Paul FitzZaland and Benjamin Asa Smith got their entrepreneurial start way back in 1999 while attending the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia. As impoverished roommates living in a dilapidated old house with an intoxicated landlord, they grew tired of hanging what little food they could afford from the ceiling to keep it safe from the city’s largest rodent population. Desperation led to innovation, and, fueled mostly by Slurpees, Paul and Ben founded their first company, Ambiguous Pronoun Productions, a small photography and design firm. They soon found their niche creating logotypes and websites for the investor relations clients around the world.
In 2005, with mice and starvation behind them, Paul and Ben made their very own short film, and in 2006 they hosted the first ever Paul & Ben Film Festival, a now-annual showcase for local filmmakers and artists. At the same time, Paul & Ben started designing and selling greeting cards, postcards, and bookmarks to local book and stationary stores. They quickly found themselves with national distribution and several loyal retailers across Canada.
Today, Paul and Ben have taken on additional partners and incorporated to become Paul & Ben Greetings Inc., a British Columbia-based greeting card and giftware company. Their catalogue of cards is always growing and they are launching great new giftwares regularly. Paul and Ben are really excited about the future with their new company, and they’re very thankful that they no longer feel tiny rodent feet walking over them as they try to sleep!
