Fox Browne Creative X Evolution Product for the &Beyond Suyian Lodge
Exploring the creative collaboration behind the &Beyond Suyian Lodge in Laikipia, Kenya.
For over a decade, Evolution Product has worked alongside Fox Browne Creative, a partnership built on respect for narrative-led design.
“The Fox Browne team has been an absolute joy to work with,” Amanda shares. “Every brief is deeply researched and clearly defined. Within that structure, we’re given the space to add our own creative layers.”
When Kate Goosen approached Evolution about &Beyond Suyian Lodge in Laikipia, the story was already compelling: the elusive black leopard, the wild dogs, the Samburu’s distinctive adornment, and the elemental landscape.
“We loved expanding on their vision,” Amanda reflects. “The ‘texture on texture’ brief allowed us to explore hand-dye techniques and develop textiles that quietly support the architecture and interiors.”
Having collaborated for many years, there is now an intuitive understanding between the teams, one that allows each project to feel distinct and deeply connected to place.
Below, Kate Goosen of Fox Browne Creative shares more about the design process behind &Beyond Suyian Lodge.
You’ve collaborated with Evolution Product for over a decade. How did this partnership begin, and what has made it such a lasting creative relationship?
Amanda’s never-ending creative mind, no matter where our work takes us, FoxBrowne have a story to tell, and Amanda takes the narrative and turns it into patterns and textures that tell a beautiful story with the rest of the interiors.
From your perspective, what makes Evolution’s approach to storytelling through textiles distinctive?
Evolution goes above and beyond, sourcing in South Africa’s oldest libraries, finding actual flora on site and translating them into something simplistic, yet stylish and rich.
How did the opportunity to collaborate on the &Beyond Suyian Lodge project come about, and what drew you to it?
Suyian followed the ‘less is more’ aesthetic on the softs, and knowing Amanda and her team's ability to take a pattern such as the Samburu face painting and adornment of jewels, and turn it into something unique, was exactly what the spaces needed. Simplistic, yet culturally relevant textiles.
The brief was “texture on texture, tone on tone.” Suyian called for an atmosphere that felt tactile and grounded. What inspired this direction?
The landscape of Laikipia, the Samburu rock art and rock formations of the area. The area is incredibly culturally rich and inspiring.
The palette centred around black, stone, and antique rust, subtle, natural tones. How did you use colour and texture to evoke the surrounding landscape?
The black, mustard and Cream coats of the wild dog integrated perfectly with the stone and rust colours of the Samburu rock art in the area, and the infamous rock formations in Laikipia - fauna and flora came together to create the lines of the architecture, and the interiors filled in these vast curved, textures walls, with layers of locally curated furniture and custom made, texture rich textiles.
Evolution took inspiration from local beadwork and traditional adornments of the region. How did these cultural references influence your design process?
Our designs always have a sense of place. This brings warmth and familiarity to a space; the Samburu wedding skirts, face painting and beadwork are all beautiful, culturally rich links to the area that we thread into the design to create a unique experience for guests that was rooted in Samburu culture.
