Update from our Art Team

We have received a lot of feedback about Art Challenges and our scaling initiatives.  We want to address some common questions, share updates on changes we’re making, and clarify why scaling your artwork to our largest sizes is so important.

How we’ve collected feedback

• Hosted two Artist Roundtables
• Collected feedback from artists who have reached out to us directly
• Reviewed comments provided in the Forums, Facebook, and Slack

What we heard

• Generally, communication about Art Challenges needs significant improvement.
• The calendar for Art Challenges changes frequently and without any reason provided.
• It is not clear enough why Minted wants all files to scale to the largest sizes, or what this means for Artists.
• File size/quality requirements for Photography are unclear and Artists do not know whether their artwork will scale prior to submission.
• Artists have been disappointed in the past when Minted does not provide feedback about why a file cannot be scaled.
• Artists may prefer to scale their artwork themselves.
• Artists may need different equipment to shoot large scale photography.
• The Community does not know what happens between voting and winner announcements for Art Challenges.

Our responses to your feedback

• We will make every effort to be forthcoming and transparent about Art Challenges as we grow our team and the business. We hope that this letter is a step in the right direction and illustrates our commitment to you, the Artist Community.
• We will make every effort to stick to our published Challenge Calendar and, should we deviate from it, provide information about why a change was made. Please know that we only make changes when absolutely necessary and do not take it lightly.  For instance, we just canceled the Children’s Art Challenge because there is a clear need in the market for Pairs & Sets.  We have some fantastic new Children’s Art onsite and do not have bandwidth to assort both Challenges before June, so Pairs & Sets became the priority. Due to internal scheduling and bandwidth limitations, if we had not prioritized Pairs & Sets, the launch date would shift out by several months to the fall and other Challenges would have been compromised.
• Minted is committed to producing high-quality artwork in large formats. This is what enables us to drive sales growth, addresses a need in the market, and will serve as a key competitive advantage. Large sizes are making up more of our sales YoY, however less than 30% of our designs currently scale to these sizes.  All marketing for the Art category will continue to feature large-scale art, as will our main onsite pages.  Therefore, while you may submit works that don't scale to large sizes, we cannot guarantee sales if we cannot offer your artwork in our largest sizes.
• It is not possible to provide exact file size or resolution requirements that will guarantee the scalability of your artwork. The creative intent of the work plays a major role in whether or not something scales. That said, we will certainly provide additional guidelines as we continue to learn while working through your file submissions.  In the meantime, please reference the Challenge Brief for best practices, how to check resolution prior to submission, and what we ultimately need from you. Here is a video walking through the resolution checks outlined in the brief.
• We recognize the need for feedback if your file does not scale.  We will provide more information about why a work wasn’t able to scale on an individual basis moving forward.
• Some artists expressed that they may want to scale their artwork themselves using scaling software.  Rather than asking the Community to spend time and money buying software, learning how to use it, and working on files, we strongly recommend letting Minted invest in this work for you.
• While expensive equipment is not strictly necessary to shoot large scale photography, we are looking into things like bulk discounts from key manufacturers. You should only need a 24MP camera or higher to produce images that scale.
• We’d like to give you an idea of what we’re doing between voting and winner announcements.  Launching new artwork is time-intensive and requires a lot of cross-functional collaboration at Minted.  Here is a high-level view of some major steps:
• Analytics team processes all of the voting data
• Art Merchants (Claire and Ellery) review every single submission and its associated voting data. They select the Editors Picks.
• The resulting assortment is reviewed by Minted’s Founder and Co-CEO, Mariam.
• Early File Requests are sent for final assortment picks.  This step was added so that we can work on scaling files - and identify those in need of additional work - prior to winner announcements, which ultimately ensures a faster launch.
• Each file is assessed for scalability through multiple rounds of review.  If files do not scale automatically or after being worked on by our team in Topaz, we must determine how to handle each file.  Options include:
• Ask the artists to send their artwork to Scale Up, or a local equivalent, to have the work professionally photographed.
• We work with a professional retoucher on the file.
• Winners can be announced once all file-related issues are resolved and we have a clear view of what pieces we can actually launch on site.

Please let us know if you still have any questions or concerns.We appreciate your feedback and participation as we continue to grow our Art business and look forward to seeing your submissions!

Sincerely,The Art Team (Chrissy, Claire & Ellery)
and Artist Relations"