MILAN.- From a reflection on humans to matter as meaning: the new Salone communication campaign explores the physical and symbolic origins of design, a visual narration made up of different perspectives, united by a common idea of transformation and genesis.
Following the 2025 human-centric campaign Thought for Humans devised by the sensitive, documentarist American photographer Bill Durgin, the Salone del Mobile.Milano is continuing its process of reflection on the meaning of design with A Matter of Salone, the communication campaign for the 2026 edition. While design was explored last year as a language in the service of people, the starting point for this year is even more original: matter. Matter that can be touched, read and interpreted. Matter that preserves memory while also concealing as-yet undiscovered potential.
The campaign 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. 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.
This ambivalence is what forms the basis for A Matter of Salone, a collective project by Motel409 involving six contemporary creative figures: the photographers Charles Negre, Eduard Sánchez Ribot and Alecio Ferrari, and the set designers Studio Végété, Laura Doardo and Stilema Studio. The project has generated a stratified system of images, built by several different hands, in which each intervention amplifies the common vision. The 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.
Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, had this to say: “What we were trying to achieve with A Matter of Salone was to put matter firmly back at the centre as the origin of design thinking. Living matter, that allows itself to be interrogated, transformed and navigated. This campaign is an invitation to see design not just as a result, but as a collective process, which takes shape in the dialogue between hands, knowledge and visions. This is how the Salone continues to narrate its own time: starting from what really matters.”
The campaign revolves around material objects, each of which represents a fundamental design principle. Stone represents origin, a symbol of simplicity devoid of frills; excavated, deconstructed, and covered, it becomes a challenging ground for new perceptions of solidity. 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. 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. Sponge, with its changing volumentry, speaks of reinvention: a changing material, allowing itself to be folded, compressed, and emerge from the shadows to become a visual icon.
As Federico Grassi, Creative Director of Motel409, says: “We asked ourselves what happens to matter when seen through the lens of design. This question informs A Matter of Salone: a work by several different hands, in which the energy of the materials blends with the vision, the gesture, the image. We didn't want to illustrate design, but to evoke it. To experience it visually and sensorially, letting the material itself tell the story - and the Salone was, as always, the space in which this transformation could take place.”
The narrative structure of the campaign has been devised as a three-act process. It begins with a close-up exploration of the material, in shots that reveal its skin, its texture, its essence. We then move on to the presentation of the objects in their archetypal, essential form. Finally, the material allows itself to be subjected to the human gesture: to be touched, sculpted and altered, in a visual sequence that culminates in hands, tools and materials that come together and dialogue. The result is a visual and symbolic crescendo, culminating in the revelation of the finished artefact: objects that carry with them not only function and form, but also memory, tension, vision.
During the creative process, the photographer Charles Negre summarised the heart of the campaign with an expression that powerfully embodies its spirit: “Every material has its own energy, and all we need to do is to know how to channel this energy, through images, in order to get through to the public. We should never lose sight of emotion, otherwise it all becomes pointless.” Emotion that shines through each and every campaign frame, designed not just to be seen, but also to be felt.
A Matter of Salone is a great deal more than just a visual project. It is an act of listening and translation. An invitation to see design not just as a discipline, but as an embodied thought, capable of criss- crossing materials and meanings, of restoring depth to the act of designing. Here matter is no longer just a resource or a surface: it is a voice, a story, a horizon to be imagined together.
