My name is Paul Browning. I am a designer and illustrator located in Kansas City. I graduated from the University of Kansas in 2006 with a degree in Printmaking. Since leaving the university, I have worked in a number of studios and with a host of freelance clients providing elegant, contemporary and lasting solutions for a wide variety of projects. I designed, developed and implemented this site to serve as a digital portfolio that showcases my work free in a clean and organized space. Please click a title below to start viewing my work. Thanks.
Branding and identity
In a partnership with designer, Sarah Ann Browning, I conceptualized, designed and executed a full branding package complete with real world applications for client review. I worked to establish a visual definition of Adept Solutions' business strategies with the, now in-production, identity seen below. In utilizing the interlocking rectangle symbol, this logo and identity conveys the ever-growing and increasingly connected profile of Adept Solutions.
Branding and identity
Empire Technology System, Inc provides freelance IT solutions for office environments. I conceptualized and designed the logo and application for business cards presented below to reference the rising sun as a symbol for Empire Technology System, Inc's fresh look at on-demand tech support and office networking solutions.
Branding and identity
BitBaker is a development studio for independently produced video games. The folks at BitBaker wanted the company's identity to emphasize their friendly and approachable games with a playful but clean visual presence. Below are the logo and its application for business cards I conceptualized and designed.
Branding and identity
Lcizzle's Hizzle provides gameplay videos of popular and newly released video games without journalistic commentary. This new take on the gaming review site lets the online community create their own review as users rate and comment on video game titles. The logo and advertisements I designed are rooted in the gritty and honest nature of Lcizzle's look at how games should be judged.
Branding and identity
Beer on the Rug Records is an independent music label. They release music from artists from various locals in the form of collectible cassettes and digital downloads. The brand and identity I designed for Beer on the Rug finds its influence from 1980s experimental synthesizer works and their accompanying artwork as well as the early 90s new age movement and the art world's current fixation with internet archaeology.
Tape design / layout for Beer on the Rug Records
Below is my layout and design for artists Napolian and Computer Dreams' split cassette tape release from Beer on the Rug Records. My design below is intended to reflect found-glamour and cut-and-paste stylings of these retro-futurist musicians.
Tape Design / layout for Beer on the Rug Records
Below is my layout and design for artist Midnight Television's cassette tape release from Beer on the Rug Records. The somber and minimal qualities of my artwork are meant to engross the viewer in a vision of a neon-dystopia in which channel surfing becomes the last refuge of the explorer.
Illustration / Design
CVLTS is an experimental music outfit. Their style is a bleak but undulating wall of thick noise marked with fleeting melodies that move in and out of existence effortlessly. The t-shirt design, tour posters and banner advertisements I created for CVLTS present a vision that is both cold and machine-like yet maintaining some elements of the ephemeral and organic. From my semi-cubist renderings to the digitally blurred and pixel-perfect half-tones my pieces strive to visually expand on CVLTS evocative soundscapes.
Illustration / Design
Bedside Manor was a series of DJ nights in Kansas City, MO featuring slow jams, soft funk, and experimental electronic music from the 1970s. The posters I designed to promote these events fed off the computer-generated visuals of the not-so-distant past and eye-popping color that stands out as decidedly modern while harkening back to the electric disco artworks of the 1970s.
Web Design / Development
Vahalla Studios LLC is a design studio and silkscreen press located in Kansas City, KS. Below are several screenshots of the press' website and store. The design was a collaboration between myself and owner, Dan Padavic, that employed tight design and high-class pinstriping to convey an extreme dedication to precision and excellence in printing while the exposed "stitching" leaves some evidence of the hand-made quality found in each garment or poster produced by the press. I coded the site itself in HTML/CSS and kept its contents up to date as company pricing changed and new store items were added.
Illustration
Laid out as flash cards and an educational poster this series of illustrations serves as my attempt to refine the simplistic visual alphabets that so quickly fall back on the same list of occupations and food items to convey their message. With my hand-drawn illustrations, this project presents clean and stylized depictions of its content to clearly and concisely deliver educational value.
Illustration
This project is a modernization on a classic logo for the university. My update includes subtle gradients, vector graphics and a slight variation on the standard type treatments employed at Columbia University.
Illustration
My editorial-style illustrations below depict the beastly butter bats and ghastly ghost toast. The concept rests between the world's new-found fear of processed ingredients and the caloric value of everyday food stuffs.
Illustration / Design
My promotional posters for Kansas City band Minden draw on the romantic sensibility of songwriter Casey Burge and the soft jams of his accompanying performers. Clean, modern and effective my designs showcase my illustrative skill while their use of color and negative space works to stand-out from the sea of flyers littering our public posting spaces.
Illustration / Design
I created this 2-color silkscreen poster on commission from the venue to promote Canadian musician Caribou's show in Lawrence, KS. The design reflects the introspective and abstract nature of the artist's music.
Illustration
This series of silkscreen posters are an homage to man's greatest passion: the drive to build everywhere. I employed a monchrome palette and geometric shapes to mimic the skylines and vistas of our concrete landscapes.
Illustration
I created these illustrations as promotional 1" buttons for Vahalla Studios LLC and later adapted them for use as embroidery patterns. These pieces use the likenesses of well-known celebrities to capture public attention and show some love for a few of the world's most famous personalities.
Illustration / Design
Below is mock-up of a 2-color silkscreened postcard I produced. The whimsical saying and simple illustration make for an attention-grabbing pair when found in one's mailbox.
Web Design / Development
The Centaur Reader webspace serves as my digital portfolio and art/news blog. I designed the portfolio site and its mobile counter-part and coded them in HTML and CSS as well as implementing some Javascript and PHP scripting to help smooth things out a bit. The blog portion of my site is a custom WordPress theme I built for myself using a mix of HTML, CSS, and PHP. The portfolio, mobile site and blog leave intentional negative spaces to let the content be the focus of the site free of distractingly over-worked design elements. Below are screenshots (clockwise starting with the top-left) of the portfolio, mobile site, and blog.
