Nawe is a term as Cuban as the enterprise of the same name, dedicated to design and woodcut prints to produce everyday articles, including clothing, decorative elements and household utensils.
Founded in 2019, the venture seeks to transmit knowledge about global as well as Cuban artworks and artists, and the heritage of wood engraving and its wide use in our country.
Currently, the shop-workshop is located on 51st Avenue between 58A and 58B streets, in the capital’s Playa municipality. With designs based on icons of the history of universal art and traditional patterns of different cultures, the team seeks not only to create eye-catching designs, but also to educate customers about the featured works and artists.
At the beginning, the venture represented a means for sisters and creators, Clara and Gabriela Valdés, to test themselves as professionals, following their graduation.
“Nawe educates and entertains”
People often question why more national art isn’t represented in the enterprise’s products, but Nawe has sought to cover the traditional ever since the conception of the brand.
“We don’t want to get bogged down in the classic image of our country; we are interested in incorporating global knowledge into a Cuban product. We are not denying the national and cultural scene, but we want to add and link that content to the history of universal art,” co-founder Gabriela Valdés explains.
The idea of creating products based on art icons stems from the printing technique used by the project itself, which encompasses a concept that emerges from the world of art rather than design. All this has become the inspiration to select very symbolic patterns within the world of engraving and to reinterpret them using this technique. Printing them on everyday articles gives them a new value and recontextualizes them.
Among the different products that the space manufactures are caps, pullovers, bags and cushions, which also have an exclusive design.
“We try to get the most out of the materials and we have taken advantage of the fabric trimmings to make smaller items such as cases. We have also made diaries in partnership with other enterprises related to sustainable production. We now have waist bags that also take advantage of fabric scraps, which is a practical product that has proved popular,” Clara adds.
The brand has recently presented its pieces on catwalks, incorporating a new challenge: the manufacture of garments.
“Many of our products are the result of partnerships with Cuban artists where we materialize their proposals and return them in new pieces. We would like to become an enterprise that helps to produce works by new artists and creators,” she notes.
For the Nawe team, the keys to success lie in constancy, perseverance and confidence, especially in a complex scenario like ours. “To be authentic, to create something new and different that adapts to the tastes and needs of the people who consume it.”
