Case Study
Lighting Design to Go: Bringing Spaces to Life with Darklight
Project Name: Interactive Light Simulator
Collaboration: Darklight Design
Type: Interactive imagery for their website
Objective: Simulate various layers of lighting possibilities in different room scenarios
Brief Summary: A new ‘Lighting Design to Go,’ a service designed to make architectural lighting more accessible and affordable without the cost of a professional lighting designer.
A Bright Idea
Lighting has the power to completely transform a space—turning a room from cold and sterile to warm and inviting with just the flick of a switch (or, in this case, a carefully designed simulation). Darklight wanted to showcase this transformative power on their website, helping customers visualise how different lighting setups could enhance their homes.
Their goal? To make architectural lighting accessible and affordable for every home without the need for a professional lighting designer. To achieve this, they needed high-quality visualisations for their new service, ‘Lighting Design to Go.’ Each simulator would feature various lighting scenarios and include a selection of curated products, allowing customers to easily explore options and add their chosen items to their online basket.
The Challenge: A Resolution Revelation
To keep the project efficient and cost-effective, we decided to repurpose some of the renders we had previously created for Darklight. Everything was going smoothly—until we realised WordPress had very specific resolution requirements to optimise performance.
Oops. Cue the collective facepalm moment.
The existing renders looked great, but they needed resizing and refining to fit seamlessly into the interactive simulators. Lighting is all about precision, and even the slightest misalignment could affect how customers perceive the final design.
The Solution: Light, Layers & a Little Bit of Photoshop Magic
Not ones to let a minor technical hiccup slow us down, we quickly adjusted our approach. A few tweaks to the camera settings, some light balance refinements, and voilà! We were back on track.
Since the goal was to showcase multiple lighting scenarios within the same space, Photoshop became our best friend. By layering different lighting setups, we were able to create a seamless, interactive experience that allowed customers to switch between scenes effortlessly. From cosy low-level light to the essential task lighting, every detail was fine-tuned to showcase the impact of each lighting choice.
The Outcome: A Well-Lit Success
The final visualisations helped bring ‘Lighting Design to Go’ to life, giving customers an intuitive and engaging way to explore different lighting setups. The website now offers a dynamic, user-friendly experience where shoppers can see exactly how each lighting element would look in a real space before making a purchase.
While this project came with its fair share of unexpected twists, it was a crazy fun challenge—because at the end of the day, playing with light is one of our favourites!
Website reference links
https://www.darklightdesign.com/lighting-design/interactive-lighting-simulator/
Featured in Architecture Vogue
We’re proud that this project was recently featured in Architecture Vogue Magazine. As part of their directory of leading practices, our work is showcased to a wider audience of design enthusiasts and industry professionals.