Primo Toys

Primo Toys
Founded June 2013
Founders Filippo Yacob, Matteo Loglio
Headquarters London, UK
Website primotoys.com

Primo Toys is a London-based educational toy company founded by Filippo Yacob and Matteo Loglio, best known for creating the Cubetto Playset, an award winning wooden robot designed to teach children how to code using a tangible programming language that doesn’t use screens or literacy.[1] In April 2016, Cubetto became the most crowd-funded ed-tech invention in history, when 6,553 backers pledged a total of $1,596,457 to support their Kickstarter campaign.[2] Primo Toys are backed by Randi Zuckerberg, Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi, and Liam Casey's PCH International.[3]

Overview

Primo Toys was founded in June 2013 by Filippo Yacob and Matteo Loglio, out of a shared passion for technology, design, and parenting.[4][5] Unsatisfied by the status quo of educational toys on the market, they set off to create a new type of educational toy company. "Primo" means "first" in Italian, reflecting the nature of the toys the company creates as the first steps into a child’s technology education.[6] The company's mission is to become "The best toy company in the world".

Primo Toys founders Filippo Yacob (right) and Matteo Loglio (left) .

Cubetto Playset

The Cubetto Playset is the company's first commercial product. It's an award-winning coding kit designed to introduce computational thinking and programming logic to children aged three and up. The toy has been praised as “groundbreaking” due to its hands on programming language, which powers a friendly wooden robot through an illustrated adventure. Cubetto has been the recipient of numerous international design awards, including a Best of Best Red Dot Design Award 2016 for concept, Gold at Cannes Lions 2016 for product design, and Platinum at the Junior Design Awards 2016. Cubetto has also been exhibited at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.[7][8][9]

Influences and research

The concept for Cubetto was inspired by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori's early learning methods and MIT's programming language LOGO, which was designed by a team directed by Seymour Papert in the 1960s as a way to teach children the basic principles of coding.[9] The square "ground" robot that rotates only through 90 degrees while roaming a checkerboard field is similar to the screen robots (NAKIs) of the pioneering educational robotics language OZNAKI.[10] Cubetto overall is a radical innovation, but its use of coloured pieces inserted in slots/holes for robot control and training is very similar to the TORTIS system[11][12] developed by Radia Perlman within Papert's LOGO Group.

Cubetto Playset 1.0 2013 Kickstarter campaign

The first version of the Cubetto Playset was created by Filippo Yacob, Ben Callicott, and Matteo Loglio. Cubetto's interface board and coding blocks were an evolution of Loglio's 2012 original interface board concept and research, developed during his MAS in Interaction Design.[6] Cubetto, and other parts of the Playset were created at a later stage. In November 2013 Primo Toys launched their first Kickstarter campaign, raising a total of $80,000 with the help of 651 backers. As a result, over 300 of their first Cubetto Playset units were shipped to 46 countries worldwide.[13] V1.1 and V1.2 Cubetto Playsets were also manufactured and delivered throughout 2015.

Cubetto Playset 2.0 2016 Kickstarter campaign

In the latest iteration the product was re-Designed For Manufacturing (DFM) at scale in order to accommodate growing global demand. In April 2016, Cubetto became the most crowdfunded ed-tech invention in Kickstarter history.[14] Launching on 8 March, the company hit its original target of $100,000 in under 17 hours.[15] 30 days later, they raised $1,596,457 from 6,553 backers from more than 90 countries. Cubetto was featured in TIME Magazine, Fast Company and Wired.[16][17][18]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "Cubetto is a wooden robot that teaches children how to code". Dezeen. 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
  2. ↑ "Update 12: We've only just begun... · Cubetto - Hands on coding for ages 3 and up". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
  3. ↑ "Teaching Children How To Code, Without Screens". Co.Create. 2016-03-08. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
  4. ↑ "Matteo Loglio & filippo Yacob, Co-founders of Primo Toys". Cereal Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
  5. ↑ http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2016/01/80517-80517/
  6. 1 2 "Primo | Master of Advanced Studies in Interaction Design". www.maind.supsi.ch. Retrieved 2016-08-08.
  7. ↑ "Overfunding On Crowdcube: Primo, Maker Of Smart Toys To Help Young Children Learn To Code". Crowdfund Insider. 2016-01-21. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
  8. ↑ "PrimoToys' Cubetto Project Surpasses $1.2M During the Final Days on Kickstarter". Crowdfund Insider. 2016-04-02. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  9. 1 2 "Cubetto is a wooden robot that teaches children how to code". Dezeen. 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  10. ↑ OZNAKI and Beyond |http://harveycohen.net/papers/79-OZNAKIandBEYOND.pdf
  11. ↑ http://harveycohen.net/oznaki
  12. ↑ TORTIS - Toddlers Own Recursive Turtle | "http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6224"
  13. ↑ "Primo - Teaching programming logic to children age 4 to 7". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2016-10-17.
  14. ↑ "Cubetto - Hands on coding for ages 3 and up". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2016-08-08.
  15. ↑ Schiff, Steve (2016-03-09). "Want To Teach Your Toddler Coding But Don't Like Screens? Try This Wooden Block Instead". Fatherly. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  16. ↑ Shapiro, Julie. "See The New Kids' Toy That Teaches Coding". TIME.com. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  17. ↑ "This Happy Wooden Robot Teaches Toddlers To Code". Co.Design. 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  18. ↑ "Il gioco che insegna la programmazione ai bambini - Wired". Wired (in Italian). 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  19. ↑ "GESS Education Awards Winners 2016 | GESS Awards". www.gessawards.com. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
  20. ↑ "Cannes Lions Winners :: Cannes Lions Archive". www.canneslionsarchive.com. Retrieved 2016-08-08.
  21. ↑ "Toys | Junior Design Awards 2016 RESULTS". Retrieved 2016-08-08.
  22. ↑ "Red Dot Design Award for Design Concepts". www.red-dot.sg. Retrieved 2016-10-17.
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