In 1928, Roy Brown, a young artist with engineering skills, was working out of studio making a living as a commercial artist. During this time, he devised a plan to illustrate the various parts of a car using a method called an “exploded view”. This type of illustration would show an engine (for example) with all of the parts pulled away from each other, making it possible to precisely identify every component. Roy believed this would be useful in both catalogs for ordering parts and in service manuals for repairing vehicles.

Roy was acquainted with Henry Ford and approached him with the idea. Henry was impressed and asked Roy to create exploded-views illustrations for the entire Model A that Ford was currently building. That was the beginning of a long-standing relationship between Ford Motor Company and Brown Art.

80 years later, Brown Art is still a major supplier to Ford Motor Company, as well as many other companies, providing services such as graphic illustration, catalog creation, interactive web-based applications, database management services, photography, video production, and recruitment of on-site personnel.