Alphabotz is a unique flash card learning tool that teaches kids how to read using oversized phonics flash cards that feature an entertaining cast of brightly colored robot characters. Created by a group of LSU alumni, the Alphabotz product has earned numerous national awards and is available through retail outlets such as Learning Express, Toys R Us.com and Amazon.com.
LSU Alumni Team Up to Create Acclaimed Alphabotz Flash Card Learning Program
As a mother of two and a long-time elementary- and university-level educator, Pat Vining often wondered why educational materials for young children don’t have the same appeal as video games, say, or Harry Potter?
“Why can’t they be more fun?” asked Vining, a 2007 Master of Fine Arts graduate of LSU. “There’s nothing more engaged than a four-year-old. Why not take advantage of that passion?”
It was a question that became something of an obsession for Vining, and, eventually, the inspiration for Alphabotz, a unique learning tool that teaches kids how to read using oversized phonics flash cards featuring an entertaining cast of brightly colored robot characters.
Vining and her three partners, who are also LSU alumni, unveiled their creation one year ago, and since then have won rave reviews from educators, parenting resources and toy websites alike.
From left, LSU alumnus and former adjunct professor Pat Vining, along with fellow alums Nicole Sigsby and Kelly Barton, are friends and former colleagues who joined to create Ideopolis LLC, the company behind Alphabotz.
“We were truly impressed by Alphabotz and would recommend them as the very best in children’s and parenting products,” noted the judges of California’s Family Choice Award.
The review is typical of the reaction Alphabotz elicits.
For Vining, who not only received her graduate degree from the LSU College of Art & Design but was an adjunct professor in graphic design there from 1997 to 2007, the creation and early success of Alphabotz has exceeded her wildest expectations. But it wouldn’t have been possible without the collaborative efforts of her partners, all former colleagues and friends – Kelly Barton, who received a bachelor of arts degree in mass communication in 1990; Barton’s husband Randy Barton, who received a bachelor of science degree in 1990; and Nicole Sigsby, who received a bachelor of arts degree in mass communication in 1995.
“We all work so well together,” Vining said. “It’s been very rewarding to work with such a talented, creative group of colleagues and friends.”
Vining said the idea for Alphabotz had been somewhere in the back of her mind for years, but it wasn’t until she moved to California in 2007 that things began to gel. She took an entrepreneurial course at an arts college in Pasadena, where her assignment was to design a product and a plan to bring it to market. What she produced was the concept of Alphabotz, a phonics-based reading method that engages young users by interesting them in the stories of the robotic phonic characters contained on each flash card.
Each so-called “Superphonic Decoder Card” contains a character with a letter or letter team on its chest and an icon on its head that serve as constant visual references to the sound the character represents. Each card also contains information about the character that tells a story about its life and personality in order to make the sounds memorable and aid in development of letter recognition and phonemic awareness skills.
Randy Barton, an LSU alumnus, is another principal in Ideopolis, LLC and a collaborator on the Alphabotz flash card system. In early 2011, the company plans to release a CD of original songs written and recorded by Barton, as well as an Alphabotz storybook.
Vining’s professor realized she was on to something and encouraged Vining to turn her idea into a reality. That’s when she approached three former colleagues and friends in Baton Rouge. Kelly Barton and Vining had owned a successful graphic design and marketing firm for several years. Randy Barton, though a chemical engineer by day, had an entrepreneurial itch and a creative streak that was waiting to be cultivated. Sigsby had a background in marketing and had also worked with Vining and Barton. They formed Ideopolis LLC and set about building the components of the Alphabotz concept.
“Pat is the creator and the illustrator,” said Kelly Barton, “but we’ve all worked together on the creative aspects. We developed all the characters, wrote all the alliterative phrases and really put the pieces together.”
They also all had a hand in the manufacturing, marketing, advertising, public relations, distribution and fulfillment of the product. Though Vining, Sigsby and Kelly Barton had a history in marketing and planning, taking their own product to market was unlike anything they’d ever done before.
It may have been challenging, but the Ideopolis partners have it down. Since Alphabotz was unveiled in August 2009, it has won 11 national awards and has been picked up by major retailers such as Learning Express, Toys R Us.com and Amazon.com. This fall, Ideopolis will partner with select schools in Baton Rouge, Houston and Orange County, Calif., to test the product in pre-schools and kindergartens. And in early 2011, they’re planning to release a CD of original songs written and recorded by Randy Barton, as well as a storybook.
Vining and Barton said their LSU education played a key role in the development and success of their product. For Barton, the training she received in marketing proved particularly beneficial.
“You can have the best product in the world,” she said, “but if you can’t market it, it’s going to sit on a shelf.”
In Vining’s case, she said being a faculty member taught her at least as much as being a graduate student.
“As far as my education, LSU was great,” she said. “They were flexible and let me combine business courses with my design courses. They gave me wings and let me fly. But being a professor was perhaps even more beneficial. My students were my greatest inspiration.”
For more information on Alphabotz, visit www.alphabotz.com or visit the Alphabotz page on Facebook.
Stephanie Riegel | LSU College of Art & Design
July 2010
