The Browning Superposed:
John M. Browning's Last Legacy
Collector's Edition
book design
In 1996, the history of the Browning Company from 1926 to 1995 was told in great detail for the first time. Published in conjunction with Gordy & Sons Outfitters and designed in collaboration with Covey Rise, this Collector's Edition was created to tell the story of the Browning Superposed legacy anew.
legacy
I was invited into this project by the team at Covey Rise. We were charged with breathing new life into the story of The Browning Superposed, turning legacy into a tactile experience. This book, like the subject matter therein, is an heirloom. It tells a story that has impacted sporting families for generations, and is made to be passed on to the next. A hard, leather-bound cover and protective case are just the beginning of the great lengths taken to ensure that this book will tell of the Browning legacy for years to come.
craft
Craft is a key pillar of The Browning Superposed legacy. Naturally, we placed the highest standard of craft on the creation of this book. We carefully re-set each page of type into columns with lavish margins, maximizing readability and giving the text “room to breathe.” Thousands of images were scanned and retouched to overcome shortcomings of the now-dated printing practices found in the original book. Hundreds of gun images were separated from their backgrounds by hand to highlight the precise silhouette of each gun and create a consistent look, as shown below. Each copy has been assembled with high quality materials—American-tanned leather, heavy, matte-finish paper to reduce show-through, and a Smyth-Sewn binding to allow this 512-page book to lay flat on your coffee table.
innovation + Tradition
Holding innovation and tradition in harmony was critical in solving this problem. We were able to begin drawing out the tradition of The Browning Superposed with a quintessential traditional typeface, Hoefler Text. The physical makeup of the book is also heavily inspired by traditional bookmaking practices (satin bookmark, ridges in the spine, etc.) With this foundation, we were able to explore how innovation could take this book to the next level. This book contains over one hundred graphs, charts, and tables. Of course, none of this data was available to us in tidy excel sheets from the time of its original publication. We’ve come a long way in data representation since 1996! These tables and charts sort of became my pet project. Not only did we re-design them, we also revisited their clarity and how we might improve the delivery of the information being presented.
