If I had to draw a picture of nostalgia, I’d draw it with Crayola crayons.

When I was in the fourth grade, my friend Kathleen did her Independent Study project on the science of colour. She wrote to Crayola to ask them for information on their manufacturing processes and see if they had any resources they could send her. In response, they sent her a massive box full of markers, crayons, pencil crayons, stamp thingies, paper … I don’t know what else, this was nearly 25 years ago. Oh man, I’m old. Anyway. Just tons of stuff. The box was delivered to her at school, and I had never been so jealous. I can still remember her unpacking everything, my mouth watering as she poured hundreds of smooth, vibrant crayons in colours I’d never even seen all over the table. Gahhhh. Meanwhile, I was doing my Independent Study on cats, and I didn’t even have a cat.

The joy Crayola brings to kids (and, let’s be honest, adults) is so universal, I barely even need to finish this blog post.

The joy Crayola brings to kids (and, let’s be honest, adults) is so universal, I barely even need to finish this blog post. (I probably should anyway.) We all grew up with Crayola, didn’t we? Does anything compare to the feeling of opening a new package of pencil crayons and sharpening them all into a beautiful spectrum of hypodermic needles? Now, we get to experience that joy from a whole new angle when we supply our own children with pencil cases full of Crayola magic, and then watch as they unpack them and get to work building and discovering the world around them.

Our best and brightest PLN artists spent a creative day at the office recently, and as you can see from the pictures, they reminded us all that “Go colour!” is really all the instruction kids need.

Photography by Ryan Bolton.