Laurentien History.
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Laurentien launched in Canada by the Venus Pencil Company Ltd.

Laurentien originally used the English spelling, 'Laurentian', which literally means "of the province of Quebec", even though the pencils were produced in Toronto.

Many of the same colours from 1951 are still in use today.

Originally the numbers on the Laurentien pencil crayons corresponded with Craft Master's Paint-by-Number kits that were very popular in the 1950s. The kits are no longer as popular, but the numbers remain for tradition.

Until 1972 Laurentien was distributed without trademark rights to its name. A Quebec company was also selling black core pencils under the name Laurentien. When the Quebec company's trademark rights were up, Laurentien owners quickly took advantage, and trademarked their coloured pencils "Laurentian", hoping the French spelling would help boost sales in Quebec.

Lou Morin, a Laurentien employee for over 25 years, came up with the idea to leave a space for children to write their names on the pencils, to avoid stealing.

The pencil crayons were originally packaged in a cardboard box, printed with the widely recognized winter chalet.

In the 1960s Laurentien started packaging the coloured pencils in see-through plastic pouches.

Eberhard Faber, current owner of Laurentien coloured pencils, was acquired by Sanford North America, owned by Newell Inc.

Laurentien Broadline Markers were introduced, expanding the marker variety available as Fineline Markers were already part of the product lineup.

Sanford evolved the winter chalet scene to include more colours. Canadian artist Kim Martin developed a new Fall landscape scene. Sanford also went back to the original cardboard box instead of the plastic pouch since consumers were more likely to put the coloured pencils in their own pencil case.

Sanford Canada introduced 'Colorific by Laurentien' into Canada. The Colorific brand had existed in the U.S. for a number of years with much success. 'By Laurentien' was added to the end of the brand name so consumers would recognize that Colorific was made by the same company as the long-standing, consumer-trusted Laurentien products.

Sanford dropped the landscape scene from the front of the package entirely, and changed the packaging to blend better with the introduction of the 'Colorific by Laurentien' purple packaging.