Ok I am the first to admit that our IIDA Headquarters office here in downtown Chicago is an amazing LEED certified office space. But what does the new Twitter office in downtown San Francisco have that we do not?

Their very own DJ booth. Jealous!

The super talented Sara Morishige Williams, wife of Twitter CEO, Evan Williams (@ev) designed their hip new office. Sara used an interesting combination of eco-friendly and non-toxic finishes, reclaimed barnwood, inspiring wall decals and sustainable furniture to pull of the playful ambiance.

Michelle Kaufmann, a leader in the green design community,  recently took a tour of the social media giant’s  eco-friendly office space, and we’ve got all the pics!

by Kristyn Ivey,  Student IIDA

This year at NeoCon East I left the convention hall with over 20 industry contacts and hours of footage for my vidblog. As a student, I networked during the career exchange, on the exhibit floor, and during the sessions.

Practitioners, exhibitors and students network on the NeoCon East exhibit hall floor during the Career Exchange.

The career exchange. Now more than ever is the time for students to focus on refining their portfolio/resume, making the career exchange a popular event. Every exhibit and portfolio review table was occupied non-stop with students gaining insight from Gensler, OPX, HDR, and more.

Dawn Esposito (right), owner of Dawn Marie Designs, takes a moment to provide resume and portfolio feedback during the career exchange.

The exhibit floor. The exhibit floor was packed with the latest and greatest in office trends, cutting edge products and technologies. It was really exciting to see NeoCon® East embrace social networking media (Twitter) to broadcast live feeds throughout the exhibit floor and lounge. Thanks to Designer Pages, I became a social networking advocate by mixing and mingling with practitioners and exhibitors as tweet clouds floated by with real-time feedback.

Interior design student, Kristyn Ivey, takes a moment to check out the “Smart Car” by Mercedes, on display in U.S. Green Building Council Maryland Chapter (USGBC-MD) exhibit booth at NeoCon East.

The student seminars. During the IIDA panel session, two principals from Envision design firm provided career advice that captivated the audience. Real-world insight ranged from “don’t over design your resume” to “never chew gum during an interview.” Career tips focused on the value of one-on-one connections and volunteering. At the end of the session I was empowered with information.

Students gain insight from NeoCon East IIDA student seminar titled “Never Chew Gum in an Interview…and other career saving tips.”

NeoCon® East 2009 was informative, exciting, innovative, and interactive. I attended the conference as a student. However, with all of the networking and resources acquired, I’m confident when I return next year I’ll be an industry professional!

For more information and footage from the conference floor visit: www.kristynivey.com

Kristyn Ivey is an IIDA member and interior design graduate student at Marymount University in Arlington, VA.

Students don’t like to write, you say?

Maybe it’s the assignments that are the problem.

In a compelling article posted on aiga.org, David Barringer proposes 21 ways to inspire student writing by pointing out prompts that are “dramatic, provocative, fun, urgent and personal”. His intent is to get students to involve persuasion, popular culture, current trends and even think about (gasp) slang when they are writing. Read the full article here.

What do you think?

How could your professors make writing more interesting for you?

On September 24th, The IIDA Illinois Chapter hosted its 5th annual STITCH Fashion and Charity Event at Park West in Chicago, IL. The show paired designers with manufacturers to create innovative, inspired & imaginative garments for a spectacular runway show.

Design teams put their own spin or conceptual interpretation for the 2009 theme “Black & White and STITCHed All Over”. The venue was packed, tickets were sold out, and the designs were a huge hit.

Congratulations to the 2009 STITCH Garment Winners!

Best in Show: DL Couch/ Perkins + Will
Best Concept to Creation: Haworth/ Legat Architects
Best use of Material: Edelman Leather/ 555

Photo Gallery

It is time to renew your IIDA Campus Center status for the 2009-2010 school year!

Applications must be renewed every year by October 1st in order in ensure you have official Campus Center status with IIDA. Click here for the renewal application.

About Campus Centers

IIDA Student Members accomplish great things together. Campus Centers provide an outlet for student leadership and professional networking. Campus Centers provide an environment for the mutual development and exchange of knowledge between students, educators, administration and design professionals. Campus Center students add further value to their IIDA student membership by working closely with their local IIDA Chapter and/or City Center to develop programs and events.

Campus Center Requirements

Campus Centers are design-aligned clubs that must consist of at least 10-15 IIDA Student Members. All Campus Centers must complete an IIDA Campus Center application and return it to IIDA Headquarters with a Campus Center roster by October 1st of every school year. Download your Campus Center Application today.

Click here for more information!

Fast Company has recognized that no matter what you do for a living, design matters. It has always mattered–to all of us.

This year’s list features an array of incredible talent: David Butler, David Adjaye, Lisa Strausfeld, Alberto Alessi and David Rockwell. Click here to read more.

Fashion designers, furniture designers and interior designers alike pay close attention to color trends to ensure their work is timely and fresh. Pantone has announced their Spring 2010 color trend report just in time for New York Fashion Week.

The top colors for women’s fashion for spring 2010:

* Turquoise: PANTONE 15-5519
* Tomato Purée: PANTONE 18-1661
* Fusion Coral: PANTONE 16-1543
* Violet: PANTONE 16-3320
* Tuscany: PANTONE 16-1219
* Aurora: PANTONE 12-0642
* Amparo Blue: PANTONE 18-3945
* Pink Champagne: PANTONE 12-1107
* Dried Herb: PANTONE 17-0627
* Eucalyptus: PANTONE 15-0513

To view the full report which includes interviews and sketches from some of the top fashion designers in the business, CLICK HERE.

So by now, most of us have been on Facebook, and some of us frequent our pages more often than we blink. It might not even be a stretch to say that most of you, as students of Interior Design, would love to redesign a new office for a particularly social, fun, interactive and collaborative  group that feeds our social hunger like the social giant that is Facebook.

Studio o+a was the lucky design firm that got the bid for designing the new 150,000-square-foot office at Palo Alto, California and the photo tour is incredible.

Interestingly enough, some of the walls actually were left stark white, almost as if they still need some work. Apparently, this was no mishap. According to Facebook employee Everett Katigbak’s blog, this has been done on purpose:

“Just as people make the space on the website their own, we’ve opted to do the same with our physical space. We’ve left a lot of the walls white and the spaces unfinished to encourage employees to add the finishing touches.”

A 1960’s industrial style building was chosen for the project, and on each of the two floors, the plan is deliberately open. So open in fact that everyone from the CEO to the Administrative Assistants all work in 30-in. by 60-in. spaces.

The only enclosed spaces in the entire office are the conference rooms. This kind of arrangement encourages interaction, collaboration and idea generation across all departments regardless if you have been at the company for five years or five days.

Employees are actually encouraged to write on the walls of the office, much like writing on a Facebook friends wall or being able to customize your Facebook profile.

Think you could be creative in this kind of a space?

What would your ideal office space look like?

Today is already Wednesday, the last day of NeoCon 2009 (and student day)!  How will you make the most of it?  In addition to specially planned programs at IIDA and elsewhere, remember to take plenty of time to explore the show itself.  With so much to see and so little time, start by checking out the winners of the Showroom and Booth Design Competition and the Best of NeoCon 2009 Awards.

The 14th annual Showroom and Booth Design Competition was sponsored by IIDA along with Contract magazine.  One of the biggest highlights is the Nurture showroom (3-101), which won awards both for Best Large Showroom and Best Overall Showroom.  Rather than resembling a typical showroom in the Mart, the winning space realistically recreates an actual healthcare environment.  “The approach by the Nurture design team was authentic, evidence based design,” commented Steve McCollum, IIDA, AIA, Vice President of Communications for IIDA.  Other winning designs you won’t want to miss include Leland International’s showroom (337) and Amtico International’s booth (8-7054).

Be sure to pick up a Best of NeoCon booklet on your way in and read about the top-rated products introduced at NeoCon 2009.  In its 20^th year, the 2009 competition chose the winning designs out of over 400 products in 45 categories. Award recipients include Steelcase, 3form, Teknion, Haworth, and Herman Miller, to name a few.  You can find their booths and showrooms spread throughout floors 7, 8 (booths) and 3, 10, 11 (showrooms).  Some say it’s best to start on 11 and work your way down.  However, remember that some of the booths on 7 and 8 may start packing up early today because it is the last day.  What will your strategy be for seeing the best and most exciting of NeoCon 2009?

Check back later to read about some of IIDA’s NeoCon 2009 favorites!

Today was a big day, not only for the Merchandise Mart and the design community, but also for me. Today was the first day of my first ever NeoCon experience! I started off the morning perusing the showroom and booth floors, fighting crowds, and (I admit it) looking for free goodies! It was a busy day, but there was a lot of excitement in the air!

I took it upon myself to document a few other firsts happening around the Mart. Check out the following pictures to see what I came up with:

IIDA making a great "first" impression! Signs hung outside the main doors of the Merchandise Mart

Busy at the registration table: "first" people in the door this morning

Fellow IIDA intern Kayla takes her "first" test sit in Knoll's Generation chair

My "first" time sitting in Herman Miller's Embody chair. I could feel my blood pressure getting lower!

The "first" time IIDA members enjoyed a game of Twista in the middle of NeoCon

How did your first day go at NeoCon? What will you tell everyone about when you get home?

Submitted by Michelle Carroll, IIDA Summer Intern