Apostrophe Puzzles: Interview with Mandi Masden
Apostrophe Puzzles is a Brooklyn-based puzzle producer of museum-quality jigsaw collections that feature artwork by contemporary artists of color. Every puzzle is based on an original painting, are affordable priced, and are available online and in bookstores, boutiques, art galleries, and museums. Each puzzle is made out of 100% recycled chipboard and printed with eco-friendly, non-toxic ink. Each artist receives 12% of every puzzle purchase and the company also partners with nonprofits in communities of color and donates an additional percentage of each sale to help empower a new generation of emerging artists. One such partner is ProjectArt which empowers youth, emerging artists, and communities by offering free after-school art classes and artist residencies in partnership with public libraries.
Mandi Masden is the founder of Apostrophe Puzzles which is proudly a Black-owned, woman-led brand.
Q: You got interested in designing puzzles after a friend gifted you one featuring a piece of art that you loved. How did they manage to produce a custom puzzle such as that?
Mandi Masden (MM): Yes, my friend had recently learned of my childhood love of puzzles and had planned to gift me one for my birthday, but with options like hot air balloons, castles, cats, and vintage magazine covers, they didn’t really find anything they thought I would like. They also knew I had wanted to purchase an original painting and found its price point inaccessible, so they used a customizable product site (such as Zazzle or Shutterfly) to create a custom one. It was thoughtful and beautiful, but also illegal. Please don’t do that without the artists permission!
Q: What prompted you to start a puzzle company and what year did you get it established?
MM: Puzzle imagery has long been dominated by the white gaze, and though this has shifted in recent years to include more artistic styles and a greater range of subjects, the imagery remains generic and severely lacking in diversity. People of color were rarely featured — either as artists or subjects — and consumers of color were largely ignored by the industry. I started Apostrophe in late 2019 to create a space where the art, aesthetic, and imagination of artists of color came first. Each of our designs is dedicated to amplifying, championing, and valuing the artistic voices and contributions of these contemporary artists, and through our collections and collaborations we aim to change the face of art consumerism, offering an affordable, accessible, and sustainable way to bring more art into people’s homes. Apostrophe’s mission is rooted in the belief that our art matters and that we are allowed to engage with it.
Q: How tough was it to find a manufacturer?
MM: Finding a manufacturer took quite a bit of research, and our first one dropped us during the early stages of the pandemic when puzzle popularity unexpectedly exploded and it was all hands-on deck to support established brands (we were an unknown startup with a very small production run). We’ve since found manufacturing partners that we love both in the US and abroad.
Q: These puzzles are quite eco-friendly, so was that one of the staples of the brand from the start?
MM: Yes! Our puzzles are 100% recyclable, sustainably sourced, and printed with eco-friendly ink. As stated on our boxes, our planet is our responsibility, and our commitment to the environmental was built into the ethos of our brand from the beginning.
Q: How do you find your artists?
MM: Usually, we find our talented artists through social media! I also visit local galleries, pop ups, and art shows in New York, Atlanta, and wherever else I travel.
Q: How many puzzles do you currently have in your catalog?
MM: We currently have 12 designs. We aim to release four new puzzles a year so keep an eye of for them!
Q: Be honest, do you have a personal favorite among all of the puzzles?
MM: Since I hand pick each design and curate our collections, there are things I love and respond to about each of them — the colors, composition, texture, nuance and interpretation are all so varied and unique. I can’t say that I have a favorite because they are all so stunning, but “She Carries” is probably the most sentimental because that was the painting that led me to start the company back in 2019.
Q: How did you get your company noticed and your products sold in major retailers and in world-class museums?
MM: Once we launched, word of mouth spread pretty quickly and before I knew it Roxane Gay and Don Cheadle were doing our puzzles and we were being featured in Forbes. It was a huge shock because it came out of nowhere! I was a team of one with no marketing team and no advertising budget. Between theater performances in New York and gigs on set I would do tons of wholesale tradeshows, events, and pop-ups, and within a year we were in institutions such as MOMA, the Getty, the Brooklyn Museum, the New Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and The Barnes Foundation, in addition to some major retailers and small mom-and-pop shops. I think our images and mission and quality really resonate with people, and it feels wonderful to expand to a consumer audience that is more diverse, more mainstream, more youthful, more intentional, and who are seeking a more sophisticated puzzle experience.
Q: What is the best part of being an entrepreneur?
MM: One of the best parts of entrepreneurship for me is having the freedom to decide how your vision shows up in the world. I make all the little decisions that add up to what my product is, but I also get to choose what my business does, and that’s a truly remarkable feeling. You do the work and hope people like it, you hope you are profitable, but you get to say: ‘I want my company to have this impact’, ‘I want to reflect my values in this way’, ‘I want what we do to be an active part of this conversation or this community.’ It’s really wonderful to have that kind of creative autonomy. I once had a woman tell me I couldn’t have artist royalties as high as 12%, and I simply responded: ‘Who’s going to stop me?’.
Q: What are your ultimate goals for Apostrophe Puzzles?
MM: My vision for Apostrophe is rooted in a fundamental commitment to Black and Brown people, artists, and communities being seen, valued, supported, celebrated, compensated, and invested in. My goal is to build a brand that is interested in a radical reallocation of our profit, that holds itself economically accountable to our communities, and works to ensure that our impact extends beyond the life of our product. I want our designs to create a bridge of accessibility to fine art, to encourage more people to venture into art collecting, and to offer the space and time for leisure around our own creativity and curiosity. I’m excited for us to continue to expand our catalog, work with more artists, commission some Apostrophe originals, and get the opportunity to work with the estates and IP of some artists I really love and admire. I’d also love do to some exclusive collaborations with the NMAAHC. That’s definitely a dream of mine.
Q: What is coming up next for you and is there anything else that you would like to mention?
MM: I’m excited for our next round of puzzles to be released next year, and I’m looking forward to finally expanding our team. Huge thank you to my mom and sister who help me ship orders and unload inventory — especially when I have to be away for work!
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To learn more, visit the company’s official website: apostrophepuzzles.com