For Ericka and William Jones, puzzles are more than just a family activity. They’re a way to display art, share history and celebrate diverse experiences.
Ericka didn’t set out to be a small business owner. After graduating from the University of Houston in 2010, she worked as a hotel event planner for a few years before becoming a process manager for Capital One. Ten years into that job, Ericka started a new venture — Puzzles of Color.
“My family has been doing puzzles together since I was a child, but we had a hard time finding puzzles with diverse art,” Ericka says. “So years later, when I got back into puzzles as an adult, I suggested that a friend of my brother who is an artist should turn her work into puzzles and the idea grew from there.”
Ericka started the business with her younger brother, William.
“He is an extremely talented graphic designer. He created our logo and does all of our packaging, branded merchandise and social images,” Ericka says. “Working with him is such a joy because it keeps us close. We talk multiple times a day. I know what’s going on in his day-to-day and vice versa. We both have kids now, and that’s super fun to have these little ones just running around the office. I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.”
The Joneses find artists through social media, self-submission, customer suggestions and events they attend.
Puzzles range from $10 for a 200-piece to $33.99 for a 1,000-piece. Styles range from abstract to historical and cartoony to editorial. The shop also sells puzzle glue, encouraging customers to keep the puzzles as art after finishing.
Puzzles of Color was part of 2024’s Legacy West Small Business Cohort, a program that works with small businesses in the area to provide resources, mentorship, education, retail opportunities and co-working days.
“It was really fun! We got to meet some great business owners who I am still friends with to this day. We also had great educational sessions to help operate our business and monthly pop-ups at their cabins,” Ericka says. “It gave us the chance to experience what it would be like to own a retail space.”
In December, the Joneses hosted a Black Joy Market, featuring Black-owned businesses at Plano-based nonprofit My Possibilities. After attending similar markets in the Houston area, Ericka wanted to bring the concept to North Texas.
“As a company that is constantly vending at other markets, we really wanted to create that opportunity for others, particularly in the north Dallas area, because many of the business owners that we meet are based up here, and we are constantly having to drive down south for events,” she says. “We realized that if we are doing that traveling, likely a lot of our customers are doing the same. So we wanted to provide a venue for families to kick off the holiday season and support small Black-owned businesses.”
The market was hectic, Ericka says. The team — which consists of just six people, four of whom have full-time jobs — had just come off working a booth at the State Fair of Texas.
“It took a lot of late nights and sweat and tears to pull it together. But we made it happen! The day of the event, my face was so sore because I was literally so happy at how it turned out,” she says. “The vendors were happy, the turnout was good, and we are going to make it even bigger and better next year.”
All puzzles come with a playlist of music that inspired the puzzle, available on Spotify. The Puzzles Of Color Spotify also includes podcast episodes with interviews with each artist.
