7/21/2025
Ten Questions with HandMoto
After a 31-year career in high tech, staring at screens for hours on end, Barnes Cooper had damaged his corneas. Wanting to save future generations from the same fate, he got to work developing a screen-free, sustainable alternative to learning.
Cooper is the founder and president of Moto Sign and Media Corporation, whose signature product is HandMoto(r). The initial goal was to establish a medical signage company, but Cooper saw HandMoto’s appeal with young children and its potential to encourage family time. Today, HandMoto is marketed for toy and educational markets.
HandMoto – a spin on the term hand-motor coordination – is a portable, all-inclusive package that includes a dry-erase board, felt eraser pad, four dry-erase pens and 10 activity sheets. Simply place a sheet underneath the pad, complete the activities and wipe off the board when you’re done. There are five HandMoto SKUs available, plus 16 different add-on Activity Packs.
Cooper shares how he got the idea with HandMoto, the advantages to screen-free learning and how his products fit in the education market.
How did you come up with the idea for the dry-erase learning board? How did you get started?
This was a device born out of personal impacts. My professional career came a painful end, with a forced medical retirement. In addition, we turned our son into a gaming addict by providing an iPad at age 4. At age 20, he is doing well, but in his free time, he’s gaming.
I spent four months indoors thinking about this problem, moving my brain from designing chips with structures that can barely be seen on the most high tech equipment on the planet, to a completely analog, fun, educational toy that grows with your child.
What are the benefits of screen-free, interactive learning?
Studies have shown that hands-on activities are best, but super young children make mistakes. HandMoto is the combination of learning books with the ease of uses, erase, storage and cleanup with the HandMoto.
What is your bestselling product? What do you ascribe to its popularity?
The HandMoto MegaPack Series is our most popular product because it encompasses 30 pages of progressive content spanning all four subjects (coloring, puzzles, spelling, math), eight pens and two real felt dry-erasers.
What’s your newest product?
The HandMoto MegaPack Series and Spanish-Spanish and Spanish-English.
How’s business today?
It’s just starting to take off!
How far do you distribute?
We distribute across the USA.
Why do you believe HandMoto belongs in independent teacher/school supply stores?
HandMoto (with or without content), is an incredible form-factor of device for encapsulating content. We believe that in an educational environment HandMoto could save substantially in printing costs, noting that devices may be rotated in a room versus disassembly and content change.
What resources do you have for retailers interested in selling your products?
We have a comprehensive portfolio of images of our product in use, as well as packaging that points the user to our how-to animation on our full-featured website. We also have a full Amazon StoreFront.
What’s next for HandMoto?
We are looking forward to expanding our Activity Content packs into other languages, in particular Hebrew, Chinese and Japanese.
What are you most proud of about founding and operating HandMoto?
We’re saving children’s eyes, one at a time.
