Valentina’s love and passion for nature started early in childhood growing up in the Italian countryside of Tuscany. As a child, she used to love sitting in her mother’s garden bathing in the warm sunlight while day dreaming of those magical places in nature. The garden was rich with fragrant blossoms of all kinds attracting the cutest little garden creatures. While sitting in the garden, Valentina had imagined a character who could take us to enchanting places. This character she named ‘Minu’, a tiny human like creature with big blue floral shaped eyes.

Nature inspired Valentina’s passion to study art and painting. Trained in the rich tradition of Italian art and design, Valentina creates her hand painted watercolors inspired by the botanical art of Leonardo Da Vinci and Botticelli. Working in the fashion and gift markets as a creative designer and product developer for twenty years alongside her childhood friend, Emanuela, these two visionary women finally decided to open their own design studio along the banks of the Arno River in Florence.

In 2016, they founded Yu.Me Design and Development. Yu.Me in Japanese means to dream and it was their dream to create their own lifestyle brand, Minu, tiny little wonder collections. Introduced into the world of licensing in 2020, Yu.Me brand is now licensed in North America, Mexico, South America and Europe. With three nature themed collections inspired by the pond, wildberry forest and blooms of love, their design philosophy of living in harmony with the planet delicately blends nature’s color palette into beautiful contemporary patterns and artworks that bring a freshness and vibrancy to the home.