The National Library of Latvia has asked me to create an animation to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the first written book in the Latvian language.
Client: National Library of Latvia
Animation director / Illustrator: Ella Mezule
Animator: Zigfrids Niklavics
Producer: Anete Krumina
To show the long and challenging journey of the written word, I chose to present its path metaphorically in a sequence of events over the past 500 years.
In exploring the origins of the first written word in the Latvian language, I consulted with historians and distilled the essence of their insights into a haiku-like narrative.
I was pleased to have a wonderful team for this project, with a fantastic producer, Anete, and animator Zigfrids.
The story begins with a couple in an exhibition hall, captivated by the depth of historical knowledge around them. It takes us back to when the written word was brought to Latvia from Germany, traveling by horse and ship. However, along the way, these written texts were destroyed by fire, preventing them from reaching their intended destination.
Although the written word was burned, it was not lost. It survived in the knowledge of priests familiar with the German language and script. These priests needed to transcribe church songs and, in doing so, attempted to translate the sounds of German letters into Latvian. They used the same German letters to write in Latvian, adapting the sounds to the local language.
This process led to a wide variety of different approaches for representing a single sound. Imagine someone from Sweden, who doesn’t know English, trying to write down English words based only on how they sound. A similar situation occurred with the Latvian language. Over time, however, these varied interpretations of language and symbols merged and evolved, eventually forming the standardized written Latvian language we know today.
Animation exhibited in Riga's public transport and parks
Storyboard
