Check out the PUZL at: store.solvethispuzl.com
BC: What is PUZL and who are the people making up the pieces behind the brand?
PZ: PUZL, launched in 2009, is a multi-faceted lifestyle brand curated to bring our audience dynamic designs and original content. PUZL is a call to action. We’re asking our audience to take a brief step away from their electronic devices and explore their surroundings. We want them to make new introductions and garner new relationships with others…in person. We are encouraging our audience to go see art once a week and if there isn’t any near them, make their own. We’re not asking anyone to follow a trend, we want them to start one.
Our philosophy: “Life’s a puzzle. We just want to give you some of the missing pieces…”
PUZL is a group of individuals sharing a common purpose. Our original members consist of Mr. PUZL, Rob Noir, and Buddy Duncan. We come from a variety of disciplines from photography to illustration. We have recently added more members! Big ups to Miss Whitmore, Julie K., Two Heads, and DANGERBOY.
BC: Why t-shirts and boards as billboards for your designs?
PZ: T-shirts seemed to be an obvious choice to begin our journey. They’re billboards continuously on the move, and a great way for a brand to increase its awareness. This was also coupled with the fact that our Founder is a pretty big t-shirt collector. We believe T-shirts are timeless. They’ve been a cornerstone of alternative culture and fashion for decades. As such we maintain that our styles and color runs are always limited for exclusivity. We want our customers to feel that they are purchasing something unique, that they don’t have to worry about walking down the street and seeing 5 other people wearing the same brand.
Working with skateboards came about from a variety of sports interests within the brand. A lot of us are into extreme sports, especially snowboarding. For a while we we’re toying with snowboard templates, having a lot of fun with the fact that you could design both sides of them. When we we’re launching the brand however, we realized we couldn’t finance a line of snowboards. We had a couple skate decks lying around and started sanding, priming, and painting designs on them. From there we found a site that could house our digital designs and sell decks that were made-to-order. Someday we hope to carry our own inventory, and fingers crossed land a couple collab gigs with some dope skate brands. We love the culture surrounding skating, snowboarding, and surfing, and have the utmost respect for amateurs and professionals who continue to push the limits in sports.
BC: Can you tell us about your magazine? How did you decide to launch it and what inspires the content?
PZ: PUZL Magazine is a boutique magazine with a nationwide focus on fashion, entertainment, art, and performance. There are a lot of full and double page spreads dedicated solely to the creative works we feature. Our goal is to reduce the clutter, and highlight what’s important, whether it’s a carefully edited written piece or a beautifully composed photograph.
The decision to launch a magazine began as a brainstorming session about experimental projects for the brand to explore. We began generating content through our blog and building relationships with artists, writers and tastemakers. Eventually we were fortunate to find a collaborator (Miss Whitmore) who shared a similar vision, and passion to see the project come to fruition. Following a successful launch we recently published our second edition which is generating great feedback.
The content is driven by the people involved in PUZL, an eclectic mix of personalities and characters. Our inspirations are Juxtapose, Frank 151, Wired, Vice, Beautiful Decay; to name a few.
BC: How does your typical collaboration with musicians work?
PZ: There’s no real method to our collaborations, and the majority of them have occurred through referrals. The most extensive collab we’ve been involved with involved RADIx, a hip-hop duo from Worcester, MA. There was an immediate trust with our ability to produce creative for the brand, and as a result we ended up shooting and producing a music video, designing a couple album covers, and releasing a limited edition tee. We’re all music nuts so it’s exciting to get the opportunity to work with artists in that industry.
BC: What made Big Cartel the right fit for your shop?
PZ: Our web designer was on the hunt for a simple, cost-effective solution that would allows us to expand our inventory and product range over time. We landed on Big Cartel because of the ability to easily customize the HTML and CSS components. Also the documentation for expanding the development of our store was very useful. Ha, as we’re writing this we noticed how scripted that all sounded! We really do love Big Cartel, and much respect to the people behind the scenes that created it and continue to make it a better solution.
