Tag Archives: crayons

CamelBak and Crayola Just Made the Most Nostalgic Water Bottle

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Remember holding a fat crayon between your fingers as a kid? The waxy smell, the satisfying peel of the paper label, that specific weight in your hand that felt like pure creative possibility? CamelBak and Crayola are betting you do, because their new limited-edition Chug Water Bottle Collection is practically a love letter to that memory.

The collaboration transforms the classic crayon into functional hydration gear, and the execution is genuinely clever. The standout feature is the lid shaped to mimic the iconic Crayola crayon tip, a small but deliberate design choice that does a lot of heavy lifting. It’s not just a slap-on logo deal or a crayon-print graphic splashed across a generic bottle. The actual form of the crayon is carried through to the cap, which makes it feel like a real design statement rather than a quick licensing cash grab.

Designer: Camelbak x Crayola

The collection comes in three sizes: a 14oz, a 16oz insulated stainless steel version, and a 25oz option made with Tritan Renew plastic. The 16oz model is vacuum-insulated, keeping drinks ice cold for hours, while the larger 25oz is lightweight and non-insulated, ideal for someone who just wants a grab-and-go bottle without the extra weight. Both are BPA-free, and the 25oz is built with Tritan Renew, which incorporates reclaimed plastic material into its construction. That feels like a thoughtful nod to sustainability, and it’s the kind of detail that tends to get overlooked in the excitement over aesthetics.

Where the collection really delivers is in the color palette. Crayola didn’t just hand over its logo and call it a day. The bottles arrive in shades pulled straight from the classic 64-count box: Cherry Red, Carnation Pink, Sky Blue, Aquamarine, Green, and more. These aren’t muted, “adultified” interpretations of those colors. They’re unapologetically vivid, exactly the kind of saturated tones that made opening a new box of crayons feel like an event. For anyone who has strong feelings about how many “adult” product lines water down color until it becomes something beige and forgettable, this collection is a welcome counter-argument. It’s rare to see a brand commit fully to the bit, and Crayola’s signature palette, deployed here at full intensity, is genuinely satisfying.

Nostalgia-driven collaborations are everywhere right now, and they can be exhausting when they feel cynical. A well-known consumer brand slaps its logo on something unrelated, leans hard on your childhood memories, and hopes the emotion carries the sale. The CamelBak x Crayola partnership sidesteps that trap because the two brands actually share the same lane. Both are built around accessibility, creativity, and the idea that the best products go everywhere with you. Crayola has been a household name since 1903, and CamelBak has spent decades designing hydration products that live in backpacks, gym bags, and school hallways alike. Putting them together isn’t a stretch. If anything, it’s the kind of collab that makes you wonder why it didn’t happen sooner.

The pricing sits at around $28 for the insulated 16oz bottle and closer to $19 to $23 for the 25oz Tritan version. Neither is bargain-bin territory, but they’re reasonable for what you’re getting: a genuinely well-made hydration product with design details that go beyond surface level.

Is this a bottle that will change the way you think about hydration? No. But that’s also not the point. The CamelBak x Crayola Chug Collection is a product that understands the quiet power of play, that the objects we carry around every day say something about who we are and what we choose to care about. Choosing a water bottle shaped like a crayon is a small, deliberate act of joy, and in a product category that has been dominated by matte black cylinders and relentless “wellness” branding, a little color goes a long way. Literally. The collection is limited edition and available now on Amazon and through CamelBak’s website.

The post CamelBak and Crayola Just Made the Most Nostalgic Water Bottle first appeared on Yanko Design.

Crayons from Japan’s recycled trees highlights the country’s forests

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When you think of wood, the color that immediately comes to mind is brown since that’s what most of us have seen in the trees near our abodes or even when we travel. But it’s not the only color that we can extract from it, specifically from various species of forest trees. With 2//3 of Japan covered with trees and a lot of these forests remaining unharvested and unmaintained, it’s interesting to see what sustainable products can be made out of these trees.

Designer Name: Playfool

Forest Crayons is a project that uses the pigments extracted from various recycled forest trees and mixes them with other sustainable ingredients to turn them into crayons. Each one has a different shade that is based on the species of the recycled tree as well as how it was cultivated and grown. For example, you get a light green color for magnolia and a deep turquoise of fungus stained wood.

The pigments extracted are mixed with wood, rice wax, and rice oil to produce the different crayons. There are ten crayons available in the Forest Crayons set: Bayberry, Bogwood, Cedar, Chinaberry, Cybress, Hazenoki, Katsura, Kaizuka, Magnolia, and Zelkova. Some names should be familiar to most people but there are species that are native to Japan and some that have Japanese names.

Forest Crayons are actually supported by the Japanese Forest Agency and aside from producing these from recycled trees, they also want to “breathe new life into Japanese wood” so that people will have a new appreciation for the country’s forests. I would prefer the triangular shape of the crayons shown in the product shots but it makes sense of course to have them in the traditional crayon shape for functional reasons.

The post Crayons from Japan’s recycled trees highlights the country’s forests first appeared on Yanko Design.