Crayola has decided to retire one of its colors from the classic 24-count box on Friday, which is also National Crayon Day, talk about irony. This will be the first time in 100 years a color from the iconic Crayon portfolio will be dropped. However, the company did not disclose what color it plans to retire.
The company stated that once the color is retired, it will no longer produce any crayons in that particular shade. The 24-count Crayola box now has blue, brown, red, yellow, green, orange, black, violet, yellow orange, carnation pink, red violet, red orange, blue green, Yellow Green, violet red, blue violet, cerulean, dandelion, apricot, scarlet, indigo, green yellow, gray and white.
Possible color to be axed
The possible color that the company may drop is a color that has little or no difference in shade. Those are yellow orange, red violet, blue green, red orange, blue violet, violet red, yellow green and green yellow. Honestly, most people couldn’t tell the difference between red violet from violet red or yellow green from green yellow.
Colors that might be safe from retiring
Crayons are designed mostly for children and if a color is simple enough to be identified by children, that color might be safe from being dropped by Crayola. Those are red, yellow, blue, orange, violet, white, gray and black.
History of Crayola retirees
The company retired its first colors way back in 1990.
Crayola dropped the colors; lemon yellow, blue gray, raw umber, maize, green blue, orange red, orange yellow and violet blue. In 2003, the company then dropped blizzard blue, teal blue, mulberry and magic mint. However, one color was saved, the burnt sienna, after 60,000 fans voted to keep the popular color from being axed.
The brand Crayola is originally an industrial pigment supply company before shifting to art products for home and school use that started out with chalk then crayons. It eventually produced colored pencils, paints, markers, modeling clay and other related products.
Crayola products are now being sold to over 80 countries.