The International Center for Creativity is a Columbus, Ohio-based think tank and partnership that designs, develops, and delivers innovative curriculum, professional training, and design and creativity consultation for universities, entrepreneurs, artists, and corporations. The ICC has most recently partnered with Cedarville University to deliver a cutting-edge BA in Industrial and Innovative Design that is growing year over year into one of the nation’s most formidable programs.

Proving that most great ideas start on napkins, the ICC was conceived in a 2001 coffee shop meeting between Jim “JD” Orr, an industrial designer, Tom Balliett, a designer and entrepreneur, and Jim Stevenson, a marketer, and entrepreneur. Over coffee that morning, the three discussed a gap in the educational marketplace to recapture the heart, soul and imagination of design through inspiring young people with not just the artistic talent, but also the vision and integrity to reshape the future of industrial design.

While advances in CAD were transforming the production environment, it was proving to be a potential impediment to the ideation and concepting environment. Industry wanted rapid visualization skills, hand-crafted work that would translate to digital environments, and mostly, people with creative problem-solving skills.

On that June day, on a sidewalk table in Worthington, Ohio, the journey started to reinvent the industrial design education process…a journey that eventually led to a first-of-its-kind partnership with Cedarville University

The ICC exists to become a globally-recognized leader in innovation education.