Minted spent two decades building an artist-led business. Now it's experimenting with letting AI in

Minted is developing a generative AI customization tool for stationery that will allow customers to swap a specific element of an existing design with something personal, such as a wedding venue, a pet, or a person. The tool aims to preserve the original artist’s style rather than replace the artwork entirely. The technology is not live yet and no launch date has been announced. Minted positions the approach as a way to expand customization while still delivering high-quality, human-created artwork. The company’s model relies on a large community of independent artists whose designs are selected through competitions and customer voting, supporting an artist-driven catalog.

"Over the past eight weeks, it has been quietly building an AI customization tool that will let customers swap a specific element of an existing design for something personal to them-a venue, a pet, a person-while preserving the original artist's style. The tool isn't live yet, and the company hasn't set a launch date. But it offers an early look at how artist-led businesses are trying to fold generative AI into their products without becoming the very thing their customers came to them to avoid."

""Our customers want high-quality, human-created artwork," says Minted CEO Melissa Kim. "And they want the ability to do more customization. This seems like a productive use of AI that will benefit the artist, since it will lead to more sales.""

"Minted launched in 2007 with a then-novel premise: rather than have a handful of in-house designers, it would crowdsource its catalog from a community of independent artists, then let consumers vote on which designs went into production. Today, that artist community numbers roughly 21,000 artists."

"Minted finds artists through design competitions-a holiday photo card challenge, a painting challenge, a save-the-date challenge-which happen dozens of times every y"

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