ComplexCon Brands to Watch: Sean Brown Envisioned Curves as a MoMA Design Store. Now He Says It's More Like IKEA.

Sean Brown's Curves is one of our “Brands to Watch” at ComplexCon 2021. We caught up with him to talk about how he wants to make his mark on interiors.

Nov 04, 2021
ComplexCon Brands to Watch Sean Brown Curves
Publicist

Image via Tyler Hayward

ComplexCon Brands to Watch Sean Brown Curves
Publicist

Image via Tyler Hayward

Sean Brown’s CD rugs gained traction online at the height of the pandemic. The Toronto native, who was busy creative directing for artists like Daniel Caesar before things shut down, had time to think and create––and the internet took to the CD rugs. But he’s since expanded, and he will be bringing some of the additional items he’s designed to this year’s ComplexCon in Long Beach as part of the “Brands to Watch” activation.

“We got way more ambitious a lot quicker,” says Brown, who initially envisioned his brand Curves to be like a MoMA Design Store but through his perspective. “I was still thinking small objects, where it’s like now, nah, let’s do mirrors and let’s find a way to do chairs and let’s explore shelving and like, you know, bigger stuff. Like, let’s make the thing super robust. I think it’s probably more like IKEA now.”

ComplexCon Brands to Watch Sean Brown Curves
Image via Tyler Hayward

For ComplexCon, the Curves booth will bring shoppers into a home. The booth will be covered in a vinyl fisheye photo that wraps around the panels and it will feature a QR code that will allow shoppers to purchase bigger items from Curves’ latest catalog, which will drop the week of ComplexCon, that can be shipped directly to their home. But Brown will have other smaller items on hand that people can purchase, including bubble sleeves for hard drives, slim gas lighters, dry flower bouquets, Ascension fragrance oil, and incense. 

Brown, whose products are now being carried at retailers including Selfridges, SSENSE, and Boon the Shop, says he’s hoping to create contrast on the floor, which will mostly be dedicated to sneakers and streetwear.

“This isn’t a furniture trade show, like what you would see at Art Basel or Design Miami, and that’s what’s so interesting,” says Brown. “I know everyone is going to be doing like, super crazy booths, and for us, especially coming from a whole other country, it’s like keeping it super simple and giving you a gateway into the online world we’ve created, you know?”

ComplexCon Brands to Watch Sean Brown Curves
Image via Tyler Hayward

Brown has plans to further expand this world. Aside from creating more furniture, including the Archway Chairs that are inspired by African birthing chairs, along with candles, mugs, and mirrors that mimic puddles, Brown, a magazine collector, wants to document more spaces with Curvature, a forthcoming print publication highlighting interior design that he hopes to launch early next year. 

“Architectural Digest wasn’t meant for us per se,” says Brown, who remembers walking into a bookstore to look at magazines for interior design and not finding anything that spoke to him. “Like the flavor that we come with, you’ll walk into a house that looks like it could be in an upscale neighborhood and you are going to see a Foxy Brown rug at the door, you know. That kind of energy is needed and it doesn’t exist.

ComplexCon Brands to Watch Sean Brown Curves
Image via Tyler Hayward

In the meantime, Brown continues to create his own world with his products and collaborate with other brands—he’ll be producing lighting with a company based in Canada soon—while maintaining his artistic integrity.

“I think it’s just about being believable,” says Brown when asked why he thinks people have gravitated toward his designs. “I think people believe what we’re saying. But there’s a nuance that resonates with many different kinds of people who connect with where all this kind of stuff is coming from and I’m just glad that we were able to expand. It started with like, culture, and the culture is always still going to be a heavy part of the design and the foundation, but now like, we are able to experiment and do different things.”

ComplexCon takes place from Nov. 6 to Nov. 7. Sign up for more info and access at complexcon.com

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