Posted by sabine7
Interview | 19 Jul 07 | Comments (2)
Brooklyn’s Brave Space Design (Jesse James Arnold, Sam Kragiel, Nikki Frazier, Derek Bruno, & Joshua Edwards) has a line of elegant hollow furniture that offers clean lines and sneaky storage by presenting this hollow aspect that encourages users to stow away the disorder. We like the idea of hiding vice under all that rapidly renewable bamboo.
Hollow Coffee Table
Did you set out to include the hollow feature or is that something that came about during one of those eureka moments?
The Hollow Line came from pulling storage pockets out of the internal structure of the piece (thru-spaces). We were working on this folded logic where the material would visually wrap around the edges in the designs and we ended up combining the two ideas. It's functional because it's hollow, but it's also very necessary for the structure of these designs. If you took the hollow element out of any of the pieces, the furniture wouldn't work.
Hollow Table & End Table
Likewise the coat rack – was someone playing with a leftover piece of wood when the mountain range jumped out?
We began tossing around some smaller product design ideas and at the same time were working on our Hollow Dining Chair, where we cut into the bamboo material to reveal the cross-direction in the grain. We started expanding on carving out and showing the internal material. This led to a funny late-night discussion involving Bob Ross and using that reveal as snow-capped mountains on a mountain coat hook range. And then there was the Coat Range.
Coat Range
The world is already full of 'stuff' – as designers, why do you choose to create more?
We do think about that. It's a tough one ... probably the most eco-friendly thing we could do would be to not put one more thing out there. However, as designers it's what we do and we love it. It's also cool to think that you are giving people good options, purchasing products that can have a positive message. We'd rather make furniture for our own spaces that we know have been made with a conscious and will last. It benefits us in the shop as well, working with materials that aren't as harmful. It's a constant learning experience for us, resourcing material and learning more about good products offered in our industry.
Why do these guys get ANY press. It's so pedestrian and gives Brooklyn design a bad name...
Brave Space is Great! I ordered their hollow dining room set and it is simply beautiful. I got mine at Bobby Berk Home for 15% off which made it even better! haha. Use the coupon code "15off" in the shopping cart. I think it will apply to everything you order.
http://bravespacedesign.bobbyberkhome.com/