This is Stylo, a faster, easier, and more sustainable alternative to paper signage and digital displays.
Stylo is a self-drawing display that uses erasable markers to draw, erase, and redraw messages, menus, announcements, or anything else a store owner would like to display.
This means NO WASTED MATERIALS like paper signage and 1/10 the energy usage of traditional digital displays while engaging potential customers with a dynamic, eye catching display.
All at the push of a button.
BACKGROUND
One of the key challenges to every brick and mortar store is to communicate with their customers. Whether it is to entice them to enter the store or restaurant, or communicate something while they are inside, there are a wide range of mediums used for displaying information. Unfortunately, in the spectrum of possible solutions, none are truly designed for small business owners and they are left with imperfect solutions that are unfriendly to the environment.
Print signage is static and hard to update, generating a lot of wasted paper, and digital displays are expensive, using excessive amounts of energy, often to display simple messages. I’ve been investigating this space to understand and design the optimal solution to for a greener alternative that empowers and enhances the work of small business owners.
After interviewing everyone from small independent restaurants, retailers and nail salons to large paper companies and international apparel chains, I have narrowed in on a product vision laser focused on satisfying the needs of brick and mortar businesses. I have iterated through a couple versions of the hardware prototype and have a mobile app for them to control the display.
Stylo is a low energy, zero waste self drawing display that allows restaurants and store owners to more easily connect with their customers while reducing their environmental footprint.
Using erasable markers and a precision eraser, Stylo draws and re-draws displays at the push of a button, from specials boards to menus to custom infographic dashboards, it can display everything a pen can draw, but faster and more precise!
Since there is no power required to display the messaging, Stylo can operate on very low power consumption which enables it to be battery powered, solar charged and remotely located.
With a working prototype and a strong understanding of the target customer, I am pursuing funding for a pilot program of 10 units to validate the value of Stylo for customers and harvest feedback on the mobile application. The results of this program will be used to solicit further funding to tool larger quantities of product.
HOW IT WORKS…
Let us walk you through a quick guide on running your Stylo!
Step 1 - Open the Stylo Mobile or Web App
Your Stylo app is where you will store, edit, design and print new signs and displays.
Step 2 - Select a template
Part of your subscription will allow you to access an extensive library of artist generated templates for any type of sign or display that you might be making.
Step 3 - Customize!
The templates are your jumping off point - either just update the text for your store or tweak it to make it just perfect.
Step 4 - Press Print
With the push of a button, your sing will erase and redraw itself while you get back to your busy schedule.
SEE IT IN ACTION…
Below is a video demoing how the current prototype runs and operates in real time!
WHERE DOES IT LIVE?
There are three current modes being explored as entry models, but still trying to understand which form best serves the customers needs. We have
A sidewalk easel type device
A wall mounted display
A suction cup transparent plotter for hanging in windows
Use it as a free-standing display, hang it in a window, or mount it on a wall!
WHAT CAN IT DO?
We have only started scratching the surface of what is possible with this device. We are exploring multiple colors, self-erasing, different pens and materials, illumination and much more, to figure out what is possible, but it really is only limited to what you can imagine. Anything that you could draw by hand, Stylo can do it better.
BUT SO MUCH MORE…
WHO IS IT FOR?
There are two extreme ends of the spectrum of Brick and Mortar stores and we see this device having a home in both but offering unique value to each. For small businesses, this is a simple, inexpensive and easy to use option for producing higher quality, flexible signage. It is dynamic and engaging and gives them a unique way to communicate with customers and engage with potential new ones. For larger chains, it allows them to deploy marketing campaigns across the country at the push of a button. Currently, many retailers are limited in how frequently they can update signage in stores, sometimes only twice a year, which limits their ability to change marketing based on trends, the environment or current events. STYLO would allow them to update the window displays and store signage with the push of a button.
Think: The aesthetic of physical brick and mortar advertising…at social media speeds…
REVENUE MODEL
Below you will find a rough draft of the revenue model that we have constructed to map our growth into a financial viable position as soon as possible: