I was a picky eater as a kid. Back then, my favorite part about eating at a restaurant was doodling on the kids' menu with the small packet or bucket of crayons that I could use.
Crayons are a staple of my childhood and I'm sure many other people feel the same way. When I was younger, I had a box of Crayola crayons with a sharpener built into the box. I was a perfectionist and would use the sharpener to make sure my crayons were sharp so I could draw precisely. Recently, I was walking through a store and saw a box of Crayola crayons, sparking a sense of nostalgia and a desire to create something. It reminded me of the box with a sharpener that I used to own and so I tried looking for it online. I found a similar product sold at Staples.
Physically, crayons are a type of writing utensil made from wax and can be different colors. On a deeper level, I find it fascinating that crayons are so emblematic of childhood imagination. When I think of what a child uses to draw, I immediately visualize crayons. Child creativity and crayons are just heavily associated with each other in my mind. I also find it interesting that, after years of using their crayons, I only recently noticed that the Crayola logo is in the shape of a smile. After noticing this, the design on the package looked a little uncanny, with the crayons as the teeth, but nonetheless it's a really clever design.
This box of crayons manages to engage my senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste. I see the iconic silhouette of a Crayola crayon, recall the waxy smell and physical texture of the crayons and remember the sound of murmurs at a restaurant while I doodled on my kid's menu and ate my chicken tenders. It's impressive to me that a writing utensil combined with memory associations can have so much power over my senses.
I am curious about who Crayola sees as competitors, considering that I can't think of any other crayon brands. This makes me want to learn how the Crayola visual branding came to be. As for the Crayola box with the sharpener, I wonder what precautions were made to ensure that the sharpener wouldn't injure a curious kid. Looking more closely at this product has made me feel like a curious child again.
