Good Day to you my friends and welcome to The Creative Cabana to help kick off the start of the month of June! I hope you all had a great weekend and that you're ready to begin the summer season with a variety of creative projects. Each week to help me get inspired for the week's discussions and Creative Mastermind candidates, I tend to do a little brainstorming and eventually I get drawn to a particular concept of who shall be named Creative Mastermind for the week. Over the weekend I spent a day trip with my family visiting a home decor and home hardware store shopping around for the endless list of things we need to help fix our the house the way we want. One area of the store I went to was the paint section- naturally I'm looking into re-painting my bedroom at some point and wanted to get some color ideas. Upon looking at the various brand names I came across one name that I haven't read or thought about in many years- Crayola.Whenever I see the name or a product titled "Crayola", I instantly think back to my childhood. For many people Crayola is a staple symbol in our childhood. We grew up drawing with the crayons, and being amused by the in-box sharpener that came in bigger packages, or we used the markers that seemed to dry out after a few uses. Crayola is by far the most popular art supplier for children because they pride themselves in making their products "child-proof" with no mess technology and easy to use instructions. In order to establish Crayola as this week's Creative Mastermind, I have to give the credit to the two men who created the "Crayola" brand, Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith
Binney and Smith, who happened to be cousins, formed their business partnership in 1885 which initially began as the "Binney & Smith" company. The men were working to create colorants to be used for industrial businesses. Remember that colors during this time period were limited because of dyes and pigments that were available (and affordable). In the early 20th century, the men began selling basic slate pencils to be used for tablets in schools. After doing some experiments with various industrial materials, Binney discovered a unique concept that would become known as the "first white dustless chalk".
In 1903, Binney and his wife began development of their own wax crayons which today bears the name "Crayola". By the way, in case you didn't know where the term "Crayola" comes from, it derives from the french word "craie" which stands for chalk and "ola" for oily. Crayola becomes a big hit and goes on to become the household name that it is today. Crayola now isn't limited to just the crayons though, the products have ranged from paints to silly putty and even coloring books. This has become a childhood favorite for many decades and popular tool for even the youngest of artists.
When I sat down and thought about what makes Crayola shine in creativity, the main idea that comes to my head is that the products inspire the creativity. Having the option of applying colors to everyday surfaces can spark imagination and exercise our artistic skills, no matter how limited they may be. I think what makes Crayola so creative too is that with crayons in general, there's really nothing else like them. Who would've thought that a few colored pieces of wax could amount to such artistic detail. Paint is one thing, and pencils are great too. But when the crayons were first introduced, there really wasn't anything to compare them to. Many people were intrigued by the fact that there's no dust from these crayons- a revolutionary idea. These fundamental tools are essential to our creativity because they help to illustrate our thoughts. Maybe you should dig out that old kindergarten picture you drew of your family- it may not look like much now, but once upon a time it was valued portrait. Crayola's products help children build memories, spark creativity, and set the standard of learning through art.
What are you waiting for? Grab your crayons, coloring book, and go do something creative! Crayola's name will be around for quite some time, but you're not getting any younger and besides, it's fun to relive your inner-child. Thank you Crayola for giving children of all ages a chance to develop artistic skills and teaching us to be creative in everything we do.
Thanks for spending time with me at The Creative Cabana! If you have an idea for someone who'd make the perfect Creative Mastermind, send me a message by leaving a comment on this post, or you can share ideas on Facebook or Twitter just search "The Creative Cabana". Have a beautiful afternoon and keep checking back for more creative topics this week! June is going to be the Month of Drawing, so watch for upcoming posts related to drawing tips and tricks. Stop by again soon!
*I do not own Crayola or any of the Crayola brand-named products. Those products and their patents belong to the Crayola company and their respective developers. Images used in this post were collected from Google Images Search Results. I have no relations to Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith, I have used the Crayola brand in this post for discussion and educational purposes only. No Copyright Infringement Intended.
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