 After graduating from high school in 1960 Brown attended David Lipscomb College in Nashville, TN, where he briefly pursued his interest in entering the ministry.In the fall of 1962 Brown moved to Chicago where he took classes at the American Academy of Art before enrolling at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).His first experience at SAIC was brief, and in 1963 he returned to the American Academy of Art, where he completed a commercial design program in 1964.