Minted Launches the Minted 50: 50 Days of Spontaneous Creativity

Minted’s emerging artist community partners with agency Van’s General
Store and Andy Spade to Launch 50 Creative Projects in 50 Consecutive
Days

“Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to
work.” – Chuck Close

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Minted, the global marketplace of independent artists, today announced
the launch of the Minted 50, a series of 50 creative projects produced
on 50 consecutive days by 50 artists and creatives. Celebrating
creativity in the everyday, each project will be spontaneous and
completed within the course of one day. At the end of 50 days, all of
the projects will be exhibited at the gallery of Van’s General Store in
New York City, and auctioned off to benefit RxArt, a nonprofit
organization whose mission is to help children heal through the
extraordinary power of visual art.

To develop the Minted 50, Minted is partnering with Van’s General Store
(VGS), the creative agency headed by Scott Carlson and Liev Schreiber,
and VGS’s longtime friend and collaborator Andy Spade, creative leader
and co-founder of Partners & Spade.

“We have found over the past ten years that anyone, anywhere can emerge
as a powerful designer capable of showing us new ideas,” said Mariam
Naficy, Minted Founder and CEO. “Reinvention is born from a fresh and
authentic point of view. People are blocked not by themselves, but by a
lack of access to markets and a supportive and collaborative community.
The Minted 50 is a way we can highlight the impact of community and
collaboration.”

“With the Minted 50, we’re honored to shine a light on the meaningful
and brilliant work of RxArt to harness the power of art to heal
children,” said Spade, co-founder of Partners & Spade.

Naficy and Schreiber will tackle the first creative project together
today on Facebook Live at www.facebook.com/minted
at 12:30 pm Pacific Time, 3:30 pm Eastern Time. Their collaborative
project will be revealed on Wednesday, March 15, at www.minted.com/50.
Every day for 50 days thereafter, the baton will be passed to a new
creative, who will have one day to complete a spontaneous, creative
challenge. Participants will include members of Minted’s emerging artist
community and other creative professionals. Minted and the artist of the
day will announce what they are attempting at 9 am Eastern Time each
day. Anyone can play along with each day’s creative project at www.minted.com/50
and tackle the same design challenge, tagging their posts with #minted50
on Instagram.

“The Minted 50 is a nod to the brilliant and diverse creators, emerging
artists and designers who make up our design community,” said Scott
Carlson, co-founder, Van’s General Store. “We’re so proud to partner
with Minted and Andy Spade on this unique project, that showcases the
playful spirit of creativity and the power of design to unite us.”

About Minted

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Minted
is a design marketplace that connects you to the world’s best
independent artists to create something one-of-a-kind. Minted’s unique
crowdsourced model represents a modern marketplace – one where the
community decides what goods are showcased and sold. This model ensures
fresh, on-trend designs are continuously being added to Minted. Minted
enables artists, designers and photographers around the world to create
original work, then provides them with an operations platform that
handles all fulfillment and customer service. This leaves creatives to
do what they do best, while letting Minted do the rest. The company –
which began in stationery, has expanded its crowdsourcing model into
wall art (2012), textiles (2014), digital content (2015) and most
recently home decor (2015). Minted has raised $90M since launching in
2007 and is funded by Benchmark Capital, IDG Ventures, Menlo Ventures,
Norwest Venture Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures as well as angel
investors. www.minted.com.

About Van’s General Store

Van’s General Store (VGS) is a creative agency co-founded by Scott
Carlson and Liev Schreiber that brings together an eclectic range of
brilliant and diverse talent who operate out of a gallery space and
workshop in the Lower East Side. VGS creates advertising, films,
activations and branding for clients ranging from Cadillac and Chevrolet
to Pepsico and Def Jam. For more info, visit VGSNY.com.

About Andy Spade

Andy Spade started his career in advertising working on brands such as
Coca-Cola and Lexus. In 1993, he and his wife Kate founded the iconic
Kate Spade and Jack Spade fashion lines, which grew to 26 stores across
North America and Japan, and earned the couple the CFDA award for
excellence in design. In addition to launching the branding and design
studio Partners & Spade, Andy has written and produced a number of
award-winning short and feature films, and was named one of the 100 most
creative people in business by Fast Company. In 2013, Sleepy Jones was
established with long-time collaborators Anthony Sperduti and Chad Buri
to create a collection of sleepwear and not-quite-ready-to-wear for men
and women inspired by the lifestyles of artists.

Contacts

Minted
Jaeme Laczkowski
Head of Communications
jaeme@minted.com