Crayola

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crayola LLC

Type	Privately held company
Predecessor	Binney & Smith
Founder(s)	Edwin Binney C. Harold Smith
Headquarters	1100 Church Lane Easton, Pennsylvania 18044-0431 United States of America[1]
Number of locations	Manufacturing:[1] Easton, Pennsylvania Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Mexico City, Mexico International sales and marketing offices:[1] Canada, England, Australia, France, Mexico, Italy and Spain
Key people	Mike Perry, President and Chief Executive Officer Dona Fisher, Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Sharon Hartley, Vice President, U.S. Marketing & Sales Peter S. Ruggiero, Vice President, Operations[1]
Industry	Arts and crafts, Toys
Employees	1,250 (2006)[1]
Parent	Hallmark Cards
Divisions	Crayola, Silly Putty, Portfolio Series
Website	http://www.crayola.com/

Crayola is a brand of artistry supplies such as markers, chalk, crayons, paints, modeling clay and colored pencils manufactured by Crayola LLC — founded in 1885 as Binney & Smith. All Crayola-branded products are marketed as non-toxic and safe for use by children, making the brand a perennial favorite among teachers, parents and kids.^[2] Crayola products are currently sold virtually worldwide.

[edit] History

Crayola's founders Edwin Binney (left) and C. Harold Smith (right)

The company was founded by cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith in New York City in 1885 as Binney & Smith. Initial products were colorants for industrial use, including red oxide pigment used in barn paint and carbon for making tires black.^[3] Their 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.^[4][5] 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.^[5]

In 1903, the company produced its most famous innovation — the first brightly-colored child-friendly crayons, which it sold under the brand name "Crayola". The Crayola name was coined by Alice Binney, wife of company founder Edwin and a former school teacher. It comes from "craie," the French word for "chalk," and "ola," for "oleaginous," or "oily."^[5] The crayons that had existed previously were toxic and either too expensive for general use or dull in color and produced for industrial uses such as marking shipping crates.^[6]

Modern (2009) 64-crayon pack sporting built-in sharpener

In 1948, Crayola dramatically expanded its available crayon colors by introducing the 48 color pack. Further expansion took place in 1958 with the introduction of the 64 color pack that included the company's first crayon sharpener built into the box. The 64 color box was called "a watershed" moment in the history of the Crayola crayon by Smithsonian Museum of American History curator David Shayt.^[7]

In 1977, Binney & Smith acquired the rights to Silly Putty.^[8] Crayola markers were introduced in 1978 to coincide with the the 75th anniversary of Crayola crayons. Colored pencils and a line of washable markers were added in 1987.^[3]

[edit] Corporate structure

Initially formed as a partnership in 1885, Binney & Smith incorporated in 1902. The corporation became a publicly-traded company under the symbol BYS on the American Stock Exchange in 1963 and later moved to the New York Stock Exchange under the same symbol in 1978.^[3] In 1984, the company was acquired by the Hallmark Cards company, a privately held corporation.^[1] On January 1, 2007, "Binney & Smith" changed its name to "Crayola LLC". Information released by the company stated that the new name was adopted to showcase the company's well-known brand, which was in use in more than 80 countries and had 99% name recognition in U.S. consumer households.^[9]

Because Crayola LLC is a privately held company, it isn't required to release detailed financial data publicly.

[edit] Crayons

The crayons in the 8, 16, and 24 packs.

Crayola crayon packs come in a variety of sizes from packages of just a few crayons sold to establishments such as hotels and restaurants to hand out to their young guests^[10] all the way up to 832 "Classpack" bulk boxes marketed to schools.^[11] The colors contained in a package have ranged from 2 up to 200 (although a 200 color package includes "special effect" crayons such as glitters or neons, etc.). In general, though, the most common retail packages are multiples of eight with 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96 and 120 packs being marketed today.^[12][13][14] A 150 crayon pack featuring a plastic telescope-like case was introduced in 2006.^[15]

Crayola has also recently added other specialty crayon products to its lineup, including washable crayons, triangular-shaped crayons, sidewalk crayons, twistable crayons, window crayons, and jumbo-sized crayons.^[12]

[edit] Colors

Retired colors.

The most popular color is blue^[16] of which they produce 6 shades.

Here are the basic colors in the 8, 16, and 24 packs as of 2005^[update] (color values are obtained from swatches from Crayola's website):

[edit] Cultural impact

A Yale University study found that the smell of Crayola crayons is one of the most recognizable scents for adults,^[5] ranking at number 18 trailing coffee and peanut butter that were number one and two respectively, but beating out cheese and bleach which placed at 19 and 20.^[17]

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History maintains a collection of Crayola crayons founded by an original 64 color box donated by Binney & Smith in 1998. The collection now includes more than 300 boxes of crayons.^[7]

The Crayola crayon was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame as a founding member at its inception.

[edit] Commemorative postage stamp

A 1998 USPS stamp commemorating Crayola crayons. Note the Roman numeral date "MCMIV" at the bottom of the gold medal seal.

In 1998, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp to commemorate the cultural impact the product has had on almost all Americans.^[18] Although the crayons debuted in 1903 and the stamp is titled as such, the box depicted includes the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair Gold Medal insignia (dated MCMIV) won by Binney & Smith for their dustless chalk^[5] so it can not be the original 1903 package design.

The stamp is part of the 1900s decade sheet of the Celebrate the Century souvenir sheet series and was designed by Carl Herrman, illustrated by Richard Waldrep and printed by Ashton-Potter USA using the offset/intaglio process.^[19]

[edit] Crayola Color Census 2000

In 2000, Crayola held the "Crayola Color Census 2000" promotion in which Americans were asked to vote for their favorite Crayola crayon color. Celebrity entrants George W. Bush chose Blue Bell, Tiger Woods chose Wild Strawberry, and Courtney Cox Arquette chose Red.^[20] Overall, Blue came in first, with Cerulean second and Purple Heart third.^[16] Full results are available here.

[edit] The Crayola Factory

The Crayola Factory is located at 30 Centre Square, Easton, Pennsylvania at Two Rivers Landing^[21] and is open to kids of all ages. Despite its name, the "Factory" is not an operational full-scale manufacturing plant, but rather a museum and visitor center geared towards familiarizing guests with Crayola's history and products.^[22]

A girl draws with Crayola-brand crayons in the Crayola Factory

A "discovery center" was built that showcases the manufacturing process of crayons. There is also a "Crayola Hall of Fame" in which the retired crayon colors (Blue Gray, Lemon Yellow, Orange Red, Orange Yellow, Violet Blue, Maize, Green Blue, Raw Umber, Thistle, Blizzard Blue, Mulberry, Teal Blue and Magic Mint) are displayed.^[23]

The Crayola Factory was recently featured in a Food Network episode of Dinner: Impossible. A dinner was held for 150 Crayola Factory employees at the Crayola Factory to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 64 box of crayons. Chef Michael Symon's mission was to create an eight course tasting menu for this event where all eight items of the menu had to match eight randomly chosen Crayola crayon colors.^[24] The Crayola Factory was also featured in segments from the popular children's shows Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

In October 2003, the Factory unveiled "The World's Largest Crayon," a 15-foot crayon weighing 1,500 lb as part of its celebration of the 100th year of Crayola crayons. The giant crayon is blue and was made of leftover crayon bits sent in by children across the United States.^[25]

[edit] Other products

Crayola LLC produces a broad range of products other than their famous crayons under the Crayola brand name. These include color pencils, markers, inks and paints, modeling clays, coloring books and artists' tools. As with all Crayola products, these are all marketed as non-toxic and safe for use by children.^[26]

[edit] Other brands

Other Crayola LLC-owned product brand lines include the Portfolio Series, a line of water-soluble oil pastels, watercolors, drawing pencils, colored pencils, and acrylic paints that are marketed to artists and educators,^[27] and Silly Putty. Silly Putty was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2001.

[edit] Licensing

Numerous products ranging from bath and personal care items to bedding and electronics are produced by other companies using the Crayola brand name under license.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Crayola Official Website
• A crayon collectors site with extensive info on Crayola crayons and boxes
• Orange: A Crayola raw materials data sheet from the 1970s Smithsonian Institution Libraries
• Binney & Smith Timeline
• Color Chronology from Crayola.com