Weekly Updates & Estimated Challenge Calendar

Calendar	Files	Launches	Tech & Payments
upcoming challenge timelines	file request deadlines and file prep updates	recent product & assortment launches	tech updates & upcoming payments

Please do not use your sales reports or the self-launch tool during Black Friday through Cyber Monday (11/26-11/30). This helps ensure site stability during this key shopping period. Learn more >>

Thanks for stopping by to read the projected Current Estimated Challenge Calendar for the next two months! Please note that this schedule is subject to change. We update this page every Friday. 

Challenge Calendar 

Challenges are made up of (i) a Submission Period, during which artists submit designs, (ii) a Critique Period, a minimum of 24-hours of dedicated time for giving and incorporating peer feedback, (iii) a Voting Period during which Minted artists and customers cast their votes on submissions, followed by Minted's voting analysis & editorial review — analysis and review tends to take longer for Art and Partner Challenges, and (iv) Winners Announcements and File Requests. Below are current Challenge states.  

Notes on the calendar:

• [New 11/23] We will open voting as planned for our Now & Always Wedding Invitation Challenges, but it is possible that we might need to temporarily pause voting in order to ensure site stability over Black Friday. We will keep an eye on voting during this time, and will update artists if we need to make any changes to the voting period.
  
• [New 11/20] Based on customer feedback, we’ve added a challenge for greeting cards that incorporate longer copy to open between late November and early December. We plan to share more information in the challenge PDF.
• [Updated 11/13] We announced the top-rated winners of our You Complete Me Valentine's Day Quickfire Greeting Card Challenge in mid-August. We expect to announce Editors' Picks from this Challenge in early December. See the top-rated list, plus more details, in our email here.
• [New 10/23] Our Drawings Art Challenge has been moved to early January 2021 so it will not overlap with our West Elm Art Challenge. You may submit drawings (as well as other mediums like photography, paintings, etc.) to our West Elm Art Challenge for an opportunity to be selected by West Elm and/or Minted. If your drawing is not selected in the West Elm Art Challenge, you can resubmit it to the Drawings Challenge in early 2021.

Add Challenges to Your Calendar >>    Submit to Challenges >>    Vote on Submissions >

Happening in the Community Forums

With dedicated categories for your artistic medium, geographical region, and interests, the new Community Forums makes it easy to tap into the Minted community, so you can develop as an artist. Below, we highlight just some of what's happening in the Forums this week.

• Polling Threads
  • Graduation Challenges
• Camp Minted - At Home
  • Upcoming Camp Minted session: Join us on Monday, November 22, at 10am PT for our next session. Register via Forums.
  • Watch the just-released recording of Minted artist Derek Overfield's Figure Drawing Camp Minted - At Home session. Watch Derek's session.
  • Minted artist Kristen Smith shared her favorite Procreate templates and brushes, plus top tips after her Camp Minted - At Home session on Wednesday.
• Connect
  • Connect with Minties on Instagram. Share your handle and find artists to follow in a follow thread started by Minted Artist Melissa Agular.
• Celebrate
  • We announced a flurry of Special Prize winners this week. Celebrate winning artists.
  • Minted 2020 commercials and catalog start this week. Minted artist Jessica Corllis shared a link to the new catalog and you can watch the TV ads in the Forums.
  • Madison from Minted's PR team shared our November Minted Artists in the Press roundup.

Files

Top-rated winners and Editors' Picks receive a request for final Adobe Illustrator files (fine art is accepted in other formats). Requests are typically sent within a week after each winners announcement, with the exception of Holiday challenges where requests are sent before winners are announced. This gives our Production team time to prepare the holiday assortment to launch before our big reveal in the fall. Below are final file submission deadlines. 

Custom Kids Art Challenge	All requests have been sent!    Files were due Wednesday, November 4.
Save the Date Challenge	A subset of winners have been sent early requests.*    Files were due Wednesday, November 4.
Minted x Pottery Barn Art   Challenge	All requests have been sent!    Files are due Tuesday, November 24.
Backpacks Challenge	All requests have been sent!    Files are due Tuesday, December 15.

Notes on File Requests:

• *[Updated 10/30] We sent requests for a subset of Save the Date Challenge winners on October 30, but plan to request the majority of designs when we announce Challenge winners. These early requests have a tighter file submission turnaround than usual, in order to launch a subset of our new assortment before Black Friday. If your submission is not requested early, you are still eligible for a win in this Challenge.
  
  

Launches

Below we've listed recent or upcoming launches of designs from Challenges. Keep in mind that late or incompletely submitted files, the need to acquire licenses for non-Minted fonts, investigation of clip art usage, and technical difficulties can cause delays in the launch of specific designs.

Pairs & Sets Art Challenge	Launched!
Holiday Designs	Launched!
Birth Announcements	In Progress (95% launched). Launching on a rolling    basis between late August and early to mid-November.
Custom Bags & Pouches	In Progress (90% launched). Launching on a rolling    basis between now and mid-November.
Photography	In Progress (77% launched). Launching on a rolling    basis between now and mid-November.
Photo Calendars	In Progress (98% launched). Launching on a rolling    basis between now and mid-November.
Custom & non-custom Puzzles	Launched! Designs in this assortment were sourced             from some of our recent Art Challenges and existing             work.    Marketing for this new product will begin soon.
Custom Kids and Teen Art	Pending.  Pottery Barn Kids picks: Launch to potterybarnkids.com in December Pottery Barn Teen picks: Launch to pbteen.com in December Minted picks: Launch to minted.com in 2021

Tech Updates & Payments Schedule

All payments are processed through Payoneer. Commission Payments are paid monthly — with the exception of some sales made through partners, which are paid quarterly. Prize payments are typically sent every two weeks, at the end of the week, for all files received and reviewed by our team before that date. 

Latest Round of Prize Payments Sent:

November 12

See our commission payment schedule here. 

2020 Holiday Launch:

• [New 11/23] When you select “Quick Look” for foil-pressed Holiday cards, images are currently broken. We are in the process of resolving this.
  

• [New 11/16] We are aware of a technical issue causing some designs to disappear from category pages. Our team is working to fix this issue as soon as possible.

• [New 10/30] We recently shared how we showcase the Holiday assortment on Minted.com and on category pages in this article by our Minted Holiday Merchants and Artist Relations team.

• [New 10/30] Samples are sent for eligible product kinds automatically. Verify your samples mailing address by navigating to your Artist Dashboard > My Profile > Edit Your Artist Profile > Mailing Info.

• [New 10/23] We are aware of a technical issue causing the original orientation of a card to get bumped off the category page when the alternate orientation of that design launches. Our team is working to fix this issue as soon as possible.

• [New 10/23] Our Merchandising team updates the arrangement of designs on our category pages on a regular basis. After a page is updated, designs may link to the wrong product page for a few minutes due to site caching. If your design links to the wrong product, please wait a few minutes and then refresh the page.

ShareASale:

• [New 10/30] We have received some questions about ShareASale links lately. We still recommend artists do not use shortened URLs and instead replace them with Text Links or Full custom URL Links. You can learn more here.

Art:

• [New 11/19] We're testing augmented reality for our art customers, so they can view art in their room using their phone. Learn more here.
• [New 10/21] Some projects are reverting to a "draft" state after files are uploaded, and the project becomes inaccessible. Our team is looking into this issue in order to resolve it.
• [New 8/28] We expect our new format, framed canvas, and new art sizes, 24x30 and 48x70, to be available for all eligible Fine Art and Children’s Art pieces by early next year.

Self-Launch:

• Stationery
  
  • "Unknown Error" - Make sure your design is using fonts from our Minted Font List. If you are not using any non-Minted fonts, but are still experiencing issues, please email [e-mail]
• Art
  • Launching and fixing any bugs related to winning pieces is priority over launching self launch work. Please email [e-mail] to let us know if your piece has not processed after an extended period of time so that we can help move it forward. 
• Fabric
  
  • [New 10/28] Self-launch fabric products are currently being blocked from launch by a data issue. While we don't currently have an estimate for a fix, we will continue to update this section as we receive new information from our team.

Office Hours

We host special office hours for specific topics here — for example, a chat specifically to answer holiday challenge questions. You can submit, even anonymously, ongoing feedback to Minted on our policies and processes for the broader team to our feedback form.