Our Story

XY3 has nothing to do with X and Y chromosomes. The X-Files? Sorry, no. And if you, like others, are wondering if our name represents XY-cubed, some other math formula or careless messing with the alphabet, well, those are wild guesses, too.

So, what, exactly, does our name represent?

To answer that question we need to go back to 1982. In that year, Time magazine named the computer Man of the Year, Michael Jackson released Thriller and the New York Islanders beat the Vancouver Canucks four straight to win the Stanley Cup.

Among other significant but unreported events in 1982, Sharon and Norm Gramchuk, two Vancouver entrepreneurs, formed a creative design firm. It opened in a 450-square-foot, 10th-floor apartment in Vancouver’s West End. Yet, a key question remained unanswered: What to name the company?

Norm, a hockey guy, believed that a “3” should be part of the name. That number represented good luck, stability and, more importantly, the elusive hat trick.

A compromise was soon reached and it was game-on for XY3 Design + Communications Inc.