The fine folks at BRAVE SPACE DESIGN.
Sam Kragiel, Nikki Frazier, Jesse James Arnold, Derek Bruno

Introducing Entrepreneurs in Bushwick, by photographer Deidre Schoo, which will be featured once a week on BushwickBK.com. Deidre lives here in Bushwick and is currently working on a project about people who moved to the neighborhood to start or expand their businesses, seeking cheap rent — and ultimately found community. –Jeremy

Describe your business.
Brave Space Design is a Brooklyn-based furniture company producing modern high-end furnishings that are durable and environmentally sustainable.

How and when did your business start?
We officially started Brave Space in 2005, a couple years before that ideas were brewing and prototypes were being made. We showed our pieces at the Brooklyn Designs Show in 2005 and went legit. We had been designing furniture pieces that were very relevent to life in NY, with the small spaces that people were living in and also the combined live/work lifestyle that we were surrounded by. Modular pieces really made sense to us and so we developed some shelving systems that worked around that ability to configure to any size home or office. Many of our pieces have kind of a graphic sensibility, which comes from our various art backgrounds and the process we go through in designing the pieces.

When did you move your business to Bushwick? And what brought you out here?
We moved our shop to Bushwick in 2005. It was great; we moved out of a 10×10 basement workshop (dungeon) that Jesse was living above. It was really tight quarters down there which is probably another reason for designing with modularity in mind. That small basement was probably also what pushed us to learn more about sustainable materials. You’re breathing in a lot of toxins in a 10×10 space, so the more you cut down on those while manufacturing your products the better. It’s an added plus that by the time it gets to the customer you’re putting something positive out into the world.

Do you have any funny, quirky or weird stories about the neighborhood?
Well, Bushwick is still so industrial which makes for a good mix for us. Sometimes you get to see little stories happening in the neighborhood, like seeing a big mac trucker drive by as a prostitute is flashing him. But this taqueria down the street that runs out of their warehouse is the best we’ve ever tried and pulls the tortillas right off the assembly line when you order. That’s some Bushwick heaven for us.

If you have a new business in Bushwick and would like to be a part of this project please email Deidre.