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.
