Does Minted ever retire or discontinue designs?

Yes, we do periodically review our existing assortments to make sure we are keeping them fresh and new. This review usually happens around the time that we are preparing to launch new designs in a given category.

How does the retirement process work?

During the process, the team looks at past sales for each design and may decide to retire designs from our collection. When we retire a design, we will send you a notification via email.  

We review designs on a per-category basis, so it is possible that designs retired from one category still exist in another on the site. For example, keep in mind that Christmas Photo Cards are a different category from Holiday Photo Cards, so a retirement in one does not mean a retirement in both. We will always notify you by email before we retire any of your designs from the site.

Please note that when a standard (A7) size card is retired from Minted's assortment, we will automatically retire the petite, postcard, and grand formats, as well as any accessories in the same suite. 

Some non-foil designs stay live on site after being retired

For certain categories, we are able to keep non-foil designs available in your Artist Store when they are retired without any additional work needed from artists. Our goal is to provide an easier way for artists to continue to earn revenue on their retired designs. Customers will be able to shop these designs in Minted Artist Stores and find them via search, but they will not appear on Minted’s main shopping pages.

This is not available for all categories, so we'll let you know in your retirement email notification if a design is eligible to stay live on the site. There are a few additional criteria that must be met if a design is eligible to stay live on the site:

• This will only apply to non-foil designs in certain categories and their accessories. Foil-pressed, Gloss-Press, or letterpress designs are not eligible for this process.
  
• We do not have the capacity to resolve any technical issues on retired designs. If we notice any issues on a design, we will not keep that design available for sale to avoid a poor customer experience.
  
• Artists will not be able to edit or delete these retired designs through their Artist Stores, since this is an internal process. Artists will be able to arrange their placement in their Store like other designs. These designs may also not appear on artists' My Projects page.
  

How do rights work when a design or art print is retired?

Stationery: Minted holds an exclusive license to your Challenge-winning designs, which is maintained for 15 months after a design is fully retired (“fully retired” meaning the design is no longer sold on any products in the Minted assortment offered on Minted.com or through one of our partners). After the 15-month cool-off period, Minted’s license converts to non-exclusive, and you may use your retired designs as you wish. Minted’s non-exclusive license will retain the ability to repurpose and sell designs after retirement.

Art Print: Minted holds a perpetual exclusive license on your Challenge-winning artwork. However, when we retire your art pieces, Minted’s exclusive license converts to a non-exclusive license. The only exception is limited edition sizes and colorway combinations, which Minted must retain the rights to due to legal commitments to our customers. If you decide to sell your retired piece(s) elsewhere, you must not sell them in the sizes and colorway combinations that are exclusive to Minted.