The holiday season is finally here. Growing up we never celebrated Christmas in a big way. My fondest memory of Christmas, however, was decorating our living room with the lovely cards my father would receive.
Sadly, as our lives become more digitized, handwritten cards are slowly dwindling, being replaced by virtual greetings. However, if you still desire to wish the old-school way, here is a company, which does some wonderful paper greetings for the holiday season.
Check out Minted’s range of holiday cards, which can be personalized with a family photograph, to add that extra warmth to each greeting. Sure to put a smile on the faces of family and friends who live far away, yet yearn to be close.
Besides the beautiful cards themselves, what I admire about Minted‘s online site is its interface. It is extremely user-friendly allowing you to customize each card by shape, colour and type of paper. Given the cost of single printing, one needs to order a minimum quantity of 25-30 pieces of a single design. A few designs allow you to order single pieces. And for many invitations, Minted allows you to order free samples, before you make an order.
Headquartered in San Francisco, USA, Minted was founded by Mariam Naficy and Melissa Kim (Stanford Business School graduates) in 2007. I love the business idea – drawing and collaborating talent from around the world (think crowdsourcing!). The online venture provides artists and designers a platform to showcase their work. Designers, nicknamed as ‘Minties’ typically submit their work through online competitions. The winners are allowed to sell their designs on Minted.
If you notice, each design is accompanied with a short biography of the designer who has designed the piece. The company is slowly using the talent to branch into other areas like wall art and party decor – perhaps items that will see higher traction in the future.
Seeing the promise in the business, Minted has managed to raise series D funding from Norwest Venture Partners. The other investor companies include Technology Crossover Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Menlo Ventures, IDG Ventures SF, Allen & Company and angel investors like Marissa Mayer (CEO, Yahoo), Jeremy Stoppelman (CEO, Yelp), and Julia Hartz (co-founder, Eventbrite).
Kudos to the company to bring forth so many talented designers in the limelight.
Note: Thank you Alex Hall for coordinating the feature, and providing me $75 dollars worth of Minted credit to experience the products.
{Photos taken from Minted’s website}
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