5 PUZZLE DESIGN TIPS

September 13, 2021

Jigsaw puzzles’ popularity has soared during these pandemic times. So much so that many major puzzle brands have actually run out of stock and ramped up production like never before. It got us thinking about what makes a good puzzle design. Sad to say, our example of a white background with our teal logo may need some adjusting. So learn from our mistakes and design the best puzzle ever.

Why These Puzzle Design Choices Matter

Puzzles are a time-consuming product. It’s a product that people will be looking at closely and for a long time. If you are going to take a person’s time, make it enjoyable.

If you want to learn more about your puzzle design options, check out our Puzzle Guideline! If you need help learning about designing in general, we have a Design Basics class!

5 Puzzle Designing Tips

1. Be Wary of Having Too Many Solid Color Pieces

What makes puzzles fun to solve is the context clues given by the colors or shapes. If you have too much of a single color, those clues disappear.

Using our mockup as an example, around 75% of it is solid white pieces. That makes it kind of difficult to put together. While some people may like the idea of putting together pieces through trial and error, the average person would get frustrated and walk away.

To better our design, we could make our teal logo slightly bigger to balance everything out or enlarge our name on the puzzle. Maybe we can even combine both ideas.

2. Make Sure the Picture is Clear

Bigger is always better when it comes to pictures for puzzles. It’s crucial that the image is clear and the edges are crisp. People will be looking at the image very closely as they solve the puzzle.

No one wants to stare at a blurry image for hours.

3. The Image Has to be Interesting

This can kind of tie in with the solid color tip, but if you’re using a photo, make sure it’s interesting. Not everyone will like the same image. There is one crucial design choice you can make with pictures.

Make sure the image has a good balance of colors or textures. For example, some people don’t like landscape picture puzzles because they can have a majority of one color or repeating pattern.

You want people to enjoying staring at this image for a while.

4. Have Quality Made Pieces

According to Jigsaw Puzzle Reddit (yes, that is a thing) either having badly fitting or too thin pieces is the single worst thing to them. It will make them stop and never finish a puzzle.

Luckily, you don’t have to worry about this part of the process because we take care of the printing and cutting.

We use sturdy, thick cardboard for the back and a glossy finish for the front. Everything will fit perfectly, giving satisfaction to anyone putting the pieces together.

5. Ask Yourself If You’d Want to Complete It

This may seem like more of an opinion, but before you order, ask yourself if this looks fun to you. Even if you aren’t a puzzle person, you can pretend that you are and take a critical look at it. If the answer is no, it’s back to the designing board.

Check out more design ideas on our Pinterest and Instagram!

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