Texas-based founder and editor Chris Brown has spent decades building Refueled into an independent magazine, creative agency and think tank, drawing from the cultural energy of the 1960s to create a publication built on community, heritage, authenticity and a lifelong belief in the power of the printed page.
Chris Brown made his first magazine when he was eight years old: sheets of typing paper, a vision shaped by the large-format photography of LIFE, the satirical wit of MAD, and the music, style and art of the world around him. Surrounded by limited media options, he found solace in magazines in a way he never found in television or radio.
“I dreamed more, adventured more, and was constantly curious,” he reflects.
That instinct has never left him.
Refueled, the magazine he founded and continues to lead, is the full expression of what that eight-year-old was reaching toward. Positioned as a magazine, creative agency and think tank simultaneously, it embodies his love for community, heritage and discovery. The people and subjects that fill its pages are those Brown feels a genuine obligation to share, drawn from a sustained fascination with the cultural energy of the 1960s and the way that era’s music, design and media continue to reverberate through contemporary life. From the beginning he saw issues of Refueled more as personal journals than as a conventional magazine, with the editor’s own curiosity and taste as the curatorial engine. True creativity, he believes, often emerges from the tension between professional ambition and personal life, and he leans into that tension rather than resolving it.
The work has extended well beyond the page. Brown has spoken at TEDx and HOW Design Live, sharing his experiences in independent publishing and design with aspiring creatives. He has appeared in the Netflix documentary Making of the American Man and contributed to the book Men and Style: Essays, Interviews and Considerations by David Coggins.
“I love having the honor of being able to share and inspire others through my experiences,” he says.
Mentorship and community engagement are as central to what Refueled does as the magazine itself.
In a media landscape increasingly shaped by social platforms and algorithmic distortion, Brown’s position is clear. Authenticity is not a strategy. It is the only thing that works. “Today’s audiences can quickly feel authenticity,” he says. His sensitivity to the world around him, an ability to find beauty and meaning in the mundane, has allowed him to build narratives that connect because they are genuinely felt. With new creative residencies and storytelling initiatives ahead, that commitment shows no sign of changing.
Chris Brown is the founder of Refueled Magazine, based in Texas.
Website: refueledmagazine.com Instagram: @refueled.magazine
Refueled Magazine, ongoing. Portrait: Steven Visneau.
People of Print Members
Chris Brown is a People of Print Member. Membership gives artists, designers and printmakers access to a growing community of creatives, opportunities to be featured across POP’s platforms, and a space to share work with an engaged, print-focused audience. Find out more at members.peopleofprint.com.
Want to know more about our membership? Give us an email at members@peopleofprint.com.
- Making Media an Art Form: Chris Brown’s Refueled Magazine - July 13, 2026
- Letterforms as Portraits: Kritika Dhariwal’s Type of ‘A’ Train - July 13, 2026
- Where Marker Pens Meet Pen Plotters: Daniel Savage’s ‘Something Savage’ - July 8, 2026
