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[[caption-width-right:350:Late 90's SouthernRap in a single image]]
'''Pen & Pixel Graphics, Inc''' was a graphic design company based out of Houston, Texas, founded in 1992 by brothers Aaron and Shawn Brauch. The company quickly established itself as the go-to design house for many a SouthernRap artist looking for someone to create an album cover for them. By the time they closed in 2003, Pen & Pixel had served as the preferred design firm for both Cash Money Records and No Limit Records in the time period when the south was rising to the hip-hop mainstream, giving them a secure place in the history of the genre.
Pen & Pixel are best known for their immediately recognisable SignatureStyle: Exaggerated depictions of wealth and street life, overly-literal interpretations of any concept their client gave them, and a gaudy use of photoshop which frequently pushed all of those traits into MindScrew territory. Essentially, Pen & Pixel presented TheThemeParkVersion of hip-hop, which became incredibly influential as the genre drifted into the GlamRap era.
Though Pen & Pixel is now defunct, their work still has a strong following among hip-hop fans and artists for their surrealism, and for providing the aesthetic template for a key formative moment in rap music. Their look is frequently parodied and homaged, which was certainly helped by Pen & Pixel's self-awareness; even in their heyday they were happy to do some ParodyAssistance for clients who wanted to see how absurd their covers could be.
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!!Pen & Pixel provides examples of:
* BanOnPolitics: Overtly political themes were virtually the only thing off-limits to the company.
* BearyFriendly: Their [[https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4e5e16_d19eb0dde9ba434789e679f644247f09~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_960,h_960,al_c,q_85/4e5e16_d19eb0dde9ba434789e679f644247f09~mv2.jpg cover]] for Big Bear's ''Doin Thangs'', which is among their more infamous cover designs.
* ConspicuousConsumption: A major theme of their work is depicting rappers alongside extreme and almost fantastical levels of wealth.
* DrosteImage: Black Dave's ''[[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6a/a5/9b/6aa59bf979ed3e327c933f96a4b36afd.jpg Next Stop The Ghetto]]'' features the artist driving past a burning bus which features the album cover on its side.
* EverythingsSparklyWithJewelry: Any jewellery on a Pen & Pixel cover will have sparkles added to it more often than not.
* GISSyndrome: ''And how''. The Braunch brothers took many of the photographs they used themselves, but they weren't exactly subtle about how they would go about incorporating those photos into an image.
* GlamRap: Arguably the TropeMaker. Images of rappers surrounded by mountains of money and GemEncrusted luxuries certainly did a lot to help shape the popular image of rappers around the millenium.
* SouthernRap: They were a major player in helping to define the look of southern hip-hop as something unique and distinct from the then-dominant east and west coast regional scenes.
----
[[caption-width-right:350:Late 90's SouthernRap in a single image]]
'''Pen & Pixel Graphics, Inc''' was a graphic design company based out of Houston, Texas, founded in 1992 by brothers Aaron and Shawn Brauch. The company quickly established itself as the go-to design house for many a SouthernRap artist looking for someone to create an album cover for them. By the time they closed in 2003, Pen & Pixel had served as the preferred design firm for both Cash Money Records and No Limit Records in the time period when the south was rising to the hip-hop mainstream, giving them a secure place in the history of the genre.
Pen & Pixel are best known for their immediately recognisable SignatureStyle: Exaggerated depictions of wealth and street life, overly-literal interpretations of any concept their client gave them, and a gaudy use of photoshop which frequently pushed all of those traits into MindScrew territory. Essentially, Pen & Pixel presented TheThemeParkVersion of hip-hop, which became incredibly influential as the genre drifted into the GlamRap era.
Though Pen & Pixel is now defunct, their work still has a strong following among hip-hop fans and artists for their surrealism, and for providing the aesthetic template for a key formative moment in rap music. Their look is frequently parodied and homaged, which was certainly helped by Pen & Pixel's self-awareness; even in their heyday they were happy to do some ParodyAssistance for clients who wanted to see how absurd their covers could be.
----
!!Pen & Pixel provides examples of:
* BanOnPolitics: Overtly political themes were virtually the only thing off-limits to the company.
* BearyFriendly: Their [[https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4e5e16_d19eb0dde9ba434789e679f644247f09~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_960,h_960,al_c,q_85/4e5e16_d19eb0dde9ba434789e679f644247f09~mv2.jpg cover]] for Big Bear's ''Doin Thangs'', which is among their more infamous cover designs.
* ConspicuousConsumption: A major theme of their work is depicting rappers alongside extreme and almost fantastical levels of wealth.
* DrosteImage: Black Dave's ''[[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6a/a5/9b/6aa59bf979ed3e327c933f96a4b36afd.jpg Next Stop The Ghetto]]'' features the artist driving past a burning bus which features the album cover on its side.
* EverythingsSparklyWithJewelry: Any jewellery on a Pen & Pixel cover will have sparkles added to it more often than not.
* GISSyndrome: ''And how''. The Braunch brothers took many of the photographs they used themselves, but they weren't exactly subtle about how they would go about incorporating those photos into an image.
* GlamRap: Arguably the TropeMaker. Images of rappers surrounded by mountains of money and GemEncrusted luxuries certainly did a lot to help shape the popular image of rappers around the millenium.
* SouthernRap: They were a major player in helping to define the look of southern hip-hop as something unique and distinct from the then-dominant east and west coast regional scenes.
----
