COLOR CRAYOLA CREATIVE, WITH SHADES OF MARKETING OVERDRIVE.

They've done it again. They've messed with that icon of every American's youth, the friend to anybody who's ever tried to color between the lines, the Big Box of Crayola crayons. For many, many years, between 1972 and 1989, nothing changed. The box of 72 remained the box of 72. And colors, such as Sepia and Raw Umber and Burnt Sienna, became classics.

But in 1989, Crayola added a few new sticks. In '90, it retired eight, including Raw Umber and Green Blue. In 1993, it tinkered again, adding 16 carefully researched pigments such as Mauvelous and Razzmatazz.

And Crayola won't stop. This month, it introduced eight new colors and has asked kids to help name them.

At this rate, the box of certified nontoxic classics may be unrecognizable in another 10 years. Next thing you know, Crayola will sell crayon color names to corporate sponsors, working the brands of daily life into the colors of fantasy.

Imagine the Crayola Big Box of the future ....

It will contain a waxy stick the color of all two-in-one shampoos and conditioners. Kids will know to remove this one, labeled ``Pert,'' and rub the coloring-book hair of the future a pale green.

The color of the smiling sun, shining over an ocean of 2000 Flushes Blue, can convey any number of moods: Use Post-It Yellow for a perfect day, Marlboro Teeth for an overcast feel or Mountain Dew for the trippy, iridescent glow of a distant planet. Of course, if you can't decide, Yellow No. 5 never hurt anyone.

The specific hue of the Microsoft Color will change from year to year, as the market and technology demands. Microsoft Color Version 1.3 may be floppy-disk black, while Version 2.0 will resemble the bright pulsing energy of Sega Red. But don't confuse it with Calvin Klein's fashionable addition, CK color, which has to be purchased separately from the box for about $39.99.

Also, the future pages of Color-Me-Barbie books will abound with pinkish hair bows of Pepto Bismol and sun dresses of Prozac Yellow. Barbie and Ken will skip down sidewalks of Newsprint Gray, traipse through fields of Astroturf (or perhaps Cash) and fly away on magical unicorns colored with the pure goodness of the White Bronco crayon.

Also, a special box of ``challenging'' crayons could include surrealist colors, such as Clear, Anti-blue, Math and Evil.

But no hue will awaken the youngsters' sense of motion, of adventure, of pure American speed more than Freeway Exit Sign Green. And nothing will get their heart racing like coloring with the Starbucks Half-Caff Nonfat Double Latte with Sprinkles of Cinnamon Brown. Imagine the cows they'll draw! The dirt! The hamsters!

And, of course, when nostalgia kicks in for that old beat-up classic Big Box with the built-in sharpener, the Crayola palette of the future (perhaps called The United Colors of Benetton Box?) will host the triumphant return of the age-old legend, Raw Umber.

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Drawing

Drawing: CRAYOLA

Len De Groot/Daily News