How AI Helped Me Design a Stand for Salone del Mobile "Overnight"

A stand within a stand - PA - Isaloni 25

Designing a stand for the Salone del Mobile is always a challenge, but this year, it came with a twist. I’ve had a long and close relationship with Paulo Antunes, so I knew the brand well. But with a last-minute change in the creative direction and the fair just around the corner, we found ourselves in a tight spot: we had all products designed but no concept for the stand, no visuals, and a very real deadline.

Normally, this kind of timeline would be madness. But this year, AI made it easier.

With barely a night to spare, I turned to AI to help me move past the blank page. The AI used was chatgpt image generator, nothing fancy but allowed me to quickly explore multiple directions, test visual moods, and build a coherent story for the stand, all in just a few hours.

Chatgpt Image Generator : Prompts were the size of the stand, hermes style booth.

I went to sleep with drafts, and by morning, I had a set of 3D visuals inspired in the moods strong enough to present to the decision-makers. From there, the process moved fast. I came up with the idea of a stand within a stand. Like I mentioned before we didn’t have much time so the stand had to be thinked in a way that would be viable for the stand producer either, so the idea was to do something that they are used to but that at the same time is not so usual to see.

A stand within a stand

With the curatorial eye of Joana Astolfi, the new creative direction took the initial proposal and helped refine finishes and select key pieces that truly aligned with the updated brand vision. Just over a month before the fair opened its doors, the final stand was locked in, and the whole team was in mission mode. It is a reflection of the great people the brand has behind the stage and how they are used to solve big projects in record time that they pulled of this in this time frame.

This project was a true example of how AI can act as a creative partner when time is not on your side. It didn’t replace the human touch, far from it, I had to know what the brand wanted and needed, but it helped break the creative block and speed up decision-making at a critical moment.

And in the end? A stand that reflected both Paulo Antunes’ identity and its evolving creative vision within the new creative direction .