Bruynzeel

Bruynzeel: proud supporter of your imagination since 1948. We believe that every drawing is an expression of imagination worth sharing. So share away!

Product range

The brand

Colour charts

Inspiration

Collections by Bruynzeel

Bruynzeel offers a complete range of colouring materials, from products for kids aged 2 and up to a wide collection of hobby and professional materials for everyone who likes being creative.

Bruynzeel Kids

Bruynzeel College

Bruynzeel Creatives

Bruynzeel School & Office

Bruynzeel Design

About Bruynzeel

Bruynzeel. Pencil-wise the pride of the Dutch. Many generations grew up with a Bruynzeel graphite pencil at school. They learned how to draw their first human-like figures with hands resembling rakes with this pencil. Following with Bruynzeel colour pencils and felt tips at home to make the most beautiful drawings.

Bruynzeel's Story

At 21 years of age, Cornelis Bruynzeel completed a course at the Academy for Visual Arts and Technical Sciences in Rotterdam. He had always dreamt of joining his father’s company, but decided he wanted to do things differently from his father. Cornelis wanted to mechanize, simply to be able to make high-quality, affordable products for as many people as possible.

With his enthusiasm and determination, Cornelis finally managed to convince his father: De Arend (The Eagle) steam factory first saw the light of day in 1897. This new factory produced wooden doors, floorboards, staircases, frames and even school desks. After a major fire in 1919, the company moved to Zaandam.

During the 1920s, the demand for kitchens was slowly increasing. In 1937, they asked famous designer Piet Zwart to design a functional kitchen so it could be mass-produced in the Bruynzeel factory. The first of many famous Bruynzeel kitchens was born.

The start of Bruynzeel pencils

Before WOII, the Netherlands used to import pencils from Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. After the war, pencils, as well as many other products for that matter, were only scarcely available. Cornelis Bruynzeel, already an expert on working with wood, was asked by the Dutch government to start producing pencils to help re-establish the educational system and improve employment rates.

The Dutch government assisted him by providing foreign exchange to buy the necessary machines from America. But… Bruynzeel had to guarantee that he could deliver the pencils 6 months later. Though Bruynzeel was an expert in wood, the pencil business was completely new to him. This caused some issues in the beginning. After the war, commodities were scarce, so since the right materials were not available, the quality was lacking.

Yet, he still managed to deliver the first batch of pencils after 6 months. After this first batch, the pencils kept increasing in quality due to various technological developments and innovations.

Separation of Bruynzeel kitchens and pencils

During the 1980s, the Bruynzeel factory decided to separate their factories, which meant both Bruynzeel kitchens and Bruynzeel pencils went on to create and further develop their own brand. Over the years, Bruynzeel has continuously optimized and improved her pencils.

The current Bruynzeel assortment

Today, Bruynzeel pencils are known as high-quality products. The current Bruynzeel assortment consists of a complete range of colouring materials, including anything from entry colouring products for children as young as 2 years old to a wide collection of hobby and professional tools for anyone who enjoys being creative.

Bruynzeel's Timeline

1948: After WW2, the government wanted to re-establish the educational system and Bruynzeel was asked to produce pencils. The first pencils were produced from the Bruynzeel factory in Zaandam.
1968: The factory was moved to Bergen op Zoom.
1970: Introduction of the Bruynzeel ballpoint with refills.
1975: The first felt tips were introduced, based on the already existing ballpoint.
1980: Bruynzeel’s primary school collection expands with paint, rulers, markers, colour pencils and many more items.
1985: Bruynzeel introduced new fun / DIY products like clay, colourpacks, gold and siver markers.
1997: The factory was taken over by Sakura Color Products Corporation, the Japanese company that invented Cray-Pas (oil pastel) as a new colouring material in 1925 and has since then been offering many other colour products as well.
2016: Bruynzeel is part of the brand portfolio of Royal Talens. Royal Talens has been stimulating creative expression worldwide for more than 100 years by developing high-quality brands and products that stimulate people to paint and draw.
2018: Distribution centre and social work provision has been relocated from Bergen op Zoom to Apeldoorn.

Bruynzeel colour charts

Have a look at all Bruynzeel colour charts for our pencil collections, including the Mega coloured pencils, Design coloured pencils, Design watercolour pencils and Design pastel pencils. Discover the colours and colour numbers found in each series.

View Bruynzeel colour charts