Erin Denkovska, Senior Associate at Delta Lighting Design: “Whilst some may view using AI as the easy way out of creating art, the reality is much more complex”

Next time you head to a hotel, gallery or upmarket retailer, take a look at the lighting. If it’s any good, that’s probably due to a lighting designer. Perhaps even Erin Denkovska, Senior Associate at Delta Lighting Design in Dubai, especially if you find yourself in one of the Arab States of the Gulf.

Erin and her team work closely with architects to create striking, immersive lighting environments; designs that could pull at your heartstrings even if you don’t quite know why. Just like architecture and other creative industries, lighting design companies that want to stay ahead of the opposition must use technology.

Yes, that means AI to an extent, but as Erin points out in this wide-ranging interview, creating a winning lighting design that works for all stakeholders involves creativity that stretches far beyond what AI can currently achieve. “Creating a good design is more than just algorithms,” she said, “it requires the intuition and imagination of the human mind.”

But technology is still at the heart of what Erin and her team do. That could be anything from the early design stages, using Wacom tablets, to using VR to show a client what a design looks like – and the dynamic changes on offer. Never mind all the tools now on offer to share designs in real-time.

Keep reading to discover more details: whether you work in design or not, we think there are lessons here for anyone who has to collaborate deeply with clients.

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When thinking of your creative process, at what point does technology come in? What role does it play in different stages, from concept to final design?

As lighting designers, technology plays a role in every stage of our design process and project development. In our studio, we harness technology as not only a creative source of inspiration but also as a powerful tool to refine and enhance the conceptual ideas that we develop through our team workshops.

Lighting, by its very nature, is intangible and can be altered by many elements such as colour, texture and reflections of a surface. One of the challenges we as lighting designers face is accurately demonstrating the lighting result to a client, especially when we are considering many lighting effects or different lighting scenes in one space. Advancements in technology have allowed us to bridge this gap significantly. We now have the capability to enhance and create a realistic rendering of both interior and exterior environments. These visualisations help clients to understand the lighting design proposed and experience the lighting scenarios more vividly.

We have also expanded our use of technology to push the boundaries of how we display our designs to our clients in an engaging and interactive way. Through the use of fly-through models such as Unreal Engine and VR glasses of our designed environments, we allow clients to feel the emotional connection and impact of the lighting proposed before the project is built.

The continuous evolution of our approach and use of technology over the last years has allowed us to not only enhance the overall quality of our studio’s work but to push the boundaries of creativity and innovation.

How has technology changed the way you collaborate at work? And in your view, has it improved or worsened navigating creative differences with clients or team members?

Technology has transformed the way we connect and collaborate across the globe in an instant. The worldwide adaptation of even something as simple as Microsoft Teams during Covid has given us unprecedented flexibility like we never had before. Being able to screen share, discuss ideas and live sketch ideas with a client or an architect during a meeting when sitting in different countries, was difficult to do not so long ago. Such interactions required face-to-face meetings but now we can accomplish this from anywhere, saving time and resources.

From a creativity standpoint, the use of platforms like Miro has revolutionised the design process for collaborative teams. These online tools allow multiple users to access a workspace where they can drop images, annotate renders and provide design feedback in real-time. This interactive and engaging creative approach expedites the design process and allows for the contribution of ideas and insights from all stakeholders, live. The ability to receive instant feedback in this sort of collaborative setting was something that again, was not possible in the past.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) represents another significant technological leap in the design and construction industries. Unlike CAD and hand drawings, which present information in 2D, BIM allows the creation of entire buildings and landscapes in a detailed way within a virtual environment. This allows for all consultants and stakeholders within a design team to work within the cloud, in real-time on the same model. BIM not only facilitates a deeper spatial understanding of a project but also aids in identifying potential clashes or issues during the design phase. This proactive approach significantly reduces the risk of costly on-site problems related to human error once construction is underway.

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Generative AI art has taken the graphic design space by storm – what are your views on the use of tools like Stable Diffusion, Leonardo, Midjourney and others?

The use of AI within the art and design world has sparked considerable debate, with many traditional artists feeling frustrated with this emerging art form. Whilst some may view using AI as the “easy way out” of creating art, the reality is much more complex. Creating and developing an AI script to align with a creative output requires significant time and skill. Creating the script is an art form in itself, in the same way that artists spend many hours labouring over their work with paint and canvas.

What I do believe is that AI art should be judged and evaluated on its own terms and against other AI art for a fair comparison. It’s evolving into its own category of art, with a unique approach to creativity, skill and technical understanding.

As design is a combination of art and science, the role of generative AI should be used as a part of collaboration, working alongside human creativity rather than replacement. It can be used as a powerful tool for inspiration or enhancement of conceptual ideas, but it’s not a standalone solution. The design process is inherently non-linear, allowing multiple layers of creative input, experimentation and refinement to create a final creative vision. Creating a good design is more than just algorithms – it requires the intuition and imagination of the human mind.

What tools or software do you find indispensable in your daily work, and why?

As a studio, we use a variety of technology tools to enhance and refine our designs. Our toolkit not only includes software such as Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, but also hardware like Wacom tablets and touchscreen laptops for sketching and writing. These devices allow us to directly work within Photoshop to bring our lighting ideas to life with greater flexibility and precision.

In recent years, we’ve also experimented with virtual reality (VR) to elevate the way we showcase lighting within client presentations. Using VR headsets and software such as Unreal Engine, we create immersive and interactive environments that enable clients to experience our designs in an engaging way. This technology has opened up new possibilities for the way we enhance our storytelling and visualisations, making it easier for clients to understand our lighting designs.

AI tools such as Midjourney and Adobe Firefly have started to play a role in our design process. We use these tools to provide inspiration and enhance our creative ideas and concepts, particularly when developing custom luminaires and unique lighting designs. AI helps us to explore innovative ideas, allowing us to expand our creative horizons.

Whilst AutoCAD still continues to have a place within our studio, the majority of our current projects have transitioned to Revit and BIM. BIM’s complex capabilities have transformed the way we approach design and documentation, leading us to develop a dedicated team of BIM experts within our team. This specialised team ensures we are fully utilising the potential of BIM, allowing us to manage large and complex projects with accuracy and with streamlined processes.

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How do you stay updated on the latest design technologies and software advancements, and how do you decide when to integrate new tools into your workflow?

We stay up to date on the latest design technologies by exploring a variety of sources, from online research and industry conferences to insights gained through other designers we collaborate with on projects. Our approach is collaborative, using the combined knowledge of our team. We hold design workshops where we discuss and evaluate new technologies, including AI tools, and explore how we can better integrate these within our design process.

Before adopting any suggested new tool into our team’s workflow, we always undertake several test runs. This begins with small-scale trials to test and understand the tool’s functionalities, followed by a larger live-project study. Utilising the tool within a live project setting, allows us to assess its strengths and limitations under actual working conditions. It’s essential for us to evaluate this real-world performance in terms of efficiency, time, resources and output. This ensures that any new technology we integrate truly adds value to our design process.

For instance, we’re currently testing software in our studio that performs accurate, real-time lighting simulations and renderings. One of our team members discovered it during a recent conference demo. If these trials prove successful, this program could significantly reduce the time we spend on lighting visualisations, streamlining our design process.