A piece of sage wisdom for everyone: Insure yourselves!
19 April 2019
Identity, history, vision, the communicative impact of the artistic expression and of the product: images become a symbol and a logo, an effective and recognisable representation of the company wherever it goes. The poster and the flier epitomise the primary promotional methods. Together with the aesthetic appeal of the images, they are able to not only provoke an interest in the product itself but also a wider interest in the social priorities and values that an insurance company drives: safeguarding people’s lives.
The first symbol of the INA was that of the plougher, as it combined the issues relating to the land, in an early 20th century world that was largelyrural, and the values of welfare, family, savings, the future and children’s education, and a trouble-free old age. There are recurring images of the plough, the compass, the ship’s wheel, the piggy bank, the hourglass and the cornucopia. Following that, with the outbreak of war, the symbols came to reflect a sense of national identity: the soldier, the flag, Dante Alighieri.
The artists who designed the fliers were also landscape artists and portrait painters who had graduated from the academies. Alongside famous names such as Tito Corbella, Plinio Codognato, Adolfo Busi, Andrea Petroni, Gorgone Tanozzi, Severo Pozzati, Marcello Dudovich, Leopoldo Metlicovitz, Gino Boccasile, Angelo Mercuri and Vito Maffi, in the fifties there were also two in-house graphic artists in the marketing department: Eugenio Bardzki and Italo Bergomas. In the years following the great post-war crisis, the Institute was able to employ a long-term vision in its attempts to encourage citizens to make insurance plans, despite the significant impoverishment of the premium portfolios.
Here is the universal message which was sent out to everyone in every part of the world, in the 1954 flier:
“Insure yourselves! Recommended in any language”.
With the word “insure yourselves” translated into a multitude of languages. The director general asked for it to be distributed far and wide, to all of their agencies and offices.
