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Immersive Environments
& Play Areas

Sculptural play environments and children's spaces designed and built in our Toledo studio

Graphite is a builder-led studio. We're sculptors, painters, and fabricators, and we do everything under one roof. The same people who design your space are the ones researching, sculpting, painting, and installing it.

We build play environments and children's spaces for zoos, libraries, and family attractions: sculptural trees, nature-themed play structures, and hands-on learning stations. Every piece is sculpted, painted, and engineered for how children actually use it.

Capabilities

Themed Interior Environments

Themed Interior Environments

Play Spaces &
Sculptural Playgrounds

Children's Areas &
Reading Environments

Hands-On
Interactives

Sculptural Trees
& Nature Elements

Featured Project

Shores Play Park

Columbus Zoo

We designed and built the play sculptures for Shores Play Park at Columbus Zoo: a full-size blue whale, beluga whales, a sea turtle, pelicans, and a fishing boat. Every animal is anatomically accurate and engineered for outdoor play. Children climb on them, touch them, and learn about marine life at a scale they can explore.

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Featured Project

Shores Play Park

Columbus Zoo

We designed and built the play sculptures for Shores Play Park at Columbus Zoo: a full-size blue whale, beluga whales, a sea turtle, pelicans, and a fishing boat. Every animal is anatomically accurate and engineered for outdoor play. Children climb on them, touch them, and learn about marine life at a scale they can explore.

View Project

Featured Project

Natural History Museum Interactives

Promedica Natural History Museum at the Toledo Zoo

Hands-on learning stations throughout the ProMedica Museum of Natural History at the Toledo Zoo. Visitors identify venomous snakes, explore an arthropod room, and press their hands against a glacier wall that's actually cold to the touch. The interactives are part of a three-year renovation where we also sculpted and painted nine large-scale dioramas depicting 13,000 years of northwest Ohio ecology.

$27M Museum Renovation

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Featured Project

Natural History Museum Interactives

Promedica Natural History Museum at the Toledo Zoo

Hands-on learning stations throughout the ProMedica Museum of Natural History at the Toledo Zoo. Visitors identify venomous snakes, explore an arthropod room, and press their hands against a glacier wall that's actually cold to the touch. The interactives are part of a three-year renovation where we also sculpted and painted nine large-scale dioramas depicting 13,000 years of northwest Ohio ecology.

$27M Museum Renovation

View Project

Featured Project

Natural History Museum Interactives

Promedica Natural History Museum at the Toledo Zoo

Hands-on learning stations throughout the ProMedica Museum of Natural History at the Toledo Zoo. Visitors identify venomous snakes, explore an arthropod room, and press their hands against a glacier wall that's actually cold to the touch. The interactives are part of a three-year renovation where we also sculpted and painted nine large-scale dioramas depicting 13,000 years of northwest Ohio ecology.

$27M Museum Renovation

View Project

Featured Project

Pearson Park Playground

Metroparks Toledo

Custom play sculptures for Pearson Metropark, themed around the Great Black Swamp environment. We designed and built every sculptural element in our Toledo studio. Pearson is one of several signature playgrounds we've built for Metroparks Toledo, each one custom-designed around the park's landscape and natural history.

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Featured Project

Pearson Park Playground

Metroparks Toledo

Custom play sculptures for Pearson Metropark, themed around the Great Black Swamp environment. We designed and built every sculptural element in our Toledo studio. Pearson is one of several signature playgrounds we've built for Metroparks Toledo, each one custom-designed around the park's landscape and natural history.

View Project

Doug Kampfer and Jeremy Link, Founders

The Studio

Everything we design, we build ourselves

Columbus Zoo

We founded Graphite in 2011 in a 4,200 square foot studio in Toledo's Warehouse District. Each of us has over 25 years of experience in sculpture and fabrication. Every member of our team is a maker, working with their hands.

That means every concept we design is buildable. No subcontractors, no hand-offs. We sculpt it, paint it, and install it ourselves. What you see in the scale model is what you get in the finished exhibit.

Clients include Toledo Zoo, Columbus Zoo, Indianapolis Zoo, Ohio DNR, Toledo Lucas County Public Library, Toledo Museum of Art, and Metroparks Toledo.

Doug Kampfer and Jeremy Link, Founders

Featured Project

Everything we design, we build ourselves

Columbus Zoo

We founded Graphite in 2011 in a 4,200 square foot studio in Toledo's Warehouse District. Each of us has over 25 years of experience in sculpture and fabrication. Every member of our team is a maker, working with their hands.

That means every concept we design is buildable. No subcontractors, no hand-offs. We sculpt it, paint it, and install it ourselves. What you see in the scale model is what you get in the finished exhibit.

Clients include Toledo Zoo, Columbus Zoo, Indianapolis Zoo, Ohio DNR, Toledo Lucas County Public Library, Toledo Museum of Art, and Metroparks Toledo.

View Project

Doug Kampfer and Jeremy Link, Founders

Featured Project

Everything we design, we build ourselves

Columbus Zoo

We founded Graphite in 2011 in a 4,200 square foot studio in Toledo's Warehouse District. Each of us has over 25 years of experience in sculpture and fabrication. Every member of our team is a maker, working with their hands.

That means every concept we design is buildable. No subcontractors, no hand-offs. We sculpt it, paint it, and install it ourselves. What you see in the scale model is what you get in the finished exhibit.

Clients include Toledo Zoo, Columbus Zoo, Indianapolis Zoo, Ohio DNR, Toledo Lucas County Public Library, Toledo Museum of Art, and Metroparks Toledo.

View Project

Let’s talk about your next project.

Whether you're designing a new children's area, renovating a library branch, or building a play environment families will remember, we'd love to hear what you're planning.

Send a Message

See Our Work

Browse our full portfolio of sculptures, exhibits, and installations

graphitedandb.com/work →

About Us

A Toledo studio that turns ideas into objects. Meet the team.

graphitedandb.com →

Talk to Us

Reach out directly about your project

Jeremy Link
jeremy@graphitedandb.com
(419) 575-1012

Doug Kampfer
doug@graphitedandb.com
(419) 308-9626

Graphite Design + Build
15 N Huron Street
Toledo, Ohio 43604
info@Graphitedandb.com
(419) 690-4870

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