At Oakland Puzzle Company, artists have never been an afterthought. They are one of the reasons the company exists in the first place.
Before there was an Oakland Puzzle Company, co-founder DeAnna Tibbs was looking for a way to turn her own photography into puzzles. What she found was frustrating. The options available did not offer the combination of quality and pricing she needed to make the idea viable.
That experience planted the seed for something bigger. What started as an idea for putting her own art on puzzles gradually became a way to work with artists throughout the Bay Area, help bring their work into a different format, and connect that work with people and organizations in their communities.
Today, those relationships remain at the center of what we do.
Why are artists so important to Oakland Puzzle Company?
The short answer is that our puzzles are meant to be more than pictures cut into pieces.
They are a way to experience artwork differently. They can capture a familiar place, introduce you to an artist you did not know, tell the story of a community, or create a connection to somewhere you love.
From the beginning, we wanted Oakland Puzzle Company to be a resource for artists and community organizations. Over time, that has grown into partnerships with painters, illustrators, photographers, graphic artists and designers from across the Bay Area.
Some artists come to us. We meet others through galleries, neighborhood connections, local festivals and organizations we work with. Sometimes one relationship leads to another. That feels very Bay Area to us.
What do we look for when choosing artwork for a puzzle?
There is no single Oakland Puzzle Company look, and we like it that way.
We want a collection that includes fine art, illustration, photography and digital design, with artists bringing their own styles and perspectives to the work.
Because of our roots, local scenes continue to be an important part of the collection. Oakland and the greater Bay Area provide an incredible amount of inspiration, from neighborhood landmarks and city parks to wildlife, architecture and everyday moments that people recognize immediately.
We also gravitate toward artwork with color, visual detail and interesting things happening throughout the image. Those qualities make the experience of putting the puzzle together more engaging because you discover little pieces of the artwork along the way.
The subject can matter, too. Community, culture and social justice have all found their way into our collection. Power to the Puzzle, for example, reflects the role that art can play in civic expression and conversation.
And increasingly, instead of simply looking for existing artwork, we are commissioning artists to create new work. That allows us to pair an artist's style with a subject, place or organization in a really intentional way.
Explore the Oakland Puzzle Company artist community and discover the stories, styles and work that have become part of our collection. Meet the artists behind the puzzles.
Turning artwork into a puzzle without losing the artist
When we choose a piece of existing artwork, our preference is to let it remain what the artist created.
We generally look for artwork that can make the transition to a puzzle without major changes. Occasionally we may need to fill a small amount of space or make a minor color adjustment, but we want those modifications to be minimal.
Respecting the artwork also means respecting the person who created it.
Oakland Puzzle Company uses licensing agreements with its artists and pays licensing fees for their work. We have found that ongoing relationships are more meaningful than simply licensing one image and moving on to the next artist.
That is something we have learned as the company has grown.
When we work with an artist on multiple puzzles, we get to understand their work better. They get to understand what goes into creating artwork that translates well into a puzzle. Their library with us grows, and so do the opportunities for both of us.
The relationships are intentional, but they are also evolving.
Artist partnerships can lead somewhere unexpected
One of the things we did not necessarily anticipate when Oakland Puzzle Company started was how reciprocal these relationships could become.
Our custom puzzle business has created another avenue for artists. When a company or organization comes to us wanting a custom puzzle but needs original artwork, we may be able to connect them with an artist in our community. That can lead to a new commissioned project for the artist as well as a new puzzle for the organization.
Artists also refer organizations and customers to us when someone wants to turn their artwork into a puzzle.
The California Trail puzzle created with Oakland Zoo is a great example of how those relationships can come together.
Oakland Zoo approached us about making a puzzle, and we immediately thought of an artist we already knew, Brian Clarke, who works professionally as Les Toil. We had previously worked with him on Lula Mae at North Beach. His style felt like a natural fit for the new project.
Oakland Zoo commissioned Les Toil to create an original oil painting of its California Trail. We then licensed that artwork for the puzzle and created a partnership that brought together an Oakland organization, a local artist and Oakland Puzzle Company.
That kind of collaboration has become one of our favorite parts of the business.
If your organization has a story that might work as a puzzle, you can also learn more about creating a custom puzzle with Oakland Puzzle Company.
Every puzzle tells more than one story
We have been thinking a lot lately about the idea that every Oakland Puzzle Company puzzle tells a story.
Sometimes the most obvious story is the place in the picture. It may be Oakland, Alameda, San Francisco or another part of Northern California. It could be an organization, an event or a piece of local history.
But behind that is another story: the artist's.
Who created the image? Where do they live? How did they learn their craft? What experiences shaped their work? Why did they choose this particular subject?
Our artists stretch from Santa Cruz to Santa Rosa and beyond, but there is often a surprisingly short distance between the artist, the place in the artwork and the person putting together the puzzle.
We meet artists at street fairs and art festivals. We find them in galleries and through friends and community organizations. Sometimes we meet them online. One artist connection even started in a neighborhood Facebook group.
That is part of what makes these puzzles feel personal.
You may recognize the neighborhood. You may have walked past the building in the picture. You might have seen the artist's work somewhere else. Or maybe assembling the puzzle is the first time you learn anything about them.
That connection matters to us because we do not want a puzzle to feel like a commodity. The story of the art and the person who made it is part of the experience.
Four Artists to Know at Oakland Puzzle Company
Our artist community is much larger than four people, but these relationships offer a good sense of the range of artists and stories that find their way into Oakland Puzzle Company puzzles.
Paul Lewin
Our relationship with Paul Lewin came through another Bay Area institution, Rainbow Grocery. Paul had worked at Rainbow Grocery while developing his art career, and the connection eventually brought his work to Oakland Puzzle Company.
His paintings are richly layered with nature, imagination, color and storytelling, qualities that translate beautifully into puzzles. His career has also reached far beyond the Bay Area. His artwork has appeared on four Octavia Butler novel covers, and he has received nominations for both the Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award.
There is a wonderfully local side to the relationship, too. Paul eventually moved back to Oakland and now lives only a few blocks from our factory. On one visit, he happened to walk in while someone was buying one of his puzzles and was able to sign the box for them.
It is hard to get more local than that.
Eric Drooker
Our connection with Eric Drooker was personal first, which has been true of quite a few of our artist relationships.
Eric's career began selling illustrated buttons on the streets of New York, and evolved to illustration, posters, graphic novels, album artwork, and film animation. He is widely recognized for his New Yorker covers and for his work on Howl. Activism and visual storytelling have been recurring threads throughout his career.
His work is a good example of why we believe puzzles can be another way of experiencing art. An image can have history and meaning long before it becomes a puzzle. Turning it into one gives people an opportunity to slow down and spend time looking at the details in an entirely different way.
Nidhi Chanani
Nidhi Chanani brings together two things that fit naturally with puzzles: visual storytelling and a strong sense of place.
An award-winning author, illustrator and graphic novelist, Nidhi created the artwork featured in our Simple Pleasures at Dolores Park puzzle. In 2026, she was also selected as the featured artist for the San Francisco Public Library's Summer Stride program, bringing her illustrations to billboards and readers throughout the city.
There is a natural crossover between books, libraries, illustration and puzzles. All of them invite people to slow down, pay attention and become part of a story. Nidhi's work captures that particularly well.
Larry Hausen
Larry Hausen has deep roots in East Bay design.
Oakland born and Alameda raised, Larry built a long career as an illustrator and graphic designer. His professional history includes helping establish the Golden State Warriors' creative services department and contributing to the team's visual identity.
His love of local places also comes through in his work. His Vintage California Theatre series celebrates theaters and landmarks that have been part of people's lives for generations, including imagery that has become part of Oakland Puzzle Company puzzles.
Larry may technically be retired, but from everything we can tell, retirement has not slowed him down very much. He continues to create work for cities, festivals, tourism organizations and other projects throughout California.
That is another thing we love about working with artists. Their work keeps evolving, which means the stories we can tell together keep evolving too.
The artist is part of the puzzle
When you sit down with an Oakland Puzzle Company puzzle, we hope you enjoy the challenge, the colors and that satisfying moment when the last piece goes in.
But we also hope you come away knowing a little more about the image in front of you and the person who created it.
For us, supporting artists is not a line on the box. It is part of how we choose artwork, how we structure our partnerships, how we pay artists and how we continue building the company.
The finished puzzle may have 100 or 1,000 pieces.
The artist is one of the most important ones.
Find an artist and a story that speaks to you. Explore Oakland Puzzle Company's artist-designed puzzles and meet more of the people whose work is behind them.