Zerlina Hughes shares how she fell in love with lighting and how to give opportunities to young people who wish work in the sector.
Words By Emily Martin
ZERLINA HUGHES is one of the UK’s most creative talents in the lighting design arena, working with some of the largest cultural institutions such as the V&A, The British Library, The British Museum, The Natural History Museum, The Courtauld Gallery and The National Portrait Gallery. She has over 25 years’ experience, not only in the fields of architecture and design, but across theatre, opera and film, and founded her company, Studio ZNA, to build a team of specialists who could offer a unique combination of technical, creative and cultural knowledge and design illumination. Hughes talks about her career and route into the ‘sensory’ focused profession, some of the challenges faced by lighting designers, and how the profession is growing into an ever more established and needed design component of the built environment.
‘I do call myself a lighting designer and we are a lighting design studio,’ says Hughes
Responding to a question about some of the misconceptions associated with lighting design, Hughes says: ‘I do call myself a lighting designer and we are a lighting design studio. And we practise lighting design, but I think it’s a good question [to raise] because often a secondary question is, “oh, so do you design lights i.e. fittings, or what is it that you do?” And, of course, we’re not product designers – although we do design specials as part of our process – but we design schemes as part of the built environment, whatever that environment may be.’
Historically, people sidestep into the profession from different sectors, often not knowing it even exists until a later point in their career. For Hughes, her path was clearer after first studying at Goldsmiths College and then undertaking her Masters at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, before finding a unique home for her skills in lighting design. ‘It was really quite early on,’ she says. ‘When I was as an undergraduate at Goldsmiths I discovered that you could create these scenographies just with light. And I absolutely kind of fell in love with it. [Lighting] was more this kind of sensory sort of construction, as I call it… [having access] to good equipment and staff, who encouraged you to kind of play, I had a very kind of handson approach.’
Image Credit: Peter Kelleher
Her time at Goldsmiths allowed for a lot of experience in fringe theatre and being part of the inception and creative vision. ‘And I guess at the time it was storytelling, and, in a sort of abstract way, there was a form of narrative, which [is still how I] approach things as a studio,’ she adds.
Before founding her practice in 2006 Hughes worked as an assistant to film director Mike Leigh on three films: Naked, Career Girls and Secrets and Lies. She was also lighting design consultant for Warner Bros’ Batman Begins. Her theatre designs include projects in London’s West End, on New York Broadway and for The Sydney Opera House. In opera, Hughes has worked extensively across Europe. She talks about being captured by the sensory aspects of the job: ‘It’s the very sensory nature of it. It can be its rhythm, its punctuation, its expression of joy, or something that’s so understated that you’re not aware that it’s actually there. It’s subliminal, [but also] a big expression, and something that’s much, much, more quiet and subtle – [that’s] what I find really fascinating with it. It’s that kind of sensory quality, which we as a studio interpret.’
Her work has been seen at cultural institutions such as the V&A and the Malmo Opera House
Hughes speaks regularly on best practice in lighting, such as at Futurebuild and at the Light ’23 Show in London, as well as for the DARC Talks programme, Women in Lighting, the Museums Association and at The London School of Economics in previous years. This year, Hughes was a mentor on the Silhouette Awards Mentorship Scheme, as well as representing the industry as part of an initiative by The South London Careers Hub, which is bringing together educators and creative industry professionals to empower young people aspiring to work in the creative sector, with the programme seeking to impact directly on students from a diverse range of backgrounds, including underrepresented groups.
‘I think there should be an undergraduate level,’ says Hughes on the routes leading into lighting design. ‘And also I think there should be something of a more apprenticeship level as well, because the job is varied and if you want to be on the more technical side of it, but creative, [you don’t] necessarily need to be trained to Masters level; it doesn’t need to be wholly academic and it feels to me you’re missing out on a whole range of potential talent.’
The exhibition Gabrielle Chanel – Fashion Manifesto at the V&A South Kensington was the first retrospective dedicated to the work of Gabrielle Chanel in the UK. Image Credit: Thomas Adank
Reaching out and finding routes into the profession is one area Hughes is helping to address, but she also says changes to way we view building design and advancements in LED technology is also leading to a positive change. LED lighting can be integrated into schemes much more easily and, with spaces being designed for flexibility, technology and designers are working more cohesively.
‘Schemes can be tailored and can be future-proofed for different configurations and use,’ adds Hughes. ‘Space is a premium – every space these days has to do three or four functions, so I think controllability is really a major innovation as well as the light source technology. I think lighting is going to play a more critical role and, also, the way that we build our buildings and how they need to be futureproofed. The lighting industry is really trying to introduce a more circular economy-type practice, whereby we make a lighting unit accessible so that we can change out the chip, or… the driver, and we don’t need to change the fitting. So, I think it will be key in [creating] more sustainable architecture and more flexible architecture. But, also, understanding our triggers and emotional worlds of work, rest and play – I think this idea of circadian rhythms and how to use these kind of technologies to create better environments is something that is being acknowledged and will be more and more implemented.
‘It will be exciting and growth for the industry and for our studio. I think that that kind of runs hand in hand with the way that we want to practise in the future.’
