The Story of Fadeless
For more than 50 years, Fadeless Paper has been a staple in classrooms – lining bulletin boards, brightening doors, and backing creative spaces across the country.
The story of Fadeless Paper begins in 1954 with Bob Allen, a Bemiss-Jason sales representative. He was originally working on colorful corrugated display boxes for food and beer companies.
Bob would soon discover another use.
As the story goes... One day when Bob was walking through the parking lot of the California office, he saw young women digging through the dumpster for paper scraps. At that time Bemiss-Jason was only known for creating industrial corrugated display boxes. These creative and resourceful young women were teachers who used the corrugate in their classrooms to cover bulletin boards, as well as to create letters, shapes and other decorations.
Bob was invited to their school to see their classrooms and how the scraps were used. After meeting with the teachers, and hosting several workshops with them, he grew very passionate about the education market. Bob convinced Bemiss-Jason to develop the Corobuff brand for classroom use and expand the business into the education market.
Additionally, Bob convinced the company to join NSSEA (National School Supply and Equipment Association, now EdMarket), as well as Pacific Art Association, an extension of the National Art Educators Association (NAEA), and the precursor to the California Art Educators Association.
In 1960 the company separated the front-facing, solid color paper of Corobuff and converted it to 12" x 18" sheets for classroom use. It was an instant hit. Teachers loved the fade-resistant properties of this non-corrugated paper, and so the Fadeless brand was born.
Soon after, Fadeless paper rolls were made for bulletin board use, and they quickly became incredibly popular. The Fadeless brand started to focus on these paper rolls, and because of this innovation it became a market leader in classroom décor.
In 2002, both Fadeless and Bemiss-Jason were acquired by Pacon, and then became part of the Dixon Ticonderoga family of brands in 2018.
Today, Fadeless is still made in the USA, still fade-resistant, and still built to last. The brand continues to innovate and remains a favorite with teachers. Fadeless now offers bulletin board paper in over 30 different colors and designs. We’ve also partnered with trend-savvy designers to introduce bold new patterns. This wide variety makes it even easier to create inspiring spaces on any budget.
"We're always looking at color and design trends as we develop new Fadeless products," said Lori, former Product Manager for Fadeless. "We've even expanded Fadeless paper beyond the bulletin board, using it on other classroom surfaces, such as doors, walls, cabinets and more.”