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

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 1/19] The “Drawings” challenge title has been updated to include paintings and collages, which is more descriptive of what the challenge will include.
  
  
• A note on our art challenges: We recognize that it has been a long time since we had an art challenge open for submissions and wanted to get some art challenges on artists’ radar. We have been working closely with our art team to clarify their plans for the next few months. We are still working through contract details with West Elm and we hope to be able to post a final update as soon as we can.
  
  We had originally planned for Pairs and Sets to be the next fine art challenge to open for submissions, followed by the West Elm and Photography challenges. At this time, our art team wants to prioritize sourcing new photography pieces for our assortment, so we have moved the timeline of this challenge forward. We will accept diptych, triptych, and polyptych submissions to both upcoming art challenges, as well as single-piece submissions.
  
  We plan to share another update about our art challenges very soon. We will host a conference call with the art team once the year’s plan is solidified so they can share their thinking with you. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding! 

• Announced winners of our Class Dismissed Graduation Challenges! 🎓
• Announced winners of our Special People & Occasions Greeting Card Challenge! 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

• [1/10] February is on the calendar! 5 new challenges have been added: 
  • Everyday Greeting Card Challenge 
  • Partnership Baby and Kids Challenge
  • Holiday Patterns Challenge
  • Drawings Challenge
  • Photography Art Challenge
• Multicultural and Religious Wedding Invitations Challenge is now OPEN for submissions!
• Multicultural and Religious Wedding Invitation Challenge Kickoff Call will be held Wednesday, January 12, from 9:30 - 10:30 am PT. We look forward to seeing you there!
• Disney challenge process updates - click for details!
• Announcing winners this week for Specific Recipients GC Challenge + Graduation Challenge
• Pottery Barn picks for the Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen Challenge have been announced! The full announcement for the challenge, including Editors' Picks for minted.com, scores, and Top-Rated winners, will be announced soon. Stay tuned!
• Announced the Special Prize Winners of our Classroom Valentine's Card Challenge! 💌
• Announced the Special Prize Winners of our Photo Valentine's Card Challenge! 💌
  
  
• [1/3] Voting closes for Moms, Dads, and Grads this Thursday, 1/6!
• Announced Challenge winners for Ever After Wedding Invitation Challenge 👰
  
  
• [UPDATE 12/21] Art challenges have been removed from the calendar until we have clearer timelines. We recently posted a Forums update to provide more context on this delay. Once we have more information about next steps for Art Challenges, we will add expected timelines back to the challenge calendar.
  
  Art challenges that were removed:
  • Pottery Barn Kids x Pottery Barn Teen Art Challenge
  • West Elm Art Challenge
  • Pairs & Sets Art Challenge
    
    
• [12/20] January is here! 4 new Challenges have been added: Multicultural Wedding, Baby Shower, Birthday Everyday Greeting Card, Everyday Greeting Card. We're working on putting together our Art challenge calendar for 2022 and will publish updates in the new year.
  
  

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.

• [NEW 1/19] Please read this forum post if you are having issues with your Payoneer account
• College fund for Beth Schneider's children
• Engineering updates
  
  
• [1/10] Announced the Special Prize Winners of our Classroom Valentine's Card Challenge! 💌
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• Announced the Special Prize Winners of our Photo Valentine's Card Challenge! 💌
  
• [1/3] Announced winners for Ever After Wedding Invitation Challenge 👰
  
• Minted Artists in the Press roundup! Congratulations to the featured artists!
  
  
• [12/20] We’re committed to improving Artist Storefronts | Report issues or suggestions here!
• Announced the Special Prize Winners of our Holiday Greeting Cards Challenge!
• Bringing back Artist Meetups
• Important Font Update
  
  
• [12/13] We heard from some artists about a number of product quality and customer service issues, and have addressed your concerns in this Forums post.
• Click here for an update on our fabric goods inventory to gain insight into what's happening with our fabric assortment this holiday season.
• Announced winners of our First Comes Love Wedding Greeting Card Challenge! 👰
  
• Announcing the winners of our Feel The Love: Valentine’s Day Greeting Cards Challenge! 💌
• Announced the Special Prize Winners of our Foil-Pressed Save the Date Challenge ✨👰🤵📅
• Announced the Special Prize Winners of our Non-Foil Save the Date Challenge 👰🤵📅
• Ornament decorating contest winners have been announced! Congratulations to our winners!
  
  

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. 

Class Dismissed Graduation Challenges	File requests sent January 14! Files are due Tuesday, February 8.
Ever After Wedding Invitation Challenges	File requests sent December 29! Files are due Wednesday, January 26.
First Comes Love Wedding Greeting Card Challenge	File requests sent December 13! Files were due Tuesday, December 28.

Notes on File Requests:

• [NEW 1/14] File requests have been sent for the Class Dismissed Graduation Challenges! File requests for the Special People, Special Occasions Greeting Card Challenge will be sent next week.
•  

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.

Large Format Art	In Progress (94%)
Photo Valentines	COMPLETE!
Classroom Valentines	COMPLETE!
Valentines Greeting Cards	COMPLETE!
Wedding Greeting Cards	COMPLETE!
Wedding Invitations	In Progress

Notes on Launches:

• [12/3] Our Holiday Giftwrap & Patterns launch is complete! Save the Date + Photo Valentines are both in progress. Classroom Valentines are on track.

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:

January 18

• [12/3] We heard your feedback that our previous Special Prize payment structure could be confusing. We're excited to share that for Challenges going forward, all SP amounts will be listed in the Challenge brief as the final that will be paid out to the artist who receives the prize. 

See our commission payment schedule here. 

Known Holiday Bugs and Issues: Updated 12/3

We'll update this weekly during the holiday season for any widespread holiday bugs and issues. If you notice one of the issues below, our team is aware of the issue and working on a fix!

Tech Updates:

• [Updated 11/5] Storefront updates: Thanks to all artists who gave us feedback on common issues and frustrations in their Stores! We're excited to share that our engineering team has completed an update that removed duplicate products to show only the main product, and cleared out any retired designs that were still showing in stores. More details can be found in this Forums post!
  
  
• [10/22] Hidden design protection: We are thrilled to announce that we have launched improvements for when and how submissions will appear on the Minted site to better protect artists’ work. We appreciate the artists who surfaced this idea and Minted’s product and engineering teams for making it a reality! Learn more in our recent email here.
  
  

Self-Launch:

• Stationery & 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 been processed after an extended period of time so that we can help move it forward.  

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.