Designer and curator Anete Krūmiņa specialises in exhibition and graphic design. For many years she had been responsible for the exhibitions at the National Library of Latvia, creating both the form and content, but now Anete has turned to new challenges, including book design. Three books designed by Anete have just been nominated for the book design award Zelta Ābele 2024. In the Nice Touch section, Anete talks about her favourite place to work.
«Usually I work from home, but a couple of times a week, when I don’t need paper samples or colour palettes, I go to the National Library of Latvia (NLL), which I use as a free co-working space. There are plenty of nooks and crannies at NLL where you can get comfortable and work on your computer in peace and quiet. My favourite is the pink sofa in the Art Reading Room.
In an environment where people around you are also working, it’s harder to slack off or fall into the black hole of the social media. Also, when ideas don’t come as quickly as you’d like, you can look in the shelves of the reading room and find something unexpected and inspiring.
I remember when an elderly researcher gave me a hard time about the typesetting of a book we were working on — it’s not how it’s supposed to be done! What a joy and surprise it was to see an almost identical typesetting in a 17th-century book. So not only are the NLL premises useful, but also the collection, which can be helpful in discussions with clients.»
Anete Krūmiņa graduated from the Department of Visual Communication and the Master of Curatorial Studies programme at the Art Academy of Latvia. From 2014, Anete worked as an exhibition designer at NLL, and from 2021 to 2023, she was the head of the NLL Exhibition Centre. Currently, Anete works independently — she designs for the literary magazine Strāva, books published by the magazine Punctum, and other publications. In parallel, Anete continues to design for exhibitions, collaborating with the NLL, the Pauls Stradiņs Museum of the History of Medicine, the Ola Foundation, etc.
Viedokļi