Puzzles of Color co-founder Ericka Chambers discusses design, diversity and doing things differently

Good morning, Ericka with a K! I’ve never seen it spelled that way before. E, R, I, C, K, A – have I got that right?
Yep, you’ve got it. It looks exotic but actually my parents just couldn’t make up their minds. Ha!

Ha! Is that true?!
Yes. And originally my mom wanted to spell it like Erykah Badu, which is E, R, Y, K, A, H. And my aunt was like, “No, that’s too complicated!”

Yes, your aunt’s right. That’s not just a name, it’s a spelling test. Ha! As soon as I hit that Y, I’d be out. So now… For those that haven’t met you – and everybody should – who are you and what do you do?
I’m Ericka Chambers. I’m the co-founder of Puzzles of Color. It’s a business that I started with my brother back in 2020. We create jigsaw puzzles that feature the work of artists of colour.

Oh, smoothly said! That was a beautiful elevator pitch; you’ve said that a thousand times – I can tell! So you co-founded it with your brother? What’s his name?
William…

Okay! Why’s he not on the call – and how am I spelling William? W, Y, L, E…
Ha! No! The usual spelling! Ha! He’s not on the call because he’s done a few interviews on his own, I’ve done a few on my own – and I tend to over talk him when we’re together! Ha!

Ha! You’re fun! Ha! So… Tell me a bit more about Puzzles of Color…
We’re a direct-to-consumer puzzle company. We’re also available through different retailers, which is why we were at New York Toy Fair – looking to expand into more retailers. In short, we license different pieces of art and turn them into puzzles ranging from 100 to 1,000 piece puzzles. We also have some smaller piece counts for children. And essentially, all our puzzles are created by artists of colour – and often feature people of colour in the artwork. Some of the designs are more abstract, but the artists themselves are all people of colour.

Perfect, thank you. Fantastic products, by the way. Stunning. Now – when we met in New York, we briefly discussed how your products show diversity and inclusion. Why is that important?
The reason it’s important is the same reason we started the company… When William and I were children, we were really into puzzles. We enjoyed them, and did loads – but very, very rarely did we see any diversity in the images. Now that we’re older, we look around and that issue is still there. So it’s important to us that puzzles show more people like us; a more universal idea of the human experience…

I’ll give you an example: one of our most popular items is a puzzle called Sisters. It’s three little girls hugging in a field of flowers. And that’s something you would often see on a mainstream jigsaw – but almost always with white people. And yet a hug is universal – that’s something we all want, love and enjoy. So really just showing that embrace, that human experience, with people of colour is something we can all appreciate and enjoy. Because we may have different skin tones but we’re very similar – we all need love: it’s universal.

Great answer. And in terms of your products, what else would make a good image for a puzzle? What makes a good image for a jigsaw as opposed to just a good image?
That was actually something we had a bit of a learning curve on: just because you see image you like, it doesn’t necessarily make it a good puzzle image! Because it’s possible to have a fantastic image with no defined areas… So you could pick up a piece and it could literally go anywhere. That’s okay if you’re after a challenge! But if you’re doing a puzzle to relax, having more defined stuff helps.

For example, we have a puzzle called Old Classic that shows a lady on a car. It’s actually a pretty relaxing puzzle because the sun is a recognisable thing in a defined area, the car is a recognisable thing in a defined area… You know? When you pick up a puzzle piece that’s mainly orange, you know roughly where it’s got to go. With a more challenging puzzle, an abstract one with orange all over it, say, there’s not enough information… It could go in any area. So any image could make a good puzzle in theory – but it’s about the level of challenge, and the amount of time and fun you have doing it.

Interesting. I get that, actually… My mother did a few jigsaws during lockdown – and a couple of people very kindly gave her more as gifts. They misjudged her interest, though… She wanted to gently while the time away and end up with a beautiful picture of a cottage. But a 5000-piece puzzle of baked beans? This she should spend her time on?!
Ha! Yes! That wouldn’t be for everybody! Did she do it?

Are you kidding? No! Our last lockdown lifted on July 19th, 2021. On July 20th, that thing was on sale in a thrift store – still sealed! Ha!
Ha!

I wish I’d never bought the wretched thing…
Ha! I know what you mean. We have one puzzle that’s absolutely stunning when it’s completed; really beautiful. But it can take a while to do because it’s all the same colour. So when people see us at the store and say, “Oh, I really like that puzzle!”, we have to say: “Okay! Now: do you like advanced?” Ha! “Because if you’ve never done a puzzle before, this is not the one for you!”

Ha! Yes. You want Puzzles of Color – not puzzles of all one colour.
Ha! Well, because we grew up doing puzzles our whole lives, William and I wanted to do great quality puzzles, with unique piece cuts. So that’s something that we made sure we had… We also like a certain thickness to the board, and a soft touch. So we have those types of feature with the puzzles themselves.

And then in terms of finding artists, are they beating down your door? Or are you having to scour everywhere for them?
A little of both. We definitely have artists reaching out to us. Some of them are super talented and we’ve done work with them. Some of them we thanked for their interest; we appreciated the submission because not everything is going to work for us. But you know, we also find a lot of our artists online – just through social media…

Oh, really? How so?
We just started following a lot of art accounts on Insta and the like. Eventually, of course, the algorithm figures out that you like art and starts showing you a while bunch of related stuff. We also go to art shows and things like that where we meet artists. So a nice variety of ways. And most recently, we had a customer come to us and say, “Can you make this into a puzzle?” And it was a beautiful image! So we went with it.

That’s lovely! I hadn’t thought about that… What’s your background, Ericka? What were you doing then before this?
My background comes in useful actually! I was in project management and process management and I was an event planner for a while. In fact, when I was growing up, I said I was going to be a wedding planner. That was my goal! Then I got into the corporate world… I worked for CapitalOne for ten years. I was doing their project and process management; skills I still use.

And your planning skills, no doubt! What is it your brother does?
He’s a graphic designer! He’s great – he created our logo; he does all of our brand stuff. Before Puzzles of Color, he worked for a print company. So he understands paper types and board thickness, finishes, weights… All that kind of thing! So now he works with our manufacturers and explains exactly what we want and need. He creates all of our print files – everything… Saves us a lot of money and stress; we don’t really have those kinds of challenge here because he’s brilliant at it.

Perfect. Sounds like the two of you make a great team! And where are you printing and packing your products, Ericka?
It’s a mix. We have three different manufacturers. One in Houston, one in Kansas and one in China – depending on what type of puzzle it is. So for buying in bulk, the best pricing is going to be in China. It’s a longer lead time, of course, but the pricing and quality work. We’re able to get really thick, heavy-duty boxes for an elevated experience.

American manufacturers tend to have thinner packaging. But we also do custom puzzles… You can submit your own photo and turn that into a puzzle. Obviously, it makes no sense to get those done in China! So those are done in Houston with a company that we work with. And then we offer limited-edition puzzles. For those, we more or less do print on demand when something is trending and we need a fair few puzzles right away. They’re done in Kansas.

This is great, Ericka. I appreciate that insight. Let me ask you two more things. First, is there anything I could have asked you today that I didn’t?
Oh, that’s a hard question! Wow. Fortunately, I just thought of something I forgot to mention that I really wanted to say! Ha!

Ha! Well, I sensed that might be the case… Aren’t I intuitive?! Ha! What is it you forget to mention?
Ha! I don’t know why, but I always forget to mention this and it’s really, really cool! We’re very big on supporting our artists, so we actually interview all of them on a podcast called Vibin With. That helps you understand the artists better; find out how they got into art, how they make money… The whole story behind them and the piece they made. And then, all our puzzles come with a playlist of their music…

The music that inspires them?
Yes, the type of music they like to listen to while they’re creating. So we actually create a playlist of music to go with each puzzle. We think that’s great because you can actually listen to that same music while you’re working on the puzzle. It’s a fun bonus.

Oh, I love it.
And because we work with so many different artists, there are a lot of different styles. You’re likely to end up to listening to something very different if you’re into digital work more than painting. Our artist from the UK has a lot of American artists, but our artist from Cameroon has a lot of Afro beats. We have an indigenous American artist that liked a lot of rock music. So we can show all these different styles through the playlists.

That’s great. I love it! My final question then… What, Ericka, is the most interesting object in your office or on your desk?
Oh, I like that question! And you know… I’ve got two things. I have a picture of my brother on my desk when he was at high school. And the frame says, ‘My brother, my tormentor, my protector’… Like, a bunch of different things. I love that picture of him…

Wil-e-Emm!
Yes…

You say yes, but I deliberately misspelled it when I said it.
Ha! So I have that. The other favourite thing on my desk is something my brother got for me and my parents. It’s a little King Tut statuette.

Oh! Look at that! Tutankhamun! The boy king?
Yes! Because my grandma’s maiden name was Tutt – with two T’s before you ask, Ha! So he bought us these statuettes and he made us all shirts for the Tutt family reunion as gifts. Her first name was Queen, and her middle name was Esther: Queen Esther Tutt.

My God! What a regal name! There’s no part of it that doesn’t command respect! And does the surname Tutt have a particular meaning?
Not that I know of. I’ve never looked into it! But even if you skip the middle name – Esther, from the Hebrew Bible – it’s still Queen Tutt.

Yes, it’s amazing. Queen… Tutt… And your surname is Chambers… Tutankhamun’s tomb has the most famous chambers in the world! Coincidence?
Ha!

I think this means something, I really do. It’s too much to be a coincidence! What’s William’s surname?
Jones.

Oh. Well… Maybe not.
Ha!

We should still look into the meaning of Tutt. That’s an exciting bit of homework! Thank you, Erica for joining me. This has been fun – and I love the product! I’ll make sure I put some pictures in throughout the piece.

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