About Us

We are Kevin and Kristen Howdeshell, leaders of The Brave Union.  We are a husband and wife illustration team based in Kansas City that began collaborating 10+ years ago on our senior thesis stop-motion animation, “A Very Hairy Christmas.” (A werewolf Christmas story, of course).  Since then we’ve started a studio and taken on the freelance world of illustration working on projects for magazines, packaging, tshirts, musc album, educational, & our absolute love, children’s books.

Growing up, kid Kristen spent many hours drawing the stories in her head in order to share the stapled pages with her family. 

Meanwhile on the other side of Missouri, kid Kevin loved super heroes.  He drew entire comics in order to give life to the world he imagined. But mostly Wolverine ripoffs.

The love of telling stories, although with many varying methods, has never felt more important to our now grown-up hearts.  With three kids of our own, the tradition of the bedtime story, although in reality can be a bit hectic, has become absolutely important to our nightly routine.  It’s become a time of bonding, sharing, and affection.  

We additionally believe this time and the stories shared can be enjoyable for parents too.  For this, we hold a high value to craft in our imagery, and partner with authors who have meaningful stories to tell.

As a team, we want to now focus on creating products geared for the family, and invite others who share this value to journey with us. 

Join us!

Brave Union LLC

braveunionkc@gmail.com

(816)389-7825