Happy Long Weekend!  I am writing to you from Hawaii, where I have just had a lovely meetup with Minties Laura Hankins, Charis Derry, Melissa Rota, and Allison Richardson.  We toasted each other at Brasserie du Vin in Honolulu, and discussed ways in which the designers felt we could improve Minted.  Thank you, ladies, for a really nice afternoon!

On another note, we’ve finally finished our art selections at Minted, and we look forward to a launch by early April.  We’re thrilled to see the emergence of an entirely new category, which will evolve and grow to further and further heights as time passes.

We received over 1,600 submissions and set very loose guidelines as to the types of art we were looking for.  Here are Minted’s editorial team’s choices for the best art from the challenge.  One thing to note is that if you examine the rating distribution for each individual piece of art (located at the top right of each design rating page), you’ll find that votes seem to be distributed further from the mean than the average stationery submissions.  Put another way, people seem to agree more on their ratings of stationery designs and less on their ratings of art.  What constitutes “art”, it seems, is truly in the eye of the beholder.

So, Minted design community, thank you for bravely trying and succeeding in this new category at Minted, and take with a grain of salt that the picks below are simply Minted’s editorial team’s subjective selections.  We look forward to seeing in which new directions you lead us.

All the designs selected below, both winners and runners up, will be launched for sale at Minted.

Rule of Two Award for the best set of 2 art prints

Winner: glink glunk and e is for elephant by ERAY

Eric truly knocked it out of the park in our first art challenge. His color combinations are unexpected and amazing, and we love the way his sense of humor shines through in every piece. The cityscape in “Glink Glunk” complements the characters in “E is for Elephant” like a charm. We’d love to live in the quirky world he has imagined.

Runner Ups (clockwise from top left): “Jazz Duet #1” and “Jazz Duet #2 by Moglea | “Below Ravello” and “Ligurian Houses” by kelli hall | “Lots of Hearts” and “Woodgrain Hearts” by Max and Bunny | “Two Villages and the Little Bear” and “Restless” by Kayla King

Loft Living Award for the best art print suited to a modern, urban home

Winner: Metropolitan by Susan Asbill

Every time we visit New York City, we dream of setting up camp in a super chic loft. Susan channels loft dwellers perfectly with her geometric skyline and mod color blocks in “Metropolitan.” We love her sophisticated use of negative space.

Runner Ups (clockwise from top left): “Type Study: New York” by pottsdesign | “Chevy Chevron” by SimpleTe Design | “Highway Wildflowers” by kelli hall | “b&w ode 6” by koshi | “Rectangles” by carly reed

Avant-Garde Award for the best edgy or boundary pushing art print

Winner: quiet places by Annada Hypes

The truth is we hang things on our walls because they either consciously or subconsciously move us in some way. Annada Hypes has captured the wonder and awe that we all have towards that which is much bigger than ourselves. She couldn’t have picked a better saying—it’s a new one to us—and she couldn’t have paired it with a more perfectly executed, gentle giant.

Runner Ups (from left): “Deer Flirtation” by SimpleTe Design | “Goners” by Ryan De La Hoz | “Parceled-Out” by Jessica Kleinman

Best personalizable children’s art print

Winner: More than a village by Cadence Paige Design

Paige has taken a sweet, bucolic saying and image and made it both fresh and modern. We love her combination of bright and subdued colors that all really work together. While perfect as is, Paige has designed this so that family members or loved ones can each sign a leaf, thereby completing the village. We can’t imagine a cuter baby shower activity / souvenir for a mom-to-be.  Take note, designers who are entering the current children’s art challenge – we wanted to give you a sense here of the balance between whimsy and modernity that we are looking for in the children’s/nursery category.

Runner Ups: “Summer Picked Poppies” by kelli hall | “Family Circle” by Wondercloud Design | “A Family of Oranges” by Christine Loo | “Happiness is…” by ERAY

Best non-personalizable art print

Winner: bumble bee by ERAY

Inspired by Richard Diebenkorn, Eric has created his own piece of wonder-filled abstract art. We see an endless number of things happening in this collage of textures, some known like the school paper and book text, and some quite unknown. We see fish colliding, we see helicopters taking off, we see balancing birthday candles… but mostly we see unrelated shapes that combine to form something both extremely interesting and very complete.

Runner Ups: “Autumn” by Tin Ornament | “Ojo” by Maddy Nye | “Muted Bouquet” by Moglea | “Glink Glunk” by ERAY

Best art print using only black and white

Winner: constellation by annie clark

Fear, vastness, and emptiness have been taken out of the galaxy in this print, leaving sweetness and intimacy. The texture from the watercolor paper creating the background is beautiful and we love the brush stroke on the side, which suggests continuation.

Runner Ups: “Emerson Love” by Wondercloud Design | “Little Prince” by Linda and Harriett | “Change” by Sydney Newsom | “Woods” by j.bartyn design

Best hand-illustration or painting to be made into a print

Winner: stargazers by Maria Gromek

These girls may be the two very sweetest in the whole world. Maria has such command over textures and details. We love the lined wall, the cross-hatched bench, the checkered skirt, the striped scarves and the dimples in the sky. Wouldn’t every mother hope her daughters were just like this? Perhaps looking at life from a different angle and maybe one prefers books and the other animals, but still delighting to be in one another’s company?  A story is waiting to be written around this picture.

Runner Ups (clockwise from top left): “Friendly Forest” by Wondercloud Design | “Lucky Girl” by krista messer | “Love Birds + 1” by rene mijares | “Treetop” by Unless Someone Like You | “Map of Paris” by angel b lee | “Longing for Sutro” by Wilka Design

Best typography-based art print

Winner: heaven by j. bartyn design

Now this is practically our company motto. We can barely resist printing it a million times and tacking it up everywhere. With her perfectly justified choice of typeface, Cambria has illustrated her point brilliantly. And we love how the cold, hard truth is the small afterthought at the bottom.

Runner Ups: “God is Love” by VOSS | “Little Prince” by Linda and Harriett

Best art print using only black, white, and one other color

Winner: You and Me by rose eckford

Rose’s “You and Me” has a quirky personality that we love. The contrasting letter weights between “you” and “me” create a certain tension, while the organic shapes of the imperfect circle and the swirling ampersand add character. The de-saturated pink provides a modern, unusual pop of color that would jump off any wall.

Runner ups: “Love is in the Air!” by ERAY | “Stone” by annie clark | “City” by Todd Jones | “More than Coffee” by lehan paper design | “Jazz Duet #1″ by Moglea

Best personalizable nursery art print

Winner: raindrops keep falling by Stacey Meacham

Now this is personalized art at its pinnacle. With a lovely color palette and liberal use of white space, Stacey has made a truly lovely piece of nursery art. The idea of a new baby coming down from above in such a miraculous way is quite touching. The script of the child’s name with the birth date in a block below make the piece feel very complete.

Runner Ups (clockwise from left): “Quiet Places” by Annada Hypes | “Frolic” by nocciola design | “prairie tale” by Moglea | “Family Circle” by Wondercloud Design

Best personalizable wedding art print

Winner: Je t’aime by chocomocacino

Gerrie’s “je t’aime” is the very definition of ‘sweet simplicity.’ What better way to say ‘I love you’ than with this modern, yet pretty art print? We love the texture of the pink bubble; from the rounded shadows to the slightly heathered background, the print feels so inviting. And of course we’re suckers for a bit of romantic French.

Runner Ups: “Surname” by Yolanda Mariak Chendak | “Shot Through the Heart” by Anna Elder

Customer’s Choice Award

Winner: prairie tale by Moglea

While Meg Gleason’s design is not new to us (we’ve loved it since Meg first entered it as a baby shower invitation), we couldn’t be happier to see it as art print as it’s always been just that; a true piece of fine art. There just isn’t much one can’t not love about these whimsical little creatures and we all know how much little ones love animals. Meg has gone with a retro shade of green, which we feel makes the design slightly more edgy and art-like.

Find more of Mariam on her blog.

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