SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
CREATIVE COLLABORATION Students and organizations alike benefit from learning partnerships.
S
ince 2019, students at Columbus College of Art & Design have contributed 81,000 hours of creative work to the Central Ohio economy through collaborations with more than 80 companies, including Cardinal Health, Huntington Bank, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and SocialVentures. Nicole Monahan is the director of corporate and community partnerships at CCAD. She says these collaborations are beneficial to the students as well as the companies. “Our partners are really excited by how unfettered the students are. They haven’t been steeped in the industry for years, so they can solve problems from new perspectives,” Monahan says. “When company representatives come into the classroom, they learn alongside the students about different methods, like design thinking or co-creation, which they may not have had previous exposure to. Many find the experience invigorating for their teams.” CCAD students collaborate with local and national companies, as well as nonprofits, and the impact of their projects has influenced both culture and commerce in Central Ohio. In recent years, students partnered with the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) to design new staff uniforms; worked with 99P
Labs, backed by Honda and The Ohio State University, to prototype an autonomous shared mobility vehicle; created holiday window displays for Easton Town Center; and designed Pelotonia merchandise. Most recently, 18 students from CCAD’s Illustration, Animation, Game Art & Design, and Comics & Narrative Practice programs collaborated with the Mid-Atlantic Interstate Forest Fire Protection Compact (MAIFFPC) and USDA Forest Service to conceptualize, design and launch Smokey’s Scouts, a mobile game designed to increase fire safety awareness and wildfire prevention. “We need to bring new energy and creativity to wildfire prevention, and the students at CCAD really delivered through Smokey’s Scouts,” says Aaron Kloss, Volunteer Fire Assistance Grant Program Coordinator for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry and MAIFFPC Ohio representative. “Within these projects, creative collaboration is about helping students understand how cross-functional teams work, how to draw out the capabilities of each team member, and how creativity doesn’t come with a title,” Monahan adds. “For CCAD, creative collaboration is a hallmark of
▲ CCAD Professor David Burghy reviews novelty toy designs by students during a work session with representatives from lifestyle product designer and manufacturer BigMouth Inc. Over 1,200 unique concepts were generated during the two-day charrette. Photo by Stephanie Wott
how we work together not only within the college, but with corporate and community partners.” Creative collaboration is paramount to CCAD’s core values. Symbiotic partnerships with outside organizations allow students to experience collaboration both in and out of the classroom and add real-world experience to their resumes; in turn, they infuse the Columbus community with their creative talent, and partner organizations reap the benefit of CCAD’s expertise. These partnerships have also fostered a healthy talent stream in Central Ohio. “It really does create these hiring pathways for creatives and helps companies cultivate pipelines for a diverse and talented workforce,” Monahan says. Companies and organizations that are interested in becoming a CCAD learning partner should visit ccad.edu/ partnerships for more information or to submit a project request.
Columbus College of Art & Design
l
ColumbusCEO
5