CEDARVILLE, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On April 23, Cedarville University and the International Center for Creativity (ICC), based in Columbus, Ohio, announced the first results of a unique collaboration. The partnership will result in a new major, a bachelor of arts in industrial and innovative design (IID) pending accreditation and approval by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (http://ncahigherlearningcommission.org) and the Ohio Board of Regents (http://regents.ohio.gov).

This is a new approach to a classic curriculum. Students will spend their first two years on Cedarville’s campus and then head to Columbus to gain hands-on, "craft-centric" experience at the ICC studio classrooms.

“Almost everything we handle and use on a daily basis is purposefully designed,” said Terry Chamberlain, associate professor of art at Cedarville. “And with the emphasis on ergonomics and the green factor, products are changing every day. Industry is in need of forward-thinking designers.”

The ICC approached Cedarville with the program six years ago. Having recognized a need for highly motivated, serious professionals, the ICC wanted students with integrity, creative abilities, and strong communications skills and who could think on their feet. And Cedarville students fit the bill.

“This program,” said Jim Stevenson, chief marketing officer for the ICC, “puts balance back into the relationship of visual thinking, hand-rendering, and a digital production approach, which allows students to create work that is special and not just another product of the same software everyone else uses.”

Another unique aspect of the IID program is that it will be taught in a modular fashion, which provides intensive and concentrated focus on specific areas. This means that instead of jumping from one subject to the next, students will spend three to four consecutive weeks on a particular focus before advancing to the next level of expertise.

Students can choose from four specific tracks within the IID program: consumer product design, transportation design, interior space design, or architectural and exterior space design. Each area offers numerous branches of career potential. And since students will have experience in all four areas, they will be even more versatile as they seek employment and build a portfolio of relevant work and research.

“Best of all, visual design is a global language,” Chamberlain said. “Our graduates will be able to look for a job anywhere in the world.”

Employment of commercial and industrial designers is expected to grow 9 percent over the next decade. Employment growth will arise from increased demand for new or upgraded high-quality products that are safe and comfortable to use and high-technology products in consumer electronics, medicine, transportation and other fields. Despite the increase in design work performed overseas, most design jobs, particularly jobs not related to high-technology product design, will still remain in the United States.

To learn more about the IID program at Cedarville University, visit https://www.cedarville.edu/Academic-Programs/Industrial-and-Innovative-Design.aspx

About The International Center for Creativity (ICC): The ICC is a Columbus, Ohio-based creativity, education and design firm that exists to inspire creative confidence in today's and tomorrow's creative and design thought leaders through professional workshops, think-tank project work, and an academic collaboration with Cedarville University to deliver the completion courses for a B.A. in industrial and innovative design.

Located in Cedarville, Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist university of arts, sciences, professional and graduate programs. Featuring a worldwide Christian ministries program, the University offers more than 100 areas of study to 3,000 students. Visit the University website at www.cedarville.edu.

Contacts

International Center for Creativity
Jim Stevenson, 614-352-4602