The Parade of Winter Guardians
Services
Photography
Packaging design
Illustration
Creative direction
Video & motion design
Product design
Client
Ausme
Year
2025
AWARDS
Finalist
LATVIAN DESIGN AWARDS 2025
Info
Our first collection of interior objects, created together with metal artist Katrīna Vītola, draws on the ancient Latvian tradition of winter masking and the symbolism of the winter solstice.
The collection brings these ancestral figures into the present as a series of handcrafted miniature sculptures – guardians for the darkest time of the year. Inspired by folklore, mythology and the cycles of nature, each character carries its own symbolism and story, transforming an ancient protective ritual into a contemporary object.
Made by hand from brass and nickel silver, the collection consists of six sculptural figures and a kinetic mobile that brings the Winter Guardians together in a moving composition. More than decorative objects, they are imagined as small reminders of connection – to those who came before us, to nature, and to the light that returns after darkness.
The Guardians
The Little Skyseed
Moonbeam
Parted from the belly of the Moon, the little Moonbeam merrily performed a few spins in the air, shining bright against the bosom of the dark winter sky.
The eye of the frozen winter lake opened just in time to capture his little light.
The Guardian of Light
Solstice Goat
Having circled above the forest a couple of times, the Goat finally spotted the Wolf.
The longer she looked into the wolf’s eyes, the more brightly she began to glow. Until her horns started to shimmer with gold and silver.
And with that, the Goat started to move towards the Wolf.
The Night’s Silent Watcher
Solstice Wolf
The deeper the night stretched, the larger the Wolf’s shadow grew. Soon, the shadow had become so vast that it enveloped the forests, the hills, and the people.
With a corner of his eye, he then caught a glimmer of something right above the forest — the goat’s shining horns.
And he started to walk towards the light.
The Dance of Day and Night
Circle of Time
They grow into one another.
And yet, they never meet. People say that once they were lovers who angered the Father of the Heavens, and he separated them, and now only shadows linger between them.
And so it is with us too — we ease from day into night, from darkness into light.
The Wishbearer of the Wild Seas
Golden Trout
Many moons ago, people told tales of a Golden Trout, her fins shining as bright as the sun. She swam through open waters — wild and untamed, as the sea itself.
Only the most clever and swift of fishers could ever hope to catch her.
And whoever did — their every wish would come true.
The One Who Holds the Sun
Giant
On the back of a Giant, a mountain had grown.
On the mountain grew trees, sang birds and foxes made their dens. And there was someone else that Giant’s mountain was responsible for — on this mountain, the Sun climbed in the mornings and then again made her way down in the evenings.
And the Giant held his breath, so important this job felt to him.
