Miaiam Naficy founded Minted as an online design marketplace in 2007. The platform sources art from indie professionals by category (like fabric design, personal stationery design, art prints, greeting cards, etc.); site visitors vote on the submissions; and Minted makes and sells the winning designs sharing, sales revenue with the artist. In the beauty industry Naficy may be more well know for her time leading ecommerce for The Body Shop or for founding Eve.com in 1998, a site Wikipedia describes as the “first major online retailer of cosmetics.”
Commercial licensing
Wednesday, Minted launched its new licensing service for brands and retailers with 2 notable partners signing on to the service: Samsung and method. The foundation of Minted’s licensing concept is its unique design sourcing and rating strategy, which this week’s press release describes a “predictive analytics platform.” What Minted purports to be predicting is what designs will sell well.
Minted already sells direct-to-consumer in the same categories it solicits design in (fabric for home décor, wall art, stationary, etc.), and the company makes art and stationary for select retailers. Now, “with the launch of Minted Licensing, more than 200,000 competition-winning patterns and designs from Minted’s artist community will be applied to any product category imaginable - consumer staples, apparel, home goods, electronics, and more,” explains the press release.
Soap packaging
“method and Minted share a belief in the power of creativity through thoughtful design to bring people together,” says Connie Chen, VP of brand at method, in her remarks to the media.
“We partnered with Minted to realize this shared value, creating a beautiful collection of planet-friendly cleaning and personal-care products that highlight independent artists and support the greater creative community,” explains Chen.
The brand will feature Minted designs on its soap bottles in a limited edition, available online and in-store at Target as of this month. And new method soap fragrances have been blended to align with each design.
“The launch of Minted’s licensing business gives us the unique opportunity to power product design for top retailers and consumer brands,” Naficy tells the press “Minted’s crowdsourcing technology and predictive analytics allow our partners to meet consumers’ high bar for design. We are proud that companies we respect so much have chosen to join us to help fuel their differentiation and growth.”
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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.
