Pirelli Sapsa was the foam rubber subsidiary of the Italian tire and rubber manufacturer Pirelli, active from the late 1920s through the late 20th century. The company produced latex foam mattresses, pillows and upholstery materials under the Pirelli brand, and its visual identity evolved through several distinct phases tied to the marketing of sleep and comfort.
Design and History
In 1967, graphic designer Salvatore Gregorietti created a trademark for Pirelli Sapsa while working at the Milan office of Unimark International, the multinational design firm founded in 1965 by Ralph Eckerstrom, James Fogelman, Wally Gutches, Larry Klein, Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda. Gregorietti, who had joined Unimark in 1965 after working as Massimo Vignelli’s first assistant, designed a mark described as a “schematic representation of a cat’s head surrounded by the letter ‘g’.” The design was created for products marketed under the phrase “la fabbrica del comfort” (“the comfort factory”), a slogan documented in Pirelli’s internal publication Fatti e notizie in June-July 1968. [1]
The cat-head trademark belonged to an intermediate phase of the brand’s visual history. In the 1950s, Pirelli Sapsa advertising used a poster-style illustration by Piero Ottinetti showing a man in a suit, tie and hat exclaiming “Dormirò meglio!” (“I’ll sleep better!”). In the 1970s, the cat was replaced by a “yawning man” figure created by Pirelli’s in-house agency Centro, which introduced the slogans “la firma del sonno” (“the signature of sleep”) and later “la forza del sonno” (“the power of sleep”) for the granRiposo mattress line. [1]
The company’s origins date to 1928, when Pirelli acquired Salpa, a factory in Sesto San Giovanni near Milan producing regenerated leather fiber. The subsidiary, renamed Sapsa (Società Anonima Prodotti Salpa e Affini), diversified by the late 1930s and developed foam rubber, a material made from emulsified pure latex. The foam rubber mattress line was marketed under the name granRiposo, promoted as “the new mattress for better rest.” [1]
Meaning and Symbolism
The cat imagery in Pirelli Sapsa’s visual identity was intended to evoke deep, serene rest. Advertising materials, including window stickers and posters, depicted a cat curled up in a sleeping position. The concentric and spiral curves of the imagery recalled both the natural posture of a sleeping animal and the motion of rolling up a mattress, symbolizing comfort, warmth, protection and care. [1]
Gregorietti’s 1967 cat-head trademark, with its clean geometric form, reflected his Swiss design training at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, characterized by the use of grids and rational, modernist forms. The mark was part of Unimark’s broader pragmatic and concise approach to corporate identity work. [1]
Gregorietti’s broader career included redesigning the logotypes of Max Meyer and Pirelli itself, as well as the coordinated image of San Paolo Bank. He left Unimark in 1989 to establish his own firm, Gregorietti Associati. [2]
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