Stone-Ideas.com 
“A Matter of Salone“ is the new motto of the Salone del Mobile.Milan’s communication campaign for 2026. The initiative is taking shape around an essential question: what meaning can design take on today? “The answer, both visual and conceptual, has its roots in matter, understood not only as a physical substance, but as an origin, a memory, a possibility to be activated,“ the organizers write in a press release. “It is no longer just a question of form or function: it is a process by which what is tangible is transformed into value. Matter, in fact, is matter, but also what matters, what generates meaning.“
By this, the world’s leading fair for furniture and product design in Milan, Italy, is, in the 64th edition, “continuing its process of reflection on the meaning of design,“ as said in the press release.
The pictures for the 2026 campaign revolve around material objects, each of which represents a fundamental design principle:
* The petal embodies the sensuality of matter, enhanced by techniques such as laser cutting and ink dye, which highlight the most cutting-edge possibilities of material innovation.
* Sponge, with its changing volumetry, speaks for reinvention: a changing material, allowing itself to be folded, compressed, and emerge from the shadows to become a visual icon.
* Stone represents origin, a symbol of simplicity devoid of frills; excavated, deconstructed, and covered, it becomes a challenging ground for new perceptions of solidity.
* Wood, a living material, tells the story of function: it is a sign of continuity between man, nature and construction, revealing its expressive potential through drilling, joints and sculptures.
The new campaign was created in a collective project by Motel409, specialized in communication and accessory design for the fashion industry and founded in Milan in 2016. Six contemporary creatives involved in the project: the photographers Charles Negre, Eduard Sánchez Ribot and Alecio Ferrari, and the set designers Studio Végété, Laura Doardo and Stilema Studio.
Their approach was deliberately multidisciplinary, in a bid to convey the complexity of the initial idea through a language made up of matter, light, gesture and transformation. “The result is imagery that channels both concreteness and abstraction, a visual composition capable of evoking as well as explaining, deeply connected to the culture of design,“ according to the fair.
In contrast to the new campaign, the 2025 initiative was human-centric and titled “Thought for Humans“. It had been devised by the documentarian American photographer Bill Durgin.
Source: Salone del Mobile.Milan
Interview with Bill Durgin, author of the Salone 2025 communication campaign