Project blog

Adriene Layne is the CEO and Inventor for her company Layne & Co Communications Limited, trading as YelloButterfly Communications®. Adriene’s aim is to create a network of devices which would support individuals within our society, where their first means of communicating is not or can no longer be, the traditional pen and paper method. The potentialities of these products are diverse as it opens up a new gateway for communication and will allow people of all abilities, cultures and age to communicate regardless of their level of understanding and language skills.  Adriene’s experiences of having a partner for over seven years who was pre-literate - He could not read, write nor spell - and throughout their relationship Adriene discovered that there are so many more people, who struggled on a daily basis as he had -Adriene felt that they needed a solution - which would help him run his household better, in particular being able to deal with his letters and bills on his own. Moreover, in contrast, Adriene’s mother because of an age-related illness, later on in her life, developed shaky hands and poor eyesight, so was unable to maintain their letter writing relationship and as a result, Adriene stopped receiving hand written letters from her mum, a sad time and these among other reasons led her to invent the Award winning Voice Letter and her second device the Record and Learn unit. 

The Voice Letter is truly innovative and can only be described as a 21st Century Letter which was created for and can be used by the Elderly with age related conditions (i.e. poor eyesight, shaky hands, Strokes, Dementia, Alzheimers and Arthritis), yet be able to maintain their relationships with their grandchildren in a novel way. The Voice Letter can also support parents who spend long periods of time away from their children i.e. incarcerated parents, military personnel, overseas students to name a few instances of usage. Adriene also invented the Record and Learn unit which helped her son to pass his GCSE in Spanish as it supported him in learning a different language and with the pronunciation of his words and her daughter with the alphabet and her reading skills in preparation for school. The Record and Learn device can also be used as a rehabilitation aid i.e. for Speech and Language Therapy, can support learning throughout many subject areas and promote learning between parent and child.

Adriene worked with the University of the West of England initially to develop her prototype into a viable, marketable product and won a Biz Idea Award, then at Bristol University The SPARK Award – First place over thirteen other companies and also been on Dragon's Den. Adriene also work within her local community as an Independent Advisor/Real Life Coach,  supporting individuals within her community  and helping them to find solutions to problems they may have around housing, job seeking or everyday issues and encourage them to achieve the living of their best life.

Adriene says ‘I am the mother of three beautiful children. I worked within Local Government for the past 22 plus years in a variety of roles and I have met people from all walks of life. I became aware that there is a hidden society, within the wider society, of individuals who have serious issues around literacy and being able to communicate on a daily basis in a world which is not so simple to them. I love my work, truly living up to making a difference to mankind’. Adriene is currently working at the Pervasive Media Studio under a micro Alumni Residency to develop and grow her works as well as working on developing a Community TV Channel. Adriene Layne can be contacted via Facebook page -YelloButterfly and her website is: https://www.record-and-learn.com. ⌗GivingtheHiddenAVoice