Woman-owned. American made.
Susan Taylor, founder of TSPC, armed with a degree in graphic design and an eye for creativity was a successful custom picture framing business owner in Nashville, TN, for 30 years.
While working puzzles on a rainy beach vacation Susan noticed that interesting artwork and good quality jigsaw puzzles were hugely underrepresented. Reaching out to some of her contacts in the artistic community Susan decided to try designing and selling a few puzzles. After a few years of pedaling puzzles out of the trunk of her SUV to mostly local boutiques True South Puzzle Company finally took off. Suddenly customers were bringing in their True South puzzles to be framed at Susan’s picture framing shop! In 2018 Susan sold her framing business to run True South full time. She continues to support independent artists by getting their artwork in the public eye with a host of new designs every year. A portion of the proceeds of puzzle sales support exceptional non-profits as part of True South’s mission to give back.
Meet the artists
Evie Coates
Evie Coates is a Nashville native who is in her 18th year of teaching art at The Ensworth School. While there’s no other place she’d rather call home, Evie has always been inspired by travel, her best companions being the kind with pages. When one sees her sketchbooks full of map-drawing, quick renderings, and taped-in ephemera, it’s like the streets of Paris, the wooded paths of northern California, or the sandy beaches of the Florida Gulf open up right before you. Evie’s lettering, pencil drawings, and watercolors hang on walls throughout her hometown and beyond. Oh, and that feline friend, that’s Sylvie, Evie’s studio mate and faithful muse. Sylvie prides herself on stepping delicately around bottles of ink and trays of paint, but she also loves to take little sips from Evie’s watercolor cup.
Laura Sant
Laura Sant, aka Miz Sant, is a designer and illustrator based in Richmond, Virginia. Inspired by vintage type, fussy desserts, saturated colors and craft cocktails, she specializes in cheeky, colorful illustrations for magazines, books, retail products, and more. A former pastry cook and food editor, her illustrations often feature themes of food and drink and appeal to foodies, cocktail connoisseurs, and avid cooks. She lives and works in Richmond with one husband and three cats.
Ligia Teodosiu
Ligia Teodosiu is an award winning designer and illustrator who was has proud to call Nashville, Tennessee home for over seven years and is now a resident of Colorado. Born in Romania but raised in the United States, Ligia showed a natural aptitude for art and illustration from an early age. It wasn’t until much later that she realized her obsession and turned down graduate school to pursue design and illustration. Ligia enjoys working in a variety of styles, the challenge of solving design problems, and is never found far from a good cup of coffee.
Lili Chin
Lili Chin is an artist well known for her globally popular dog art. As the founder of Doggie Drawings, she provides custom illustration and a catalog of art products for sale. Lili Chin’s dog behavior infographics have become a popular tool for dog training professionals, veterinarians, behaviorists, and welfare groups who advocate for humane animal training methods. Her book – Doggie Language: A Dog Lover’s Guide to Understanding Your Best Friend – is a bestseller that is being translated to 15 languages. Lili is Malaysia-born and currently lives in Los Angeles where she obsesses over modern board games, cooking, behavior science, and her two newly-adopted kitties.
Lucie Rice
Lucie Rice is an award winning illustrator and designer who has been creating whimsical and modern imagery professionally for over 10 years. Although her work can be found in print and web internationally, after moving to Nashville in 2007, Rice was compelled to create for a local audience. Inspired by the natural beauty, architecture, nightlife and music that make Nashville so special, she has recently created a series of designs that celebrate our fair city. Offered in print and note card form, this collection features both the iconic landmarks and the small, sometimes quirky, businesses and neighborhoods that give the city its charm.
Nate Padavick
Nate Padavick specializes in map design and illustration. His maps have been reproduced in books, magazines, newspapers, posters, websites, and apps, as well as on beer cans, walls, greeting cards, and even dishware.
Nate lives and draws in New York. He loves to take long bike rides, hike in the mountains, go on fun vacations, swim in ponds, cook good food, and shop at farmer’s markets.
Olga Akbarova
Olga Akbarova was born and raised in Baku, Azerbaijan and eventually landed in San Jose, California with her family and a cat named Findus. She was trained as a fashion designer at art school and has worked in many creative areas. In 2018, Olga launched her art business and dove into the world of freelance illustration and surface designing, and has been exploring it ever since. Olga’s artistic practice is grounded in the sensitive use of colors and inspired by nature’s beauty. In her creative process, she uses traditional watercolor/gouache medium and digital software to make joyful, whimsical, detailed art.
Paris Woodhull
A born and raised Knoxvillian, Paris Woodhull’s heart will always be in her hometown. She showed a love for drawing at an early age and even won her first art award as a 6-year-old at the county fair (Wow! What a bigshot!) Paris is now as a full time artist that offers a range of freelance illustration services along with a line of product that includes apparel/paper goods. She received her BFA in 2D art with a concentration in Painting & Drawing from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She loves bold color, pattern, pop culture, portraiture, fashion, and is fueled by copious amounts of coffee + cuddles from her two kitties.
Scott Schiller
Scott is a trained biologist and former zookeeper who then became a graphic designer and art director. He currently specializes in illustrated maps with a special focus on nature and scientific themes. His work as been featured in print and digital in books, magazines, exhibit displays, posters and tourism and marketing materials. Hi is inspired by travel and the outdoors, and enjoys the process of discovering and experimenting with a wide range of styles and techniques.
Scott lives near Milwaukee, Wisconsin and when not making maps he is probably mountain biking, visiting lighthouses or playing with his cat, Luna.
Tenn Hens Design
Tenn Hens is a graphic design studio specializing in unique paper goods, branding, and marketing materials. Bonnie & Currier’s artistic style and advertising background combine to help create timeless, thoughtful pieces. Started in 2005, one of the niches they’ve hatched are custom invitations that include their hand-drawn artwork. They adore watercolors, pretty paper, vintage postage, and all the details that make up the perfect package.
Giving back
Our lives and our puzzles attest to the fact that we love national parks, we love animals, and we love music. We’ve made it part of our mission to support exceptional nonprofits caring for the things that matter to us and to our customers. Proceeds from select True South puzzles benefit the following organizations:
CMAF Foundation
Girls Inc
The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation
National Park Foundation
Nashville Humane Association
