Laurentien Pencil Crayons
September 23rd, 2009
Design:
Client: Venus Pencil Company Ltd.
Date: 1951
Although Laurentien (then spelled Laurentian) pencil crayons were made in Canada right from the start, The Venus Pencil Company Ltd. also marketed the same pencils under the brand name ‘Paradise’ in the United States. Both brands were developed for Colour-By-Number kits, and they both kept the same colour names and numbering system. This would explain some of the more exotic colour names like “#2 Sarasota Orange”and “#4 Hollywood Cerise.”
During the 1960’s, a couple of Canadian innovations were made: The packaging was changed to the portable vinyl pouches, and space for labeling on the pencil was introduced to deter theft from classmates.
In 1972, a year before Faber-Castell bought Venus, the French spelling “Laurentien” was trademarked in an attempt to increase sales in Quebec.
Sanford acquired the brand in 1994, and in 2001 they changed the packaging and discontinued the vinyl pouch. The Laurentien website states that the move back to the cardboard box was motivated by the fact that “consumers were more likely to put the coloured pencils in their own pencil case,” however it is possible that the issues of cost and PVC’s recent bad press played a factor as well.
Nevertheless, aside from some minor name changes to several of the colours, the pencils themselves still retain their iconic design.
-Michael Greco
Entry Filed under: Games and Toys,Miscellaneous
11 Comments Add your own
1. Justin | September 24th, 2009 at 21:35
I miss these. I remember them being much less likely to break during sharpening than the Prismacolor pencils that are more widely available (at least in the US). I miss them, but hopefully Venus still markets them.
2. ConcreteCat | September 24th, 2009 at 22:10
classic!
3. Judy | September 27th, 2009 at 12:42
My kids always wanted new pencil crayons every year, so sometimes they ended up with a cheaper lesser quality brand when someone else took them shopping. They always met with disappointment as the leads kept breaking or the colours weren’t vibrant enough. Laurentian was always and still is my preference. I’m sure I still have a couple of stubs laying around from when I was a child. Keep up the high quality.
4. fED | September 29th, 2009 at 19:01
Love them! I still have them and they bring back awesome memories from my time in the Canadian public school system.
5. jim u | September 30th, 2009 at 14:22
I’ve always loved them. they should make them manditory as they were the root for some great creativity in my school years. they’re much cheaper now than how i remembered them. i bought the complete set at walmart just to re-live the excitement of having them. that is how the photo came about.
6. pencil talk&hellip | October 10th, 2009 at 15:23
Double ended colour pencils…
While red and blue pencils are a sublime and beautiful example of the pencil maker’s art, other colour leads can be combined though the same process for an amazing result.
Colleen is a company we’ve mentioned many times. With leadership f…
7. Sharon.hatch | October 15th, 2009 at 09:58
Laurentian pencil crayons have always been the best quality and have been the suggested brand to get for school supplies at the schools I have taught and also have been a student at for a combination total of more than 45 years. The last two years I have been so disappointed in the sharpening quality. They break easily or cannot sharpen evenly. They do not last at all no matter which type of sharpener is used. I really hope this can be rectified.
8. Brian Goguen | November 18th, 2009 at 13:25
I`ve been a long time customer & to my disappointment I complained to the website about a big pack of pencil crayons that I purchased that were defective a month ago and got absolutely no response. So I`m done buying them I guess. No point of offering a Contact Us link if you are not going to respond. They don`t care about their customers. I`m 51 yrs. and have been using them since I was a kid. Very sad really.
9. Debbie | January 20th, 2010 at 16:29
We have always preferred Laurentien to other brands as they give such smooth coverage, but have recently been disappointed with the lack of selection of reds. There are only two to speak of (even in a package of 70), and neither is a deep, rich red. Oh, for a true, deep, blood red…
10. Rowena Swahn | March 12th, 2010 at 19:06
I love these pencil crayons and have since I was a child (10), am now almost 63. I volunteer at the local school every day in the Gr.1 class and notice the wood on the pencils seems hard to sharpen, often sharpening on one side only.The gold and silver colors often fall completely out of the wood-last year 3 children had this problem.What can be done? Parents are paying dearly for these pencil crayons, and some are lasting a very shor ttime.
11. b | August 29th, 2010 at 18:34
you describe the sharpener ptoblem, not the pencil.
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