 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds engaged and excited about all of IU’s accomplishments, it occurred to me that a video contest might be the way to go. Let IU students from all eight campuses tell the world—with their own words, music, images (G-rated because this is a family site, you know)—what they love about IU. That is how the Celebrate IU Student Video Contest was born.

We here at IU Creative Services got the word out around IU, and 55 students posted their unique video response to that age-old question, “Why do you love IU?”

Here are the winners:

Third Place

Second Place

First Place

With Apple’s recent firmware updates to the iPhone and iPodTouch, users can now save a ‘webclip’ to the device’s home screen. When you add a Web site to your home screen, the default icon is a cropped image of the site. This tip explains how to add a custom icon for your Web site. The process is similar to adding a favicon, or favorites icon, to your site.

First, create a PNG image, name it apple-touch-icon.png, and upload it to the root of your Web site.

I have created an IU webclip icon and posted it to the iu.edu/ indiana.edu server. If you have an IU subdomain (such as creativeservices.iu.edu), this webclip won’t work by default. To get this to work with an IU subdomain, you’ll need to either upload the PNG file to your own Web account, or add the following line of code to the head of your documents:

< link rel="apple-touch-icon"
xhref="http://www.iu.edu/apple-touch-icon.png" />

I can’t tell you how truly proud I am to have won the coveted Damen’s Favorite award for my towering “Blue Almond Trees” cookie sculpture. What many are calling a “work of art” and others call “breathtaking,” these cookies took years to concept and minutes to bake. This recognition of my years of culinary research and experimentation is a wonderful start to the holidays.

The Sculpture

View image

Following the success of our 2006 Cookie Contest, the Office of Creative Services is once again hosting a baking contest at noon, Dec. 14, at the home of Marcia Busch-Jones. The contest is open to all Creative Services employees and will be judged by five staff members, all of whom are precluded from entering the contest. Accepting bribes is discouraged.

Contest Rules

This year’s contest has two categories: Cookies and Bars. Each cookie or bar will be judged based on appearance and flavor. Entries must be homemade, and each person can enter a maximum of one time in each category, for a total of two entries. Please bring approximately two dozen cookies or bars for each entry. Judges: please refrain from compromising your palates with alcohol, spicy foods, or excessive sweets prior to the contest.

Categories:
Best in Show
Damen’s Choice
Best Taste
Best Appearance

On Thursday, October 25, my colleague Jane Below and I presented Branding Takes All at the 2007 IU External Relations Retreat. Our session focused on successful Web site branding through the use of new trends and technologies, and the important role research plays in successful branding. We reviewed and discussed high quality brands on the Web and reviewed case studies of some of our own branding projects. We are offering the presentation for download including our notes.

• Download PowerPoint File (11MB)
• Download PDF (2MB)

I think many writers must use this tip: When I’ve worked especially hard on writing something, and I want to make sure that it sounds good, I close the door to my office and read the copy aloud. The ear is a great editor. It catches clunky, awkward constructions and sentences that are too long. It reminds you to vary sentence structure and length to hold your reader’s interest. Reading aloud lets you hear the cadence of what you’ve written so you know if you’re achieving the desired effect; it lets you know when your writing is smooth and when it “sings.”