Crayola

Crayola is a brand of artists' supplies manufactured by Crayola, LLC (formerly Binney & Smith Company) and best known for its crayons. The company is based in Forks Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Since 1984, Crayola has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Hallmark Cards. Originally an industrial pigment supply company, Crayola soon shifted its focus to art products for home and school use, beginning with chalk, then crayons, followed later by colored pencils, markers, paints, modeling clay, and other related goods. All Crayola-branded products are marketed as nontoxic and safe for use by children. Most Crayola crayons are made in the United States.

The company also produces Silly Putty and a line of professional art products under the Portfolio Series brand.

Crayola, LLC claims the Crayola brand has 99% name recognition in U.S. consumer households, and says its products are sold in over 80 countries.

History

The company was founded by cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith in New York City on March 31, 1885 as Binney & Smith. Initial products were colorants for industrial use, including red iron oxide pigments used in barn paint and carbon black chemicals used for making tires black and extending their useful lifespan. Binney & Smith's new process of creating inexpensive black colorants was entered into the chemistry industries competition at the 1900 Paris Exposition under the title "carbon gas blacks, lamp or oil blacks, 'Peerless' black" and earned the company a gold medal award in chemical and pharmaceutical arts. Also in 1900, the company added production of slate school pencils. Binney's experimentation with industrial materials, including slate waste, cement, and talc, led to the invention of the first dustless white chalk, for which the company won a gold medal at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

History of Crayola crayons

Since the introduction of Crayola drawing crayons by Binney & Smith in 1903, more than two hundred distinctive colors have been produced in a wide variety of assortments. The line has undergone several major revisions in its history, notably in 1935, 1949, 1958, and 1990. Numerous specialty crayons have also been produced, complementing the basic Crayola assortment.

1903: the original Crayola colors

After several decades producing commercial pigments, Binney & Smith produced their first crayon, the black Staonal Marking Crayon, in 1902. The following year, the company decided to enter the consumer market with its first drawing crayons. The name Crayola was suggested by Alice Binney, wife of company founder Edwin Binney, combining craie, French for "chalk," a reference to the pastels that preceded and lent their name to the first drawing crayons, with the suffix -ola, meaning "oleaginous," a reference to the wax from which the crayons were made. Initially this was just one of the brands produced by Binney & Smith; other crayons were produced under names such as Cerola, Cerata, Durel, Perma, and Boston, among others; but the Crayola brand proved the most successful, and was produced in two lines: Crayola Gold Medal School Crayons and "Rubens" Crayola Artists' Crayons.

List of Crayola crayon colors

Since the introduction of Crayola drawing crayons by Binney & Smith in 1903, more than two hundred distinctive colors have been produced in a wide variety of assortments. The table below represents all of the colors found in regular Crayola assortments from 1903 to the present. Since the introduction of fluorescent crayons in the 1970s, the standard colors have been complemented by a number of specialty crayon assortments, represented in subsequent tables.

Standard colors

Specialty crayons

Along with the regular packs of crayons, there have been many specialty sets, including Silver Swirls, Gem Tones, Pearl Brite, Metallic FX, Magic Scent, Silly Scents, and more.

Fluorescent crayons

In 1972, Binney & Smith introduced eight Crayola fluorescent crayons, designed to fluoresce under black light. The following year, they were added to the 72-count box, in place of the duplicate colors. These crayons remained steady until 1990, when all eight were renamed, and eight more were added, for a total of sixteen fluorescent crayons. One of the new colors, Hot Magenta, shared a name with one of the original colors, now Razzle Dazzle Rose. For some reason, two of the original eight fluorescent crayons have the same color as two of the newer crayons. In 1992, the fluorescent colors were added to the new No. 96 box, becoming part of the standard lineup. When four new crayons were added to the No. 96 assortment in 2003, four existing colors were discontinued, including two of the fluorescents. Also beginning in 1993, packs of fluorescent crayons were regularly labeled "neon" or "neons".