A, B, C: three letters to put numbers into alphabetical order, to read between the figures and graphs about the culture and history of a company, narrating it not just for sector specialists, but also for the general public. This is the aim of the publishing project for the Pirelli 2011 annual report. An elephant frightened by a mouse seeks refuge on a tire; a man becomes a car; the P is extended, a reminder of the elasticity of rubber; the sole of a shoe is transformed into a Formula 1 racetrack. These are just a few of the 18 drawings, inspirted by Italian Futurism and Art Deco, found in the annual report for 2011. Images that interpret the characteristics of Pirelli: reliability, flexibility, speed, technology and innovation, just to name a few. To give form and visibility to these immaterial assets, Pirelli has chosen the creativity of a young talent, the Dutch illustrator
Stefan Glerum, and turned to four internationally renowned writers:
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Guillermo Martinez, William Least Heat-Moon and Javier Cercas. Besides the illustrations, Stefan Glerum has also created a font whose rounded forms play with the shape of tires, granting a strong graphic identity to certain parts of the text. To make the contents of the report easier to access and use, Pirelli has also created a free app for iPad – available at the App Store of Apple.
www.pirelli.com.