Puzzle Lab Company

I virtually tripped onto this company and to my delight I discovered they are Canadian, and they produce laser cut wood jigsaw puzzles. After surfing their website, I could see they are not just another laser cutting puzzle company, so I requested an email interview to get more inside information about them.
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 Puzzle Lab Q&A Interview

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Take a look at these happy people. Clearly, their deep passion for this hobby shows in the following article.
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Our Puzzle Lab team From left to right:

Andrew ("the mad scientist") is responsible for writing the algorithms that generate our signature piece shapes, and running the laser to cut out every single puzzle.

Tinka ("the clever, clever girl") is the brains behind the brand and marketing of Puzzle Lab, and manages artist collaborations.

Tigger is our adorable toy chihuahua mascot!

Sharon ("the energizer bunny") manages the puzzle production process including quality control, packaging, shipping & fulfillment.

Q. For our Readers, where is your company located?

We're located in beautiful Victoria on Vancouver Island, off the West Coast of Canada.

Q. How did the company arrive at the name Puzzle Lab?

As designers, we've always been good at innovating and iterating. We wanted to hint at this idea with the "Lab" reference, since there's always some experimentation happening in our world!

Q. Can you share some background about yourselves?

Puzzle Lab founders Tinka and Andrew (both originally from Toronto) met while studying architecture at the University of Waterloo in 2012 and moved to Victoria in 2014. After running a boutique multi-disciplinary design agency for 6 years (Studio Robazzo), we put all of our skills together and launched Puzzle Lab at the height of Covid-19 with a mission to encourage people to get off their screens and exercise their brains in the real world. The team consists of Tinka, the "clever, clever girl" (co-founder, CEO, marketing, strategy), Andrew the "mad scientist" (co-founder, CTO, digital fabrication), Sharon the "energizer bunny" (admin, operations, assembly line manager) and Leah (general puzzle- maker who doesn't have a quirky nickname just yet because she's new). We also have a toy chihuahua named Tigger, who is our tiny adorable mascot.

Q. How did you come about your artwork?

We personally curate every piece of our puzzle artwork from talented up-and- coming Canadian artists. For the most part, we find and contact these artists through Instagram, where we follow lots of art-related profiles and hashtags. We also occasionally put out open calls for art submissions from across the country.

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Q. How long does it take for you to create one puzzle from start to packaging?

We never make just one puzzle at a time, but if we combined the various steps, it would take about an hour to produce a puzzle from start to finish.

Q. Where are your puzzles produced?

Our puzzles are produced out of our funky downtown studio in Victoria, BC. The 3000 square foot space, which we used to use as our design agency office in the past, has been turned into a functional puzzle factory where 4 of us work full time to produce the puzzles.

Q. Do you, or will you, ship outside of Canada and the USA?

We do ship internationally, although it's quite expensive to ship a parcel overseas, which is outside of our control. To date, we've shipped puzzles to various international destinations including Brazil, Switzerland, France, Germany, UK, Taiwan, New Zealand and Australia!

Q. Is there something that makes your puzzle company different from other puzzle companies?
There are so many things!

  1. We use real wood for our puzzles (as opposed to composite materials like MDF which are cheaper, easier to cut through, and common with some of the larger wood puzzle companies). As a result, our thick wooden pieces look great, feel satisfying and smell authentic.
  2. We curate original artwork for our puzzles (as opposed to using a licensing service like many other companies do), and we pay our artists a royalty for every puzzle sold featuring their artwork. They really become part of our Puzzle Lab family.
  3. Many of our puzzles feature a unique wiggly cut created using propriety algorithms (written by Andrew) that mimic the growth patterns of coral reefs in nature.
  4. Every once in a while, we release a "Puzzle with a Purpose" as a way to contribute back to our community and causes we support. With these puzzles, a portion of revenue is donated to a specified non-profit organization. Our most recent Puzzle with a Purpose "Rise" has raised over $1700 to date, towards orca conservation efforts here on the West Coast!

 Q. Do you have anything new and exciting coming in the future? Always; we release a new puzzle every few weeks, and they're only getting better. ;) Best way to stay in the loop (and receive discounts on all those juicy new puzzles) is to be a subscriber of our Puzzle Lab Insider Newsletter.

Q. Is there an 'inside scoop' you can share with us that no one knows about?

As a matter of fact, yes! We are in the final stages of negotiating the lease on a quaint little storefront in the heart of downtown Victoria. If all goes according to plan, we'll be opening our very own flagship Puzzle Lab store this April!

Q. How long have you been creating and selling puzzles in this puzzle business?
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We launched Puzzle Lab in the fall of 2020 (at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic) and have been making puzzles ever since. :)

Q. Feel free to add more narrative that you would like to share with our Readers. Just that we're so honoured by all the encouragement and positive feedback we've received, and that we never imagined we'd be running a successful puzzle company, so thank you to everyone who has helped make this journey so sweet!

Special thanks to the Puzzle Lab for sharing their inside story with us.

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We have collected a massive list of jigsaw puzzles in numerous categories on our Amazon Store link. It's a quick way to browse most current puzzles and/or specific seasons, accessories and themes. Makes for a terrific one-stop jigsaw puzzle gift giving shopping centre. CLICK HERE