CCAD students monkey around with Zoo project (& pick up press from Columbus Monthly)

There are some days when it feels like making art and design is for the birds.

Cockatoos, to be specific—at least in the case of a class of Columbus College of Art & Design students, who recently created interactive objects for animals at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. The project was featured in the July 2019 issue of Columbus Monthly, on newsstands now.

The animal enrichment items the students devised, constructed from cardboard and formed without tape, glue, or staples, were created to engage a variety of species at the Zoo. Their designs included a guitar-shaped enrichment item for cockatoos, an interactive food container for silvered leaf langurs, a fish-filled cardboard tower for river otters, a bridge for a fox snake, and a set of pyramids for a mandrill.

The class was led by Animation Chair and Assistant Professor Charlotte Belland and implemented under the direction of Columbus Zoo and Aquarium staff, Karen Huebel, Director of Theming & Interpretive Design, and Katrina McCauley, Assistant Curator of the Australia & the Islands region.

Abigail Allen (Industrial Design, 2021) was among the students who jumped on the opportunity to create interactive items for the animals under the care of Columbus Zoo professionals.

Allen told Columbus Monthly that she hopes to design pet products as a profession. “When I saw this class existed, I got so excited,” she said.