To mark the launch of the Explorer collection join us on a journey to discover the inspiration behind our brand new scarves. Read on to learn about the origin of the Lost World and Zambezi designs, and remind yourself of how the classic Expedition came to life. Explore Emma's own fascinating points of reference, from old silent films, primary research from her travels and fantasy adventure stories aplenty...
The Explorer collection as a whole was largely inspired by the excitement and charm of Jules Verne's adventure stories, Emma's travels through Africa (which you can learn about here) and the beauty found when surrealism meets the natural world. As with all of our Inspiration series on the blog, when you see Emma's initial inspirations, it's not difficult to see how the design process begins...
As with our entire design catalogue, Emma's original illustrations are brimming with influences from both the natural world and a mysterious fantasy realm. From frozen magic lands to surreal safari scenes, the finished designs take you on an adventure through the world of EJS, where marching penguins, majestic spotted elephants and distant dinosaurs roam free...
The Lost World Design
The Lost World design features an enchanting scene of discovery, with a curious peacock-tailed zebra, winding foliage, towering mountains and a trio of mighty dinosaurs in the distance. Key influences lie in Jules Verne's adventure novels and its namesake, the 1925 silent film The Lost World. Complete with a colourful rainbow, erupting volcano and an enchanting waterfall reminiscent of the Victoria Falls, this is truly a lost world full of wonder. Pictured below is a selection of reference images which influenced the majestic design. It's full of magical imagery including film stills, animal illustrations, travel photographs, posters, vintage stamps as well as Emma's own images from her travels to Zimbabwe, Botswana and Victoria Falls...
The main inspiration of this scarf design came from Emma's trip to Zimbabwe and Botswana and the incredible experience she had while exploring. The creatures and landscapes of Africa provided the perfect starting point for the Lost World to be built upon.
A large portion of further inspiration was The Lost World, 1925, a silent film adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel of the same name. The story follows an expedition to the Amazon to uncover a rumour that dinosaurs are still roaming the jungle. Emma's original moodboards were full of surreal film stills featuring huge dinosaurs walking the earth, and mysterious, eerie film title scenes.
Not all of the inspiration for this design came the inhabitants of Earth...if you look closely you can see distant planets and space ships amongst a sea of twinkling stars. Emma's influences ranged to vintage images of UFO's and illustrations of rockets headed to the moon. Take a closer look at some of the key images that inspired the Lost World below, including some highlights from Emma's original moodboards...
The Expedition Design
The Expedition design is an older illustration of Emma's from 2014, which, due to popular demand, we decided to bring back this season to join our Explorer collection. The design is home to an impressive explorer's balloon watching a colony of penguins marching through the snow beneath a magical starry night sky. Discover some of Emma's original inspiration in the moodboard below...
The inspiration behind the design comes from a vast range of intrepid adventures, ranging from early human expeditions to the Polar regions to the march of the penguins. A visit to the Polar Museum in Cambridge inspired the explorer's balloon, which takes centre stage in the illustration. Symbolising human technology and exploration among a world of natural beauty, the balloon flies through a magical starry scene. Key elements from Emma's research include compasses, maps, co-ordinates and the breathtaking Antarctic landscape.
"The inspiration behind the design comes from a vast range of intrepid adventures."
The march of the penguins is an astonishing ritual carried out in the polar regions, which inspired the formation of the striding penguins in the Expedition design. The photographs below capture this incredible activity, shot by documentary photographer Sebastião Salgado. The images are taken from his series Genesis, which focusses on how his camera enabled the natural world to speak directly to him.
The Zambezi Design
The Zambezi design hosts a fantastical world of majestic, spotted elephants, leaping gazelles and soaring hornbills on a journey through a safari scene, with plenty of surreal EJS twists along the way. Like the Lost World design, it features beautiful finishing touches of shining stars, spinning planets and twisting foliage. Lose yourself in the beautiful references below, all of which played a part in inspiring this striking illustration...
The Zambezi was largely inspired by Emma's recent trip to Zimbabwe and Botswana. This African adventure played a huge role in the Zambezi influences; experiencing the sights, colours, creatures and sounds of the African landscape was the perfect primary research. Again, Jules Verne's adventure stories - and the charming book covers and illustrations that correlate to them - were key references throughout the design process. The beautiful reality of Emma's African exploration mixed with the surreal fantasy of Verne's tales created a magical contrast and the Zambezi design began to come to life.
"...experiencing the sights, colours, creatures and sounds of the African landscape was the perfect primary research."
Whether its the magnificent Lost World zebra, the marching Expedition penguins or the spotted Zambezi elephants, there's magical creatures to enjoy and enchanting adventures to embark on in the Explorer collection for everyone...
The Explorer collection is now available to shop on the online store - which EJS treasure will you choose?
If you're an Explorer lover then keep your eyes peeled, as these fantastical designs will be coming to a brand new cushion collection very soon...
