I’m katie minning, founder and designer/maker of minn.

a major part of the inspiration behind minn is the idea of nostalgia. nostalgia for me is found in the blue house in cincinnati where I spent my childhood and young adult years. the walls of that house and the items within it have embedded in me the ideal of happiness in simplicity. my memories of home have had such a positive impact on my life and have made me into the person I am today. my hope is that these memories can be shared through product so that others can be impacted in the same way.

one memory that often comes to mind is one about Dixie cups, those small paper cups with patterns usually printed on them. we had a ton of those for some reason and so my brother and I would take them, flip them over, and stack them into huge cylindrical towers. after spending hours carefully placing each cup, we usually ended up throwing some sort of action figure at it to see it crumble into a pile within a few seconds. I think I constantly reminisce on this memory because of the pure simplicity of it; that an object as simple as a cup could bring so much entertainment to us, and that what we did with those cups was so simple yet brought so much meaning and nostalgia to the memory.

the purpose of the minn brand is to continue the cycle, where a product is experienced, a memory is made, which creates inspiration for a new product to be experienced by someone new, to make new memories in a new home.

memories of home are powerful, they hold the ability to inspire us and bring us happiness. all we have to do is be reminded of them. physical objects that are connected to a space that holds a place in our hearts is one way of recalling these memories. by filling our homes with meaningful objects, it becomes a place that we want to spend time in. it becomes an extension of ourselves and creates links between products, experiences, and memories that then allow us to reminisce and be inspired.

all products are crafted by me in the minn shop located in good ole cincinnati, oh :)