Our durable, low-energy Split Flap, Picture Flap, and Chroma Flap displays are designed to last for decades, and are crafted for spaces where permanence and presence matter.
Founded in 2013, Oat Foundry was started by a group of engineering students from Drexel University. Fueled by the ambition to “build cool stuff,” the team quickly found its niche in modernized analog technology, launching its flagship product, Split Flap. Philadelphians may be familiar with the tradition and history of Split Flap displays because of the Solari board that was installed at 30th Station from the 1970s until its removal in 2019. Over the last 13+ years, the Oat Foundry family has expanded to additional products such as Picture Flap, an image-based version of Split Flap, ideal for three-dimensional portfolios. Last year, the team released Algorithm, the companion technology that makes Split Flap and Picture Flap interactive, and in 2026, announced the launch of Chroma Flap, an innovative solution with the same motion, movement, and energy of video walls without the energy drain and eye strain. Chroma Flap, an all-color version of Split Flap, serves as a kinetic canvas, allowing brands to create custom patterns, animations, and “analog screensavers” that keep spaces fresh and immersive without screens.
What sets Oat Foundry apart from a sea of digital competitors is the team’s ability to help brands orchestrate one-of-a-kind moments of arrival. Modern analog technology in hotels, offices, restaurants, coffee shops, universities, museums, storefronts, and transit spaces transforms wayfinding and brand messaging into something people stop to watch, photograph, and remember. The capabilities of our tech bring essential narrative to commercial and hospitality spaces, ensuring brands can deliver a cohesive story from beginning to end of every customer or client experience. In practice, this looks like rotating through seasonal drinks, coffee roasts, upcoming café events, and local transit data at a busy coffee shop, or softly cascading through previous work in the lobby of an ad agency. Split Flap has brought fun facts, trivia, employee recognition, weather updates, sports scores, and even marriage proposals to restaurants, offices, and bars, while Picture Flap has enabled retailers to showcase upcoming collections, residential lobbies, and hotels to flip through nearby attractions, and companies to show off product specs at tradeshows and conferences.
Chroma Flap, the newest addition to Oat Foundry’s family of analog technology, is an all-color display inspired by the same mechanical motion. The display, built as an integrated kinetic installation, serves as a brand statement wall, cultural landmark or architectural art display. Split Flap also ushers in an exciting era of experiential engagement and interior branding. With custom-built displays designed for luxury spaces, brands like Nespresso use Split Flap’s capabilities to welcome guests into their New York City flagship. Visitors gaze as the display cascades through domino-like animations of coffee pouring into a cup and the Nespresso logo, set against bursts of color and soft, subtle sound. The modular design of Split Flap and all Oat Foundry products allows each display to be precisely tailored to its space, from a single large canvas to installations that, in the case of the 42,000-flap Nespresso Split Flap, span entire walls.
Another product is an outdoor case for Split Flap, enabling brands to integrate Split Flap into their exterior signage and branding. From ski resorts and beachfront hotels to concert halls, stadiums, and office buildings, the outdoor enclosure dramatically expands the use cases for Split Flap. Designed for exterior environments, the system underwent nearly a year of rigorous durability and weather testing, including exposure to extreme cold and heat.
As AI and digital saturation drive a renewed desire for hands-on, screen-free experiences, Oat Foundry anticipates a return to simpler, tactile products and environments that value materiality, character, and meaning over pixels. The company is equally committed to sustainability; its displays consume significantly less power and generate far less heat than traditional digital signage. Designed for versatility, Oat Foundry’s modular systems support low-impact, reversible installations that integrate seamlessly into heritage and historically protected architecture. At the same time, the displays are highly customizable: Split Flap casing is available in Classic Black, Modern White, or Custom Enterprise Color, while Chroma Flap allows brands to create their own palette of 50 custom colors. With additional customization such as sizing, font, logos, and emoticons available for Split Flap, brands can easily make Oat Foundry’s analog technology feel like their own, without losing the authenticity and mechanical charm that define the medium.
The breadth of customization and scale across Oat Foundry’s suite of modern analog technologies has led to partnerships with brands such as Starbucks, Netflix, Marriott, Reddit, Ralph Lauren, American Airlines, Royal Caribbean, Glossier, Visa, and many more. From creating a monumental analog-style clock for Coachella to designing a custom menu board for Pass & Stow at Citizens Bank Park, Oat Foundry’s products integrate seamlessly across industries, including hospitality, food and beverage, retail, entertainment, sports and live events, transportation, and corporate environments.
Interested in seeing Oat Foundry’s technology in action? The company offers in-person tours for prospective customers to come see their displays and operations in action. With production based in Philadelphia’s Bridesburg neighborhood inside a historic armory building, Oat Foundry continues to support local manufacturing and creative jobs in the City of Brotherly Love. In 2025 alone, the team welcomed new subject matter experts across its production, marketing, and engineering departments, underscoring the company’s success and rapid growth. With every display made to order at their Philadelphia office, Oat Foundry’s five-year warranty and support team ensure a seamless transition for every customer, proving that craftsmanship and character never go out of style.
“We’re building for a world that’s exhausted by screens. Digital saturation continues to rise every year, and we see people craving spaces that feel human, memorable, and present – places where you actually stand in a moment instead of mindlessly scrolling past it. Thoreau warned us that you cannot kill time without injuring eternity, and that’s exactly what digital screens do. They obliterate eternity. They don’t just waste our attention, they erode our capacity to be present at all. That’s why we’re relentless about pushing into new regions with new product breakthroughs: to give graphic and exhibition designers, fabricators, architects, media developers, creative technologists, educators – all visionaries – the tools to create spaces that protect what matters. To promote deep thinking, reflection, and contemplation. Digital screens compete for eyeballs, ensnare our attention, and destroy the moment. Oat Foundry’s products earn your attention. They protect your time and space. They create moments. And in a world where everyone’s fighting to be louder and faster, building something people actually want to stop and experience is incredibly powerful.”
– CEO Mark Kuhn
