It’s Bluetiful. That’s the name of Crayola’s new blue crayon inspired by OSU’s YInMn blue, the pigment discovered by OSU chemist Mas Subramanian. The announcement came after many months and more than 90,000 submissions by fans around the world. The name Bluetiful beat out the other four finalists, Blue Moon Bliss, Dreams Come Blue, Reach for the Stars and Star Spangled Blue. Replacing the retired yellow crayon Dandelion, Bluetiful will debut in new crayon boxes this fall.
Last May, at the Colorful World Pigments, an event hosted by the College of Science, Crayola announced from Corvallis to the world that YInMn Blue, the first inorganic blue pigment in 200 years, would be the inspiration for its new crayon. Watch the video announcement.
YInMn Blue— so named for its composition from the elements Yttrium, Indium, Manganese and Oxygen—was first discovered accidentally by Subramanian in his lab seven years ago. The discovery continues to make news worldwide thanks to a Tech Insider online story and video of the discovery that went viral in 2016. The story has reverberated across the Internet with more than 12 million shares and counting. News of YInMn has appeared everywhere from Cosmopolitan, New York Magazine, TIME magazine and the Huffington Post to The Daily Mail, India Today and BBC/Mundo among others. NPR devoted an in-depth feature on the blue pigment.
Subramanian, noting that people love the color blue for a wide variety of reasons, called it “truly an honor” that his discovery has inspired a new crayon color.
“Blue is associated with open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, expansiveness, inspiration and sensitivity,” he said. “Blue also represents meanings of depth, trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, stability, faith, heaven and intelligence.”
We can’t wait to see what children of all ages will create with the new Bluetiful crayon!
