Founder Feature: Behind the scenes with Alistair Matthews and Michael Hunter, Founders of Le Puzz

Tell us what made you decide to launch Le Puzz?

We both grew up in families that puzzled during the holidays and on special occasions so we both have really fond memories of puzzling with friends and family when we were younger. During our downtime in 2020 we both independent of each other picked up puzzling as a fun hobby. So many of the new puzzles on the market were out of stock so Alistair (who loves eBay) was buying a ton of vintage puzzles off eBay and immediately fell in love with the imagery and the quality. We wanted to bring back a lot of the aspects that we both loved about the older puzzles that we felt were missing from newer puzzles that we were buying. We made a huge list of “must-haves” — things like thick pieces, random cuts, silly copy, a resealable reusable bag, high quality paper and packaging and on and on. Basically we wanted to make something fun and make a puzzle that we would want to buy.

How long does it take you both to build one of your 1,000 piece puzzles

Hmmm, Michael is much much slower so probably for him about a week. Alistair is much faster … 4 or 5 days? But it really depends on the puzzle. Our I <3 Stickers puzzle could take weeks!

We know you are not supposed to have favorite 'children', but spill the tea, which is your fav puzzle?

Michael: I have a soft spot in my heart for HEADS. It was a really silly idea I had from the beginning and it was so fun to put it together.

Alistair: Howdy Pawtner has the most special place in my heart because it features my kitty, Scotty. I also love Match Made in heaven because it is such a fun puzzle to put together! I’ve done it at least 5 times. 

We need to know, how did you come up with the idea to put games on the back of the boxes - the cheese square is the best:) 

That was one of the things on that huge list of must-haves. When we started talking to Little Troop (who does all of our graphic design and branding work) we pitched the idea of having the backs of our boxes feel like cereal boxes from the 80s and 90s. I think eating cereal and puzzling are possibly the only two things you do where you get stuck looking at this box for a while, I thought why not make it fun?! We wanted it to feel like a zine, an overload of info, maximize the space and use every inch of the box as a space to explore and find little easter eggs hidden throughout. Since we do it all ourselves we can tweak every release as little or as much as we want. Noemie Le Coz of Little Troop always brings our unhinged ideas to life in the most beautiful ways.

 The Great American Cheese Toss: Some of these idea just pop into our heads out of nowhere. Michael was half taking a nap on the studio couch when he said, “here’s an idea for the back of Big Sammy but it might be too dumb! … what if we made a cheese tossing game, like Bags or Cornhole but you use American Cheese, a shoe and our big yellow box.” Before I knew it I was writing the rules of the game lol. Our boxes have a glossy finish on them which allows you to write on them with a dry erase marker and easily wipe off. Most of the ideas we come up with involve dry erase but for this one I was like … I think American Cheese will stick to the box too.

Any sneak peak or clues into what puzzles we can expect in 2025?!

We have so many fun collabs and special projects in the works for next year. Without giving tooooo much away here are some themes.

 - farm animals

- quilts

- ceramic tiles

- new illustrations

- silly food

- a mystery!

- cute shapes

- beautiful paintings

- more silly animals

What are three things you do to support your creativity & well-being (besides building puzzles:)?

Michael: I go for walks, have lots of different kinds of collections, and keep lots of notes: no bad ideas! Only ideas you choose not to use.

Alistair: I thrift/scour flea markets, spend time with friends and family, and listen to a lot of music!

In the spirit of supporting small businesses, what's your favorite local restaurant

Michael: I love the burger at Café Cluny.  But also shout out to: Diner, Cervos, the Kale sandwich at R&D, Lexington Candy Shop, Superiority Burger and Pecking House.

Alistair: My fave neighborhood restaurant is Harts. But also shout out to: La Cantine (our weekly office meal) Bernies, and Baby Blues Lunchonette.