Crayola has a new color to add to its box of 24 crayons. The new Shade Of Blue that was unveiled on Thursday is called "Bluetiful." In order to keep only 24 in the box, one color had to be retired. The color that seemingly didn't get much work was dandelion, and it was retired on March 31 on National Crayon Day.
It was the third time in Crayola’s long history that a color had been removed, and it was the very first time it would be replaced with a color in the box of 24 crayons. Prior to the removal of dandelion, other colors were removed but not replaced.
They were maize, raw umber, and orange yellow.
The new color
People voted on which color to retire, and as soon as dandelion was chosen to leave the box, Crayola held another nationwide contest for people to vote on a name for the new shade of blue.
Nearly 90,000 suggestions were submitted based on a blue pigment discovered in 2009. Two scientists at Oregon State University accidentally discovered the color when they were experimenting with something else. At the time, they called the new pigment YinMn. Of course, that name was too scientific to become the official name.
There were some interesting suggestions, and Crayola narrowed the list down to five -- seen in the Twitter post below. They include Dream Come Blue, Star Spangled Blue, Blue Moon Bliss, Reach for the Stars, and Bluetiful.
The color that received the most votes was "Bluetiful." It is a combination of the word "blue" and a play on the word "beautiful."
Our top 5 names are in! Vote for your favorite for a chance to win! https://t.co/kVsXkAHY2Q pic.twitter.com/7mvf64KiS8
— Crayola (@Crayola) June 30, 2017
Even though the new color has been named, the exact date it will be available in the box has not been determined.
Bluetiful will join 23 other colors that include all the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.
Retirement of crayons
Back in 2003, the Easton, Pennsylvania-based company removed four colors from the collection. Of the colors removed, two of them were shades of blue. They were blizzard blue, teal blue, mulberry, and magic mint.
The company started retiring colors in 1990. Once colors are retired they are not forgotten. Instead, each shade is placed in the “Crayola Hall of Fame.”
The new color was revealed during a segment on "Good Morning America" on Thursday. A group of young kids got to test the new color. They concluded that that color is very beautiful.
What do you think about the new name? While it is a nice, catchy name, the spell checker on computers will not accept it until you add it to your dictionary.