We were doing some design hunting one of our favourite little shops recently and spotted some of the quirky homewares of Page Thirty Three. We caught up with co-founder Ryan Hanrahan to find out a bit more about the new label.
Tell us a bit about your day jobs…
Our day jobs have been changing constantly all year since we began this venture. As my partner Bianca and I are the only two employees, we’ve taken each item in our range from the loose thoughts they began as to packaged, finished items.
It’s pretty funny really, how many different jobs you have to do when you start your own label; you have to become an expert at all sorts of things really quickly.
The great part of this, is watching concepts grow and evolve from start to finish. The tough part is realising that you suck at packing boxes. I have learnt there is an art to everything… especially taping a box together.
What sort of products does Page Thirty Three make?
That’s a really difficult question to answer. Truthfully, we have a zillion ideas, and we base our range somewhere between ideas that linger most strongly, and the reality of creation versus costings. Our range is quite diverse but we are most interested in the cross pollination of ideas, products and genre’s.
(But you can check out their range in their catalogue below)
What’s with the name?
Books and pages are great themes to run with. The number three, and in particular thirty three, are really strong numbers in our lives, so it really felt like the perfect name. Also Larry Bird (33) was my favourite basketball player as a Kid.
What’s your favourite product and why?
My favourite product is the Cinematic Light box. It is basically a lighting unit based on the classic cinema sign and typography.
It comes with 103 interchangeable letters so you can personalize and change the message. I built one of these from wood as an art piece a few years ago, and every time we had a party, people would always mess around with the letters, so when we started playing around with ideas at the start of this year it became a must have.
What made you start Page Thirty Three?
Bianca and I are interested purely in the idea of creation. We love coming up with new ideas, and then working on bringing them to fruition, so I suppose we just started making our ideas, and the company grew from that.
Do you design all the products yourselves? What’s the process?
Yes we design all the products ourselves… We have a five-page list of ideas, so we are constantly working and playing with concepts. The range evolves from the ideas we have been most successful at translating.
Fly’n Vee Flyswatter
Bath Brew
Jigsaw Plate
Any upcoming products you’d like to tell us about?
Yes heaps, but that’s a secret of course.
What next for Page Thirty Three?
We love this world, so in the future we will increasingly be looking to create environmentally friendly products using re-usable, and sustainable materials. What inspires me most at the moment is design that incorporates this ideal, without losing the original creative vision.
Page Thirty Three
pagethirtythree.com