Profession Lighting Designer: when design takes on light!

Index

We have already dealt in another article with which sectors it operates in and how to becoming a lighting designer. This time we will try to better understand what such a professional does.

The activities of a lighting designer

The lighting designer care everything the design and production process lighting both the interior and exterior spaces.
In addition to residences and private homes, he sees his designs used for urban layouts (squares, gardens, car parks, etc.), for museums, theatres in the performance and events sector, and also for shopping centres, shops, factories and production plants.

Today, the lighting designer deals with lighting not only for the residential or commercial sector, creating a lighting theme that enriches the architecture of a house or turns a lighting installation into a real business tool. The lighting designer also deals with theatrical contexts, demonstrating in the entertainment or art sector his skills in the field of physics, optics and lighting technology. He deals with design and is able to understand the influence that light has on the living space around us.

The first step in a lighting design project: analysis

Analysis is the first unavoidable step for a lighting design project. Gathering all useful data, so that the end result is not only optimal, but actually meets the needs and potential of a place.
The focus on analysis then necessarily leads to a synthesis of the methodological processes of conception, organisation and realisation of the lighting projectwhich takes into account many aspects:

  • technological innovations in the sector
  • the socio-cultural user aspects of artificial lighting
  • technical and scinetific aspects
  • artistic and philosophical interpretations
  • the concept

The technical language

Working in lighting design means learning a universal technical languageinternational, indispensable for describing all aspects of the use of light.
Knowledge of terminology and symbolism in this field is fundamental and retains a scientific rigour that makes it easier to understand phenomena and theories.

Lighting design for people's well-being

To those who think that this field is only about technique and the study of the scientific phenomena behind it, it must instead be said that much of this profession is dedicated and aimed at promoting the well-being of people, their personal, social, productive, relational and communicative activities. Attention to man, therefore, and to human activities is at the centre of the lighting designer's studio.

Profession lighting designer: job opportunities

The study of the subject, which only takes place through a valid and comprehensive specific course, enables the acquisition of the necessary skills to working in the lighting industry in different realities, such as:

  • companies in the sector
  • professional design studios
  • technical offices of the public administration, implementation and control of lighting installations
  • professional architectural, industrial design and lighting design firms
  • companies involved in the architectural design of residential, commercial, public, recreational, sports, museum and exhibit design,
  • local authorities, public and private companies in the field of public lighting service provision
  • design, installation, testing and management offices for public and private lighting

Training in lighting design: the main topics of lighting design

italian design institute lighting design 1

Why a lighting design project light, it is necessary to have a good knowledge of lighting engineering.
The topics addressed in the postgraduate course in Lighting Design of Italian Design Institute in this respect are different:

  • The study of light phenomena: the wave and quantum aspects of electromagnetic radiation;
  • Photometric quantities
  • The radiant energy of waves and particles
  • Vision and the physiology of the human eye
  • The lighting calculation
  • Elements of Optics
  • Color theory
  • Light sources

Lighting Design: the tools of the trade.

One of the most complex things in the work of a lighting designer is to graphically represent a project, which is only possible with the aid of a computer and dedicated CAD software. These programmes, in fact, make it possible to accurately reproduce brightness, shadows and shading, the rendering of colours and two- and three-dimensional surfaces.

Calculation software assists the designer when it comes to correctly dimensioning the system, calculating with extreme precision the geometries of rooms and objects, the behaviour of natural lighting at different times of day and the characteristics of the luminaires. I photorealistic rendering software allow a realistic scene to be reproduced.

Lighting Design: the photometric quantities.

To realise a lighting design installation knowledge of some of the following is required basics of photometry. The main photometric quantities have in association the unit of measurement defined in the International System of Units (SI) and the identifying symbol:

  • luminous flux (lm), symbol: F - defines the amount of light energy emitted in the unit of time.
  • luminous intensity (cd) symbol: I - corresponds to the amount of luminous flux per unit solid angle in a given direction.
  • luminance (cd/m2) symbol: L - is given by the ratio of the luminous intensity provided by any light-emitting body in the assigned direction (body emitting, reflecting or transmitting light) to the area within which the emission is
  • illuminance (lx) symbol: E - is a scalar quantity and its unit of measurement is the lux, which is equivalent to the flux of one lumen received from a surface measuring one square metre.

Lighting Design in the Theatre

Working in the Theatre: Lighting Design from American Theatre Wing on Vimeo.

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