Mindful Play: WerkShoppe’s colorful, creative puzzles
Puzzles gained popularity during the 2020 pandemic and are not going away anytime soon.
“What we are seeing and hearing is that COVID introduced a whole new multigenerational audience to the art of puzzling,” said Ann Marie Mendlow, president and co-owner of WerkShoppe. “Making a puzzle is a great way to unplug and feel the satisfaction of solving a puzzle piece- by-piece.”
Mendlow and Wayne Hueners, CEOs and co-owners of WerkShoppe, have worked in the retail industry doing wall décor for many years and known each other for almost 30 years. During the pandemic, they both found they shared a love of puzzling in their free time and decided to launch WerkShoppe.
Mendlow says the company aims to create bold, colorful and modern art selections of puzzles for every type of puzzler “We just wanted it to be a small puzzle company,” Mendlow said. “Once we started, it took off.” WerkShoppe is now featured at various markets through Ivystone.
PIECING THE PUZZLES
WerkShoppe creates a variety of puzzles for both new and seasoned puzzlers across all ages.
Retailers have shared that shaped puzzles — round, square and novelty shapes — do well in stores, Mendlow said. For retailers, puzzles are often a repetitive buy, as they offer many of the same characteristics as a consumable.
“Puzzlers love to make puzzles and regularly shop for more,” Mendlow said. “It is not uncommon for an avid puzzler to buy four, five or six puzzles at a time to keep them busy.”
Mendlow said WerkShoppe’s garden and landscape puzzles are often bought by garden gift shops and bookshops, including the floral- inspired “Books and Blooms” and “Road Trip” puzzles. One of WerkShoppe’s bestsellers is “Happy Camper,” which particularly appeals to men, Mendlow said.
For kids, WerkShoppe has 48- and 100-piece puzzles called Puzzle Snax that come in pouches with castle, princess and underwater themes.
Once Puzzle Snax went to market, Mendlow said they found it could be for all ages, especially the elderly who enjoy puzzling but can’t create 1,000-piece puzzles anymore.
Puzzles can also make a great gift, whether for an avid puzzle or as a quick gift to grab.
“There’s a big gift-giving element to our [puzzles] because we’re novel and we’re the new kids on the block,” she said. “… I do think that there is a gift-giving aspect to WerkShoppe that might be a little bit different than other puzzle makers.”
BEHIND THE PUZZLE
Hueners and Mendlow found that most puzzles have traditional or old-fashioned designs — think farm landscapes and famous paintings — and they wanted to do something different.
“We just wanted to bring our voice to the puzzle world,” Mendlow said.
WerkShoppe has an international community of artists who help bring its puzzles to life. She said some of the artists already work in the retail industry, but most of the time WerkShoppe discovers artists whose work aligns with the trend the company is looking for to keep the lines “fresh and cool.” WerkShoppe also has an in-house graphic designer to help them create art if they can’t find what they are looking for.
Since Mendlow and Hueners have worked in the retail industry for so long, they can spot upcoming trends before they everywhere — Mendlow noted nutcrackers and owls.
“We’re really proud when we come up with something on our own and then find it verified and justified in the market with other companies that have gone down the same path,” Mendlow said, adding that they don’t want to be first to a trend but an early adopter of it.
One trend they continue to grow is coastal, as it remains strong in the retail market. WerkShoppe is also experimenting with other themes like countryside and farm, but with different and fresh twists, so it doesn’t look like what “Grandma” bought 40 years ago, she said.
“We’re looking at all of those themes through our lens and seeing what we come up with,” she said.
WerkShoppe offers an assortment of winter holiday puzzles, as well as fall, Halloween and Valentine’s Day themes. Several of these new puzzles include foil and glitter embellishments. There are also new shapes, square 1,000-piece puzzles, an oversized round wreath shape with a center cutout for holiday, and a heart shape for Valentine’s Day.
PUZZLE POWER
In the age of technology, puzzles present a reprieve. Mendlow said many listen to music or television while puzzling, but it is ultimately a screen-free experience. Puzzles also allow social interaction between people if working on it together.
“We all know that you can scroll or stream forever,” she said. “This is an interactive, without-technology activity.”
Puzzles are a versatile, engaging activity that benefits overall well- being with stress relief, problem- solving, memory improvement, sense of accomplishment and other cognitive benefits.
“We continue to dream and work to bring newness to an activity that has so many great inherent qualities for our minds and sense of self,” she said.
