A custom corporate gift should feel personal. But getting from a good idea to hundreds of finished gifts can involve more moving parts than most people expect.
There is the artwork. The quantity. The budget. Packaging. Production schedules. Shipping. And, depending on the company, there may also be purchasing departments, legal reviews and several people who need to approve the project before anything can go to press.
At Oakland Puzzle Company, we have learned that making a great custom puzzle is only part of the job. The other part is making the process of getting there as easy as possible.
"Custom puzzles are really a service as opposed to a commodity," says Oakland Puzzle Company owner DeAnna Tibbs.
That distinction shapes how we approach every project.
Start With What the Puzzle Needs to Do
When someone first contacts us about a custom puzzle, we want to understand the purpose behind it.
Is this an annual customer gift? A gift for employees? A product the organization plans to sell? A fundraiser? A commemorative piece for an event or anniversary?
Those answers help us recommend the right path for production, quantity, puzzle format, packaging and timeline.
Some customers arrive with finished artwork ready to go. Others have an idea, photograph or piece of art they would like to use but need help determining whether it will work.
That is where the "custom" part of the process often begins.
We review the image, its aspect ratio and its resolution, along with the available puzzle formats and die cuts. If something needs to change before it will reproduce well, we would rather identify that before the puzzle goes into production.
"We only have one shot at making this happen," DeAnna says. "If there's an opportunity to get a higher quality image, we're going to take it."
One hotel, for example, wanted to turn a painting displayed over the fireplace in its lobby into a puzzle. The hotel had already hired a professional photographer to photograph the artwork, but the resulting image still did not have enough resolution to produce the quality we wanted for the finished puzzle.
Instead of simply printing what we had, we worked with the client on what would be needed to create a better source image.
That kind of guidance is part of the process.
Know the Basics Before You Begin
A company does not need to understand puzzle manufacturing before contacting us. That's our job.
It does help, though, to have a few basic decisions in mind.
We will need to know the approximate quantity, when the puzzles need to arrive, the image you'd like to use and your general preferences for piece count and packaging. For some of our in-house custom puzzles, for example, a pouch may be the right packaging. Other projects need a box or something more fully customized.
Our online custom puzzle request form collects these details so we can recommend the right production option and provide an accurate quote.
For larger companies, there is another question worth asking early:
What needs to happen inside your organization before the order can be approved?
We have seen rush projects slow down because a contract unexpectedly needs to go through legal, a different person has signing authority or purchasing requires a particular agreement.
Knowing those requirements early can make a big difference when there is a firm event or delivery date involved.
A Dedicated Person Makes a Difference
Once a project starts, clients are not left wondering who they should contact.
Our custom puzzle projects are managed by Anna, whose job begins with helping clients understand what OPC can offer and then shifts into keeping the details, communication and production process moving.
And Anna knows this process from both sides.
Before joining Oakland Puzzle Company, she was one of our custom puzzle customers.
She worked with OPC to create a puzzle commemorating the 50th anniversary of the company she was working for at the time. The result was a collage-style puzzle that fit the company's theme, needs and budget.
"It kind of opened my eyes up to the industry," Anna says.
She now brings that perspective, along with more than 30 years of retail and customer-service experience, to every custom project she manages.
Part of that experience is understanding that there is no single communication style that works for every customer.
Some people want regular conversations and guidance throughout the project. Some want the essential details and little else. Some want email. Others work better by phone or text.
Our job is to figure that out early.
The most fantastic experience working with Oakland Puzzle on a custom puzzle - we had a crazy idea and amazing art and Oakland Puzzle made it a reality! They had a really innovative suggestion of trying a puzzle in a bag - it’s been wildly popular! The process was seamless and they were a joy to work with, we’re preparing for our first reorder and we only launched a month ago.
Suzy Greenwood - Central Iowa Libraries
For Tight Deadlines, Responsiveness Matters
That becomes particularly important when the clock is ticking.
A recent client needed 450 custom puzzles for a grand-opening event on a very short timeline.
For Anna, that meant paying especially close attention to each question and approval.
"As soon as that response came in, I was getting it turned around so that we could move forward to the next phase," she says.
The client was not going to be on site and told Anna that text would be the easiest way to reach them quickly. So text became part of the process, along with calls and emails.
The goal was not to insist that the client communicate our way. It was to determine how they worked and build the project around that reality.
Ultimately, that helped OPC keep 450 puzzles moving toward the client's deadline and specifications.
Sometimes Good Project Management Is Simply Paying Attention
Keeping a custom project moving is not just about production schedules.
Sometimes a customer overlooks something that was explained in the original quote. Sometimes an approval gets lost in a long email thread. Sometimes people are juggling a custom project on top of the job they actually do every day.
That is normal.
Good project management means noticing when that is happening.
We might resend the original quote with the relevant details highlighted. We might send a reminder. Sometimes a phone call is simply easier.
"There is sort of an intuition about providing a service because you have to gauge where your customer is at," DeAnna says.
That hands-on communication has become particularly important as custom puzzles have grown into one of the fastest-growing parts of OPC's business.
DeAnna says customers frequently tell her how much they appreciate getting a quick response. Some have described previous experiences with puzzle manufacturers or printers where they waited weeks just to hear back.
At OPC, responsiveness is part of what helps a customer feel comfortable placing the order in the first place.
A Custom Gift Can Tell a Company Story
The most successful corporate puzzles are more than a logo printed on another promotional item.
They give people something to explore.
One of our longtime custom clients is a construction firm that now creates a puzzle with us as part of its annual gifting program.
Architecture works beautifully as puzzle imagery because there are so many details, patterns and textures to discover while assembling the image. But the company takes the idea a step further.
Its custom puzzles include a double-sided poster. One side shows the completed puzzle image. The other tells the story of the construction project featured in the puzzle.
The result is both a gift and a way to share the company's work.
It is also very different from the kinds of corporate gifts people receive every year.
When this client first placed a large custom order, DeAnna remembers them comparing the cost with one of the company's previous gifts.
"This is cheaper than pistachios," they told her.
Pistachios are great. But they do not tell the story of something your team created.
A custom puzzle can.
Taj Reid Oakland Recycles. Student Puzzle by Lucas Oda
Custom Doesn't Have to Mean Complicated
Some clients want to be deeply involved with every decision. They may want unique packaging, special inserts and highly specific design details.
We can work that way.
Other clients want to send us the artwork, approve a mockup and have us take care of as much as possible.
We can work that way, too.
For a relatively straightforward project, we can often use the client's image to develop a packaging mockup within about 24 to 48 hours, get their feedback and begin moving the project toward production.
The point is not to make every custom puzzle project follow exactly the same process.
The point is to build the process around what the client actually needs.
The Best Custom Puzzle Projects Feel Like Partnerships
There will always be practical details involved in creating a custom product.
But the best projects work when those details never overwhelm the reason the project started in the first place.
You have an image, a story, an event or a group of people you want to recognize. Our job is to turn that into a puzzle people will be excited to open, put on the table and spend time with.
Anna says that is still one of her favorite parts of the work.
A puzzle creates a reason for people to sit together, notice the details and talk.
"There's always a talking point," she says. "This is going to bring up conversation and build relationships while folks build puzzles together."
And that is a pretty good outcome for a corporate gift.
Thinking about creating a custom puzzle for your customers, employees or next company event? Start with Oakland Puzzle Company's custom puzzle request form, and we'll help you figure out the details from there.