The Annoying Lack of Side Labels on Our Puzzles
We're hearing from more of you that it's a problem that our Artifact line doesn't have a side-label that you can use to organize your Artifact puzzles. Here's a visual...
We're hearing from more of you that it's a problem that our Artifact line doesn't have a side-label that you can use to organize your Artifact puzzles. Here's a visual of the problem from customer Karen J. (thanks for permission to share) - how are you supposed to know which one is which?
Some good news is our newer Ecru line does come with side labels on the long-side of the box. But to see those you still need to stack/organize your puzzles with the long-side of the box showing.
We are hoping to have a solution to this in early 2020 where we engrave the side of our wood boxes with the puzzle name and piece count.
However, we are mindful that any additional labeling will add to costs (and we do try to keep prices down), and that it won't fix the problem of organizing the puzzles you already have!
Here's one solution from customer Timothy Wright (thanks for permission to share):
Side Labels Done Cheap
I’ve been thinking this through; hidden around here I have an assortment of Avery Laser Printer Labels. One never knows when I may have to suddenly label a 5.25” floppy disk.
Turns out a blue Artifact puzzle box is 1.5” deep. Some tiny boxes are not that long, maybe only 6” long.
The old Avery 5197 labels for floppy disks in particular are 1.5” x 4” and 12 to a sheet.
Avery 5262 labels are a modern alternative that also works great, at 1 1/3" x 4" and 14 to a sheet, and you can download a template for your printer from avery.com here.
I have a spreadsheet I use to keep track of which Artifact Puzzles I've already got. I've
This made it easy to copy-and-paste the artist name on line one and the puzzle name on line two.
Example Label:
Kevin Sloan
Migration of Knowledge
A size 20 font worked out for me with the font Palatino Linotype, it accommodated even the longest item tags and permits 3 lines of text.
If I wanted to maybe I could use a longer label, have a place for piece count, finished dimensions and even an image thumbnail.
But I finished labeling my sizable collection my way in less than an hour using what I already owned.
Here are some photos:
I know folks with alphabetized spice racks, I may alphabetize my puzzles!
While this suggestion will not help people who already own puzzles, have you considered completely changing the box design? What about a strong cardboard box where the top lid completely covers the sides of the bottom box? Then you could put a picture on the front of the box, and a thumbnail on both the end and side of the box. This design would offer greater flexibility for storage options, and you could either stack them flat or stand them upright like books on a shelf.
I would be happy to pay for a complete set of puzzle labels. The side is the important one, since that’s what’s visible when you stack the boxes (either on top of each other, or standing up). I like having a picture (thumbnail) in addition to the name because the name isn’t always meaningful.
I’m glad to hear you are looking for other boxes for the Ecru puzzles, since my experience has been that they are not as robust as the regular blue boxes (which also aren’t as good as the wood, but work okay for the smaller puzzles). I really like the wooden boxes because they are sturdy and stack well. It’d be great if there was a smaller wooden box that you could use as well, but I assume you’ve researched that already.
thanks!
It occurs to me that it would be most efficient for everyone if instead of you guys doing this individually, we (Artifact Puzzles) put together some sheets with these labels for all our puzzles, and gave them out to people for a nominal cost to cover shipping/materials. If I hear from at least two collectors that they’d like that, we’ll do it by Xmas. So let us know!
Barb – thanks for the great idea to include a side label that could “fit” on either side of the box and then people can choose what side they want to put it on if they want to put it on at all. I will price that out as well as the cost for us to do the whole thing, but I like the greater flexibility of letting people do it themselves. Also, we thought we had solved this problem with the Ecru boxes, but now I hear the large Ecru boxes aren’t robust enough, so we’ll need to switch to some sort of sturdier cardboard box or a wood box, but the labels don’t stick well to the sides of the wood boxes, and it’s hard to get a wood box that allows the bigger picture labels that some people want (with Ecru, we’ve tried to make two sets of customers happier: you can either get a “mystery” puzzle with no picture on the box, or you can get the puzzle with a bigger picture on the box). Anyone have any other great ideas on labeling/packaging? Will also survey people to get more feedback on this.
Great idea to print custom labels! Since I also have all my puzzles in a spreadsheet, this would not be that hard. thanks for the idea!
glad to see I’m not the only one trying to figure out the best storage method – I have them in piles, but that gets awkward when I want to pull out one from the bottom (or even see what it is). it’s a work in progress.