As most of the normal world is still immersed in end of 2025 festivities, most of the design world has been looking at 2026 for a while. Publishing a magazine is a great way to be projected into the future, as we are constantly planning ahead: the next issue of Wallpaper*, the next launch to discover, the next design week to travel to.
So while we wait for 2026 to wow and enchant us, we asked five creatives to tell us what they expect for the year ahead, what they'd like to see in design, and what they look forward to discovering. Aniina Koivu, Max Radford, Hugo Macdonald, Annalisa Rosso and Jenny Nguyen all took to the challenge and responded to our invitation offering us insight into where the design world is (or should be) going. Their predictions look more to substance and less to aesthetics, as they expect 2026 to bring a more in-depth approach to the practice of design, how we conceive it, share it and connect with it.
Anniina Koivu
'Earlier this year, a researcher of happiness told me that happiness doesn't come from idealising the past, or obsessing about the future. Rather, happiness comes from being present in the now. If that’s true for design, then 2026 may be the year we change our attitude: less speculation, more relevance. Less styling, more substance. The most forward-thinking work will be the kind that makes our present genuinely better to live in.'
Anniina Koivu is an independent design curator and strategist. Among her most recent projects is an exhibition on Happiness and the knitwear label Koivu.
Max Radford
The Rhine by Night cabinet and chair by Ralph Parks, shown as part of a March 2025 exhibition curated by Jermaine Gallacher and inspired by deconsecrated monasteries
[I see a lot of design referencing] Contemporary Gothic and Medieval: in particular, the use of timber in the work of Ralph Parks reflects this perfectly. I love anything a bit medieval or satanic, and it feels like we are at the beginning of what will become a larger genre here.
My wish for 2026 is to see more platforming of emerging, UK-based design & craft practices. We have a burgeoning scene here and from our interactions with people over the past 12 months, this seems to be regarded very highly internationally. There was certainly more platforming this year across events such as Frieze and London Design Festival's Shoreditch Design Triangle, with the refreshing new direction set by Duncan Riches – I look forward to seeing his plans for the upcoming year.
Max Radford is an interior designer and founder of the Max Radford Gallery in London.
Hugo Macdonald
'AI - Brilliantly Bad', a project by Front
In preparation for gazing into my crystal ball, I unearthed a list from my phone that I started during Milan Design Week 2025 of all the things I found remarkable. I’m struck by how vapid my observations were: so much green; sand-blasted wood; loooong tables; books; double-sided shelving; paparazzi at dinners; picnic equipment; captions like poems. When you’re in the thick of a live design event, it can be hard to see the wood for the trees, however sand-blasted it may be. Or is design, as an industry, as we know it, just a bit lost at the moment?
Instead of predictions, I’m opting for hopes. My principal one would be to see more AI wonderment. There are instances that spring to mind already, such as Front’s ongoing explorations seen in their Brilliantly Bad! project at Nordiska Galleriet in Stockholm. It is bonkers. And strangely uplifting as evidence that human ingenuity still trumps our artificial overlords, creatively at least. I think about this project often and how much it reveals, of us and them. I am also an ardent fan of the humorous, sexy, macabre mood in Simon Foxton’s AI-prompted storytelling via his Instagram account. Southpark’s Trump-baiting was another level of AI-aided bravado. It made us feel things.
In the year gone by, I’ve been through the seven stages of AI embracement: ignorance, disbelief, fear, acceptance, curiosity, excitement, obsession. However thick the walls of that bubble may be, and however the industry sorts out its funding and value proposition, it’s clear that AI is here to stay. It’s therefore incumbent on us to work out how to work it, and work with it. It might just save us, even if it eventually decides to replace us. In the meantime, let’s push its buttons and explore its limits. Let’s also be honest and share when and how we are using it. Brands, designers, students and public at large take note: we are all for seeing AI become an effective tool in a creative process; we do not wish to see it write our copy or mimic our creative direction for cheapness or laziness. That way, a very sloppy future lies.
Hugo Macdonald is Wallpaper's Design Critic and co-founder of Edinburgh gallery Bard.
Annalisa Rosso
More than forms or objects, what I think will truly matter in 2026 is the quality of encounters. The possibility for different points of view to meet and generate something new, not by repeating established models, but through open confrontations, even difficult ones. This means rethinking our habits in a radically different way.
This is about relevance, meaning, and understanding design as a field that gains strength when it becomes a shared territory, open to dialogue, friction, and genuine listening. In 2026, I believe unexpected alliances will emerge, creating spaces where different forms of knowledge can coexist across geographies, disciplines, and cultures. I see us moving from acceleration toward awareness, and from following habits to questioning attitudes. Design is reconnecting with broader cultural, social, and environmental questions, the practices that matter today are those able to slow down and to create conditions for deep reflection. We are no longer running obstacle courses, now it is time for archery. And that requires time, focus, and precision.
Annalisa Rosso is co-founder of creative strategy consultancy Mr Lawrence, Editorial Director and Cultural Events Advisor for Salone del Mobile and Doha Biennale's Deputy Director
Jenny Nguyen
In 2026, I think we’ll see a growing appetite for looking at design more closely. People don’t just want the final object – they want the story behind it. Short-form video is really dominating image culture, so it's no surprise that it has become one of the most effective mediums for showing the nuances of design work.
What’s interesting is that video hasn’t made design more disposable; it has made it more legible and made audiences more curious. When you hear a designer or a curator explain why a material choice matters, or how a piece came into being, you start to understand the life it had before it became a product. I think there’s a new desire to buy fewer things, but to know more about them, to understand their lineage, their labor, the why behind them.
Some creators are using video beautifully to open up the stories behind the work — the success of accounts like Rarify, Brandinowang, and Architecture Digests You show there is a real hunger for design stories told with voice, emotion, and context.
My wish for 2026 is that more independent and underrepresented designers feel empowered to document their work in this way. Not as performance, but as preservation.
And what I’d love to see disappear is the notion that design must live in only one format. Still images will always matter, but pairing it with the human narrative behind an object feels increasingly essential in an AI-saturated world.
New York-based Jenny Nguyen is the founder of creative PR agency Hello Human