Salem Mitchell talks why she launched a puzzle brand and the stories behind her cheeky designs, like the "don't text him" one.

Model <a href="https://www.instagram.com/salemmitchell/?hl=en">Salem Mitchell</a> never thought she'd start a puzzle brand, but looking back, it all makes sense. The pieces all fit together.
The California-born creative&mdash;who has done everything from star in this summer's Gap campaign to dance on-stage with <a href="lhttps://www.lofficielusa.com/tags/charlixcx">Charli Xcx</a> at this year's <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/tags/grammys">Grammys</a>&mdash;launched Salem Goods late 2024, which sells a curated assortment of 500-piece <a href="https://salemgoods.com/collections/all">puzzles</a>. The first one she launched was a photo of a <a href="https://salemgoods.com/products/keyboard-puzzle">vintage keyboard</a>, which sold out fast.
"I've always been like a brain teaser puzzle type of person, so I always had like brain teaser cards and little things that I could play with my hands. I'm a huge fan of like Tetris," she says before revealing her Tetris high score of a million. Whereas some kids abhorred puzzles as a hobby or annual holiday gift, Mitchell remembers loving them from an early age. "Anything that has to do with like shapes and connecting things has always been interesting to me."
Maybe that love for brain exercises informed her decision, but what sparked the brand idea, Mitchell says, was a need to disconnect. "There was just like a fluctuation of busyness. With this career, there are high seasons and low seasons, ebbs and flows. And I'm a super huge hobby person," she tells L'OFFICIEL. "In my free time, I just like to fill the space with something that pulls me outside of the current world that I think for me, is super social media based."
Salem Goods has dropped three 500-piece puzzles total over the past several months since it has launched, and something cheeky, artful, or modern characterizes each design, like the option with a painting by Serena Hughes. Each retails for $32.&nbsp;

Photography courtesy of Salem Goods.

The 27-year-old model was also excited to start a puzzle brand for how she's felt their "healing properties," both in sharpening her attention span and dealing with tough situations, including romantic ones.
"I had a really bad breakup a couple years ago, and I remember being like, 'I am going to blow this person's phone up.' So I put my phone in a drawer, and thought, 'I'm going to just finish this puzzle that my friend got me as a gift.' I did that all day long and was able to self soothe and calm down and then rejoin the conversation," she says. For those who ever find themselves in a similar boat, there is a <a href="https://salemgoods.com/products/do-not-text-him">"Don't text him" puzzle</a> waiting.
Mitchell's puzzle-making journey thus far fundamentally speaks to the importance of believing in your own ideas and trusting the process. Ahead, Mitchell says there may be plans to expand the brand beyond puzzles because, at its core, Salem Goods is about "feeling calm, feeling restored, feeling happy." For now, though, she's focusing on more designs centered around the grounding, brain-boosting hobby.

Salem Mitchell's Puzzles Are Designed to Help Disconnect From the Online World

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