Dizaina Studija. Telpa Forma Laiks

Nice Place is both the name of the company and a slogan which Zane and Valts Ernštreits have chosen for their line of souvenirs. This year they have begun a collaborative partnership with the National History Museum of Latvia and have developed two ranges of souvenirs: ‘Latvian Treasures’ and ‘From Castle to Castle’. Over a period of four years they have also managed to register their own trademark, and set up and maintain their own small shop in Laipu Street, which they closed after a year of trading. Nice Place postcards are printed on recycled paper from the Līgatne paper mill, and they are for sale not just in the traditional souvenir shops in the Old Town, but also, for example, in the Satori bookshop. They are interesting for their method of presenting national symbols, which is atypical for classic souvenirs.

In the following conversation about Latvia’s image we talk with Zane Ernštreite, founder and designer of the company. Zane gained her professional qualifications in the Department of Graphic Art at the Art Academy of Latvia, and has won recognition a number of times in the ‘Zelta ābele’ competition, for her design of books published by Neputns.

Zane Ernštreite: I have heard the opinion that with the slogan “Latvia. Nice Place” we have done that which the Latvian Institute has not been able to do in twenty years’ time. This is not my opinion; it has been said by other people. Now “Best enjoyed slowly” has been chosen as the official advertising slogan for the image of Latvia, before that, it was the motto “The land that sings”, and so on. How many countries have you visited, because you noticed the country’s advertisement? I think that first we have to create a place to which people want to return, about which they would like to pass on the message: “I was in Riga! It was great!” At Nice Place, we not only wanted to sell the products, but we also wanted to sell them beautifully. When a customer came into the Nice Place shop on Laipu Street and found out that I was both the owner and designer, the conversation turned into something completely different. During the year spent in the shop, we gained a lot of feedback. You don’t always need to introduce yourself, so sometimes, smiling to myself, I listened to people’s opinions as though I were a salesgirl. People have the tendency to express their thoughts aloud, and often they don’t even regard the shop assistant as a person, and they speak in their presence as if they were alone. Even in a small space. This is so moving! (laughs). We tried to create a stimulating environment at Laipu Street, and to organise a street party, but we lacked the strength to fight against the various restrictions. If you don’t own the property yourself, retail is a costly business in Latvia. There are many streets in the Old Town, although only actually five are profitable: Vaļņu, Kaļķu, Šķūņu, Audēju and Tirgoņu Streets. Riga is not huge: many places are empty, shabby and quiet, even in the Old Town, and it is a huge and unexplored territory. For example, in Prague there are small shops next to each other, small galleries in a row. Riga’s Old Town is full of spaces with a floor space of two or three hundred square metres, which no one can afford to rent or to fill. Laipu Street is invisible, one end is masked by summer cafes, and looking down from the other end, it is a small street with unrenovated buildings, which you have no desire to enter. I think that the Old Town would be a lot more attractive if there were ten times more artists’ workshops and small galleries. In Laipu Street the girls are making jewellery in the Stikla galerija; Goča is polishing bronze figurines in his studio; another artist is sketching something, someone else is making something, and no one is bored. It is not a big thing to suggest, nor is it really complicated to implement, for example, you could establish a “rental ceiling” or find another solution, but – the Old Town is empty! I truly wish Riga were a nice place, but often I realise that it actually isn’t.

Anda Boluža: Isn’t it hard to work under these kinds of conditions?

Zane Ernštreite: One thing is what I see, and that is life’s reality, another thing is what I believe in, and that is my idealistic vision. It would be silly to express this feeling of emptiness through the design of things... Riga is a potentially lovely place, and we are trying to emphasise this, although currently the story that people take back home with them, unfortunately, is not lovely. We wish that this story were different, and that when describing Riga, people would use this simple and simultaneously broad term – so nice! We have thought of a series of postcards of a social nature, and have made the “crisis shirt”, which pictures Milda of the Freedom Monument flying away, with the slogan “Latvia. Nice place?”, however we hope that this is the only time that we will put a question mark at the end of this motto. Of course, not everyone likes my drawings, which include Milda flying with balloons or holding flowers in her hands, rather than the three stars, but I think that symbols should not be placed on pedestals and that one does not have to walk past them with one’s head bent in a reverent bow.
There are people who like souvenirs with national symbols; therefore I have adapted them and used them in Nice Place designs. Looking from an artist’s viewpoint, Latvia’s red-white-red flag is boring, and on a colour palette its colours cannot be found easily: they are difficult to define and therefore they are difficult to use. The national coat of arms is also incredibly complicated – with a griffin, lion, oak wreaths and many other details. For the motif of the flag to be made graphically interesting on the postcard, we have embellished the bands of red with the name of the nation in different languages. However, we have been lucky with the shape of the country – I think that the silhouette of Latvia is very easily recognised. We are trying to create designs attractive not only to tourists, but also to patriotically minded individuals. We do not write the name of the country in large letters on shirts, instead we create different associations with Latvia in the drawing. The aim of Nice Place is to create quality, but not exclusive products. The prices are low, because I want people to buy these things. I can’t manufacture them, sit at home and look at them. We have decided to make things that we ourselves like, irrespective of the middle-of-the-road demand for simpler and easily understood works. I don’t think our products are difficult to understand, although they are accompanied by stories which are not that simple, so we try to tell them in a way that people would want to hear more and more. For example, we have reproduced eight religious symbols on a card with the title “All together”. Various religious communities exist in Latvia. There are Catholics, Lutherans, Buddhists, Muslims, Russian Orthodox believers, Hindus, Dievturi (followers of the Latvian pagan religion) and Jews. Society in Latvia is very heterogeneous, and this cultural diversity, which has been formed over centuries, should be used as an advantage, rather than trying with all our might to force some kind of absolute sense of Latvianness. Latvian culture has been shaped and its language has been enriched also by the Livs and Latgalians; therefore we have made shirts with the slogans Latgolys republika and Līvõ republik. I tend to laugh at myself – my ancestors were pure Latvians for the last three generations! That really is a rarity! Valts (Zane Ernštreite’s husband – ed.) is half Liv; he is one of those who knows the Liv language. We have made postcards on which the alphabets of the three local languages are written – Liv, Latvian and Latgalian. For many people this might be a revelation, but if you want to show Latvia in visual terms, if you want to make it visible, start to think about the differences that define the Latvian identity. This idea is also expressed by our respect for Latgale – me as a Latvian and Valts as a Liv – we bow down to our eastern region, which has always been undervalued. The series of postcards that is dedicated to Latvia’s regions and which, amongst other things, includes sketches, instead of standard photographs, include the symbols of each region. One buyer was confused when looking at them: “A crucifix for Latgale! How banal!” But symbols are banal. They are used, used and used again, until they become clichés. When you drive to the East and spot your first crucifix, you know for sure that you are in Latgale. It is true that there are also crucifixes in Alsunga, but the Catholic community of the Suiti is an exception. At one time I was carefully studying the 19th century folk costume of Latvia, and I located the characteristic skirt fragments for each region. When I met the specialists at the National History Museum of Latvia for the first time, I had taken these sketches with me. As I had studied the ethnographic material beforehand, I just had to pick the motifs with which to begin working. The day when we began to open the drawers full of mittens at the museum – that was really something! After getting a hold of aniline dyes, the Suiti, for example, began to dye yarn in bright red, purple, yellow and green colours! I thought – where are the people who ascribe those grey-brown earthy tones to Latvians? We don’t have an Eiffel tower like in Paris, a Charles Bridge like in Prague or flocks of sheep like in Ireland. Norway tends to be associated with trolls – that is a story that has developed over time, and no one is interested in how true it really is. Art Nouveau could characterise Riga, although not under any circumstances could it represent all of Latvia. I have planned to dedicate postcards to famous people who were born in Latvia, but who emigrated in later years – Mark Rothko, Gustavs Klucis, Sergei Eisenstein, Phillipe Halsman and others. This, possibly, will be one of the ironic series of postcards. Irony is also included in a postcard that is dedicated to Zemgale. We have decided that it would appeal to real Latvian patriots. If someone really loves Zemgale in November – this flat, flat place, then their love for Latvia, which has one of the largest amounts of downhill skiers in the world, is endless. This is the irony one can afford to express against oneself, while loving your country at the same time. You don’t make fun of it, but you are a bit ironic about it, in a loving way.