Geometry playful with Fractiles

BOULDER — A geometric-based toy that lets users create endless patterns on a magnetic board has grown to sales of $250,000 this year, an increase of about 30 percent from last year, said its company president.

Created by Beverly Johnson and Marc Pelletier in 1996, Fractiles-7 is diamond-shaped magnetic tiles with angles based on the number seven that can be can be arranged to create millions of designs from simple to infinitely complex arrangements.

This year the toy is placed with more than 350 retailers in the United States and overseas, said Johnson, now president of the company.

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?The idea behind Fractiles is to transform the beauty of geometry into a playful, hands-on experience,? she said. ?Fractiles facilitate an intuitive grasp of spatial relationships and invites deeper exploration of patterns and geometry. They are fun and easy — no matter what your age.?

The tiles, which come in three shapes in bright red, yellow and blue, come with a sturdy steel activity board and an album-style storage case with illustrated instructions. The toy is recommended for ages 6 to adult.

Using angles based on the number seven, the tiles allow children and adults to make their own designs with repeating and non-repeating patterns. They can create starbursts, spirals, butterflies, flower bouquets and other designs.

The toy helps stimulate creativity and is also a relaxing game for a group or individual, Johnson said.

Johnson said she had a brainstorm about five years ago when she happened to be cutting up a magnetic business card that fit on the refrigerator. ?I was cutting it into little pieces and saw it as a possible product,? she said.

Her friend Marc Pelletier is a geometric artist, and she knew about geometric tiling through him. Previously, he was with a company in Denver that produced Zomtool, a geometry-based construction toy using different geometric shapes, she said.

?I shared the idea with him that it might be a good product for people who admire designs and don’t know they can create them,? she said.

The pair collaborated on Fractiles. Pelletier developed the geometric system itself, and they worked together on the support material.

The geometric design is based on the number seven because other patterns had already used the numbers five, six and others, she said.

?Nobody was doing anything with the number seven,? she said. ?By changing the angles it changed everything. It can be put together in endless combinations.?

Johnson, the mother of five children, had no business background when she started the company. ?It was a real leap for me,? she said.

?Our first concept was to design the toys and license them to a toy manufacturer. We did that for one year, but it was not a good experience,? she said.

Later, they decided to manufacture and market the toys themselves.

Pelletier has since left the company to continue to do research and development while Johnson operates the business. The toy is sold through stores and catalogs to teachers, consumers and others throughout the United States as well as overseas.

?I’m getting substantial orders from Korea. Today I sent out 1,008 sets to an educational company in Korea, and it’s not the first order there,? she said.

The toy serves as a crossover item for children and adults, she said.

Some time ago, she took the toy to the Boulder Senior Center to see if adult day-care patients would be interested in it.

One patient with advanced Alzheimer’s never joined in any activities there or connected with anyone, she said. ?They were delighted when we showed him Fractiles. He would take it out a couple of times a week and play with it for hours,? she said.

The product is manufactured in Minneapolis and Denver and shipped from the Denver area, she said.

Production began in 1997. A year later Fractiles received the Parents Choice Foundation Award. The foundation recognized the toy’s play and educational value, quality and design. The foundation is a non-profit organization that offers information about the array of children’s media products and toys.

In 2001, Fractiles was chosen by Games Magazine as one of the Top 100 Game selections.

The toy comes in two sizes. The large edition includes a 12-inch board and 192 magnetic tiles. It retails for $37.50. The travel edition includes an eight-inch board with 96 tiles, and it sells for $19.95.

It teaches children and adults about symmetry and geometry. The game also builds pattern recognition skills, which is an essential component to developing learning skills.

The game is available through catalogs, specialty toy stores, educational suppliers, museum shops, bookstores and art supply shops. A complete listing is available at www.factiles.com.