Sineo Gemignani
Sineo Gemignani (Livorno, 1917 - Empoli, 1973) trained as a painter at the Liceo Artistico Porta Romana in Florence, at a time when teaching was influenced by Fascist ideology. This context shaped the early phase of his career, during which he produced pro-regime propaganda works. After the war, he joined the Communist Party and adopted realism as a social language, marking a turning point in his artistic career. In his early years in Empoli, he depicted the everyday life of the Tuscan province and came into contact with several prominent local public figures.
Experimenting with various techniques, from painting to mosaics and furniture, he refined a modern, clear, elegant and direct style — almost advertising-like — with which he produced sketches of physical activities such as skating, skiing and dancing. Alongside painting, Gemignani was highly active in the field of visual communication. He designed posters for cultural and sporting events, often related to ceramics and glass, and curated numerous installations. He also created the first logos for several Empoli-based brands that would later become nationally recognized.
In 1959, he designed the first logo for Sammontana, a historic Italian company founded in Empoli, specialising in the production of ice cream. His design defined the brand’s visual identity for its first decade: a smug corsair, winking while enjoying an ice cream. During this period, two versions of the logo coexisted, sharing similar layouts but differing in subject matter, colour palette, and the type of ice cream shown. A few years later, the logo was replaced with a simplified version, laying the groundwork for the iconic “slurp” logo designed by Milton Glaser in 1981.
During the same years, Gemignani also collaborated with China Gambacciani, a historic Empoli liqueur founded in the 1930s as an anti-malarial remedy, later evolving into a digestive bitter. It became a local gem, appreciated even beyond Tuscany — reaching as far as the United States.
He designed the first official label for the product, including an illustration of the Gambacciani gnome, an idea proposed by Beatrice Cioni, wife of founder Otello Gambacciani. The gnome has remained virtually unchanged to this day, becoming the company’s enduring mascot and a key element of its visual identity. China Gambacciani is still the only product in the line to stand out for its graphic originality and instant recognisability, thanks also to its slogan: “The secret to staying healthy is China Gambacciani”.
In addition to the label, Gemignani created posters, playbills, and other promotional materials. He also decorated branded vehicles — including a Fiat 600 Giardiniera — used in promotional events and parades throughout Empoli’s streets, enhancing the brand’s visibility in the area.
In 1955, the Negro brothers founded Torrefazione Caffè Negro in Limite sull’Arno. Gemignani designed the logo and several illustrations that would define the brand’s visual identity for decades, particularly through packaging. The logo featured the face of a figure with typically African features; when turned upside down, it resembled a coffee cup.
The packaging also portrayed a Black woman standing on coffee sacks, holding a bean and a spear — an exoticised depiction referring to the product’s origin. The use of this imagery, linked to the family name Negro, inevitably evokes racial connotations. Such portrayals were common at the time, given the different perception of race and language in that era’s social context.
As discussed in Negripub. The Image of Blacks in Advertising edited by Raymond Bachollet, Black people were frequently portrayed in stereotypical ways: large mouths, swollen lips, smiling faces — with emphasis on exaggerated somatic features. The same tropes were often paired with labour-intensive or agricultural contexts, such as coffee or cocoa harvesting.
While in the case of Caffè Negro, the use of these images was not intended to be offensive, it ultimately reinforced a stereotyped narrative — a tendency not uncommon in mid-century advertising. In the early 2000s, in response to growing awareness around racial sensitivity, the brand’s visual identity was revised. The imagery was removed, leaving only the name of the company as the central element of communication.
Bibliography:
Marco Pierozzi, Sineo Gemignani. Pittore realista 1917–1973, Firenze, Edifir, 2020.
Silvia Cioni, Sìneo Gemignani. Della forza morale e del lavoro, Firenze, Edizioni Polistampa, 1995.
AA.VV., Sineo Gemignani. Catalogo della mostra (Empoli, 1995), Empoli, Centro Studi e Ricerche “S. Verdiani”, 1995.
Raymond Bachollet, Negripub. L’immagine dei neri nella pubblicità, Parigi, Éditions Autrement, 1993.
