Drawing on its name

EASTON, Pa. — Binney & Smith Co. is counting on a corporate name change to its iconic brand Crayola to help fuel its future growth.

“What it really helps us do is be recognized for who we are,” said CEO Mark Schwab, during a ceremony Thursday to celebrate the name change. “We’re known as Crayola. That’s the brand that children, moms, parents and teachers really associate us with.”

The name change was effective Jan. 1.

Crayola was launched more than a century ago by cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith, who started out making red oxide pigments for barn paint, carbon for black automobile tires and slate pencils for schools.

They soon identified a market for affordable wax crayons and in 1903, Binney & Smith sold the first box of eight for a nickel.

Alice Binney, Edwin’s wife, coined the Crayola name by joining the French word for chalk, “craie,” and “ola,” short for “oleaginous,” or oily, because crayons are made from petroleum-based wax.

Binney’s great-granddaughter, Sally Putnam Chapman, said her ancestor wouldn’t have minded the loss of the Binney & Smith name.

Binney & Smith became a subsidiary of privately owned Hallmark Cards Inc. of Kansas City, Mo., in 1984.