Samuel Cook

Samuel Cook designs packing puzzles that look calm and behave otherwise. Three of his puzzles are on the shelf here, and all three are rated Hard.

A Designer Working Through an Idea

What makes Cook interesting is that his puzzles read as a sequence rather than a catalog. Each one takes the same basic premise - pieces into a restricted frame, nothing sticking out - and changes one thing about how the frame fights you.

Jigsaw Traffic

Four jigsaw-shaped pieces into a frame that will not cooperate. The shapes look familiar, which is the trap: jigsaw pieces suggest a jigsaw solution, and this is not that kind of puzzle. Hard, four pieces plus the frame, one to four hours.

Turbulence

The sequel, and the most minimal of the three. Four pieces, packed flat, nothing protruding. Cook reused the square frame and changed what happens inside it. Clean to look at, genuinely difficult to finish.

Conga Line

Six unusually shaped pieces and a marble-white frame. The extra pieces do not make it more forgiving. They give the puzzle more ways to be almost right, which is a harder problem to be stuck on than having no idea at all.

What to Expect

All three reward patience over force. Nothing here needs strength, and nothing yields to brute-force shuffling. Every puzzle in this collection is 3D-printed in plastic and hand-picked by Greg.