Unified Pieces is a Black-owned, Oakland based, small puzzle brand with a focus on urban, modern art and a premium experience. Several of their puzzles are available to rent from the Completing the Puzzle catalog, and we'll be adding more soon! We spoke to the founder Gamaliel James aka Meezy about his love for puzzles, how he carved out a unique niche in the puzzling world, the inspirations behind Unified Pieces, and more. Read on to learn more about Meezy and his unique, high quality brand!
To watch the full video interview on YouTube, click here.
[Interview has been edited for length and clarity. Photos courtesy of Unified Pieces.]
We're a black owned company focused on creating a non electronic, meditative experience for puzzlers, giving puzzlers something cool and good quality to puzzle. And artists who usually don't get their shine, giving them a chance get their shine on, too.
Oh, I've been into puzzles my whole life, man. I've been puzzling since I could remember, every Christmas, and then got real heavy back into it a little bit after the pandemic, seen a lot of cooler brands out and that inspired me to do it on my own.
Probably early 2021, I started doing a lot of research. I was already involved with the Puzzlegram because my family was getting tired of me sending puzzle pictures to them. So I discovered Puzzlegram and this wonderful community of puzzlers and peeps. One night, I was puzzling and looking at some of the art on my wall and I was like, "Man, that would be a tight puzzle." That just so happened to be the J-Dilla puzzle. So that kind of sparked the idea and went from there. Probably did a year's worth of research and asking different puzzlers what they would want to see, testing different manufacturers until I found one that I really liked.
With my puzzles, I wanted to approach things with bold colors, bright colors, coming from an urban sense, also from a guy's perspective, too. I noticed a lot of puzzle brands are women led. Kudos to that, I love that. But as a guy puzzler, I didn't see a lot of stuff from a guy's perspective or geared towards guys or urban. In my diaspora, someone like me who puzzles, basically what would they want to puzzle, and approached it from that. I love graffiti, so I wanted to see more urban graffiti puzzles. There were a lot of dope muralists around here that I wanted to give shine to, a lot of street artists. The scene is real big out here.
It's the people and just the environment, the history. There's a lot of history out here, but mostly the people is what makes the city. Like they say in Jamaica, you build the vibe. So you being a part of the community and having the other people be a part of that community also. It's vibes out here. There's always something going on. There's a lot of good cultural events, a lot of ways to stay integrated and a lot of cool events going on. A lot of good culture out here and the art and just the diversity.
I'm an artist myself so I have a lot of artist friends, but I've been venturing out, going to different states, connecting with different artists out there. I like to travel, so I'm always keeping my eye out. I'm always running across some amazing artists on Instagram, so there's no shortage there. I'm real excited about the new collection that's formulating right now. Got a lot of new artists that I'm working with.
We put out surveys, we put out polls sometimes on our [Instagram] Stories. I have a couple of trusted puzzle friends that I send art to, to get feedback on. Definitely rely on those surveys because it's not about me. It's not about what I like. It's about what the puzzlers want. It's adamant to rely on that kind of stuff and base your company on what the customer wants and getting that feedback. Take yourself and your ego out of everything.
I was an avid puzzler so I spent a lot of money on puzzles. A lot of it thrived on, "How would I want to receive this puzzle?" and "What kind of features would I like?" A lot of companies did stuff that was good, and a lot of stuff I was like, "I could probably improve on that."
Kudos to my friend Shakina who was like, "When I'm puzzling, I always want to puzzle with a friend." So that made me think about having a puzzle stand so people can have something to puzzle with friends, as well as a poster. As well as something to have on their desk after that they could post up. They spent their hard earned money on puzzles, and they want to have something that's worth it.
The bag, I wanted to have something that people can reuse, be able to use for different things. When traveling with drawstrings, pieces can slip out, so I wanted to do a zipper. I want it to be like the Crown Royal of puzzles, make it feel real luxurious. Puzzling is a very tactile kind of sport or hobby. You want to be able to feel it, so that's why we went with the soft, satin touch, put it on everything.
I've been designing since the 90s. I started off doing flyers and album covers. Some famous ones were for Goapele and Traxamillion and all kinds of cats. Then I ventured into the web game and started getting into web design. I was real heavy into Flash, had my own design company for about 10 years called Meezy Art and we would do album covers, designs, trade show events, all kinds of stuff. So I was always helping other people with their marketing material and promotions.
Currently, I'm a developer at Apple. So I kind of wanted to bring that aesthetic to the puzzles, too. Because I learned a lot of things from that working at that company. How they move and their packaging and the presentation, the surprise, the wow factor, everything. So I wanted to kind of bring that to my company and the puzzle industry.
There's the cost of business that they don't tell you about. Aside from just buying the puzzles, you have to worry about packaging, you have to worry about marketing and books and making sure your licensing is good and artist correspondence and making sure they're paid on time and they're happy. And then just getting out there and vending. Definitely can't do it all by yourself. I rely on my family and some friends. You can't succeed being a one man show.
The highlights, just getting a chance to see the videos and the pictures and seeing people's responses to it, that's my most favorite thing right there. Seeing people happy about the puzzles and seeing that they enjoy them and being able to meet the different puzzlers, that's very cool. Going to Nationals has been a highlight for sure. Connecting with wonderful puzzlers and connecting with more of the puzzle community. My dream when I started it, I was like, "I want to do something nice for them and give back" because they've been giving me so much and the community is most all good people. It all brings joy to my heart. It's all love.
We're expanding to doing some wooden puzzles, working on some partnerships. I love partnering with Cocoa Puzzles to offer her kids puzzles out here. She's the best in the game doing them kid puzzles, so ain't trying to reinvent that wheel. The other Black companies, looking to partner with them more, helping each other out, that's what I really love. All of the Black-owned companies have really been unified and helping each other grow. Everybody got their own lane, everybody got their own expression, and everybody has their own taste. That's why I wanted to add to that pot, increasing it to where people who normally don't puzzle or people can find stuff that they might like. People who look like me, they can find stuff they like, or the little Black girls can see their representation on puzzles.
We're on unifiedpieces.com - use code YOUARETHEBEST for a discount. We're in a couple of stores, we got over into a couple of stores in Europe like Sunshine Puzzles. She buys puzzles from me and resells them out there. Puzzles Canada, my second collection over there. We're in a couple of museums and a lot of local stores out here in Oakland, a lot of pop up events locally.
And of course, Completing the Puzzle. They've got Color Bliss, Black Girl Magic Vol 2 and Catstronaut. And we're probably going to be adding more soon, so everybody look out for that as well. I love Completing the Puzzle. It's a wonderful service. I'm a member myself. To be able to rent it and return it and get another one and return it and pick from your queue, it's a beautiful thing and they're beautiful people.
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