Laurentien was the beloved Canadian pencil-crayon brand, a classroom staple for generations that was discontinued around 2012.

Laurentien is a lesson in how a colour core can become a national memory. For decades it was the coloured pencil — the “pencil crayon,” in Canadian usage — that Canadian schoolchildren grew up with, a nostalgic staple of classrooms across the country. Its answer to how a colour is made a memory was familiarity: be the affordable, everywhere box of coloured pencils that a generation coloured with. A colour core remembered fondly, though no longer made.

Its identity is the Canadian pencil crayon. Laurentien’s box of coloured pencils, and the colours it is remembered for, are the work it is known for. A core, made a classroom staple. A brand kept alive now mostly in memory.

(Honest notes, so the story stays precise, and honest about its status. Laurentien is discontinued — its coloured pencils were ceased around 2012, and there is no revival, so we write about it in the past tense and never imply it is still made. Its lineage: originally a Canadian brand owned by Venus Pencils, it was acquired by Sanford (today part of Newell) in 1994, and Sanford later discontinued it around 2012. It was reportedly introduced around 1951, though that date rests on limited sourcing, so we hedge it. Its name is itself a piece of Canadian history: originally spelled “Laurentian,” it was respelled to the French “Laurentien” in 1972 to strengthen sales in Quebec, evoking the Laurentian region. Two honest cautions: we do not assert a specific manufacturing city, which we could not verify; and “Bittersweet,” a colour often misattributed to it, is actually a Crayola colour — real Laurentien colour names include Sarasota Orange, Peacock Blue and Arizona Topaz. The Laurentien name and any colour names remain the (now dormant) IP of its owner, described but never reproduced, and there is no official brand hex — these tones are an unofficial interpretation. This is design commentary and does not promote any product.)

Laurentien lives in a Sarasota-orange palette. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Laurentien’s identity is nostalgic, warm and Canadian — a Sarasota orange, an ink, a linen, a sienna, and a paper. The palette leans Sarasota orange and linen: the register of a well-loved classroom colour and a childhood memory. It signals nostalgia and warmth over prestige. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these values are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party colours — an abstract nod to one of its remembered colours, not a sampled pencil.

The lesson is a Sarasota-orange palette signals a nostalgic, Canadian identity. Laurentien’s world is a remembered, classroom, Canadian object. For designers, it is a reminder that a warm orange and a soft linen can carry a brand built on memory — the colour of a childhood pencil and the neutral of drawing paper. Because these tones can fail as small text, keep type dark and let the colour live in the accents, palette and band. The takeaways: value the memory; write in the past tense; get the colours right; and treat any single hex as unofficial.

The register is a nostalgia sans — warm, plain, remembered.

Laurentien’s identity carries a warm, plain, remembered spirit — a fondly recalled classroom brand, not a current product. A nostalgia sans captures the mood: friendly, clear and a little wistful, the register of a childhood staple. Set in a Sarasota-orange palette, the nostalgia sans feels warm and plain — exactly the personality Laurentien carries in memory. It is remembered rather than current, mirroring a discontinued colour box. (Laurentien’s real labels and colour names are things we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not ours to use.) Because it is not ours to use, the honest description is “a nostalgia-sans spirit,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the memory: warm, plain and remembered.

Laurentien stands for the pencil crayon a country remembers.

Laurentien is a lesson in how a colour core can outlive its own production in memory. A Sarasota-orange palette, a nostalgia sans and a remembered colour box make one thing — the pencil crayon a country grew up with — the whole brand: nostalgic, warm and Canadian. The classroom familiarity is the differentiator, and the fond memory is the meaning. The point is a discontinued brand that still lives in a nation’s recollection of childhood colouring, even as no factory makes it any more.

Put to work, the identity is memory told honestly as design. A brand history in this spirit would honour the affection people still hold, and be scrupulous about status and facts — discontinued around 2012, not still made; owned through Venus and then Sanford/Newell; a name respelled for Quebec in 1972; colours named accurately, not confused with a rival’s. A brand-builder learning from it would see that nostalgia is a real force — that a discontinued product can hold a place in a culture’s memory that a living competitor cannot — but that honouring it means telling the truth: past tense, no false “still available,” no invented colours. It is also a reminder that a name can carry a country’s regional identity, as the deliberate 1972 respelling to “Laurentien” shows. The lesson Laurentien teaches is that memory can hold an identity: the classroom familiarity gives it warmth, and the honest past-tense telling gives it integrity. The nostalgia is the personality, and the remembered colour is the proof.

For designers and brand-builders, Laurentien holds the memory pole in this round of the national pencil, from Canada: honour the nostalgia, and tell the status honestly. The lessons: value the affection; write in the past tense; get the ownership and colours right; never imply it is still made; and never reproduce a protected label. It is also a reminder to stay precise: Laurentien was the beloved Canadian pencil-crayon brand, a classroom staple discontinued around 2012 — with the palette here an unofficial interpretation. Laurentien made classroom nostalgia the identity — proof that a fondly remembered brand, told honestly, can still be the difference.

Keep Laurentien’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.