One Year On: Impacts of Covid-19 on the lighting design industry Throughout the Covid-19 crisis, the IALD has carried out regular surveys of the lighting design profession to see how it continues to be affected by the global pandemic. Here, they present their most recent findings.
A
s the Covid-19 crisis extends into 2021,
lighting design firms continue to experience
ongoing challenges as the economy continues to react to the global reach of the pandemic. While vaccines are being distributed and
administered, rollouts globally have been
slower than many had hoped. Lighting design
firms and lighting designers have experienced a variety of effects from this pandemic based upon size, geographic location, and distribution of work across different sectors.
To better understand these challenges and gain insight into the pandemic’s ongoing impact, the IALD surveyed lighting design
business owners and principals about the Covid-19 crisis in May 2020 and October 2020. This survey was repeated at the beginning of 2021,
opening on 14 January and closing on 29 January, and posed questions for the January to March 2021 time frame. A total of 342 lighting
designers, representing 46 countries, responded to the most recent survey. Lighting design firm sizes ranged from solo practitioners
(22%); two to five employees (27%), six to ten employees (18%), 11 to 49 employees (25%); and 50+ employees (8%).
Lighting Design Firms Still Resilient
In May 2020, when the IALD first surveyed lighting designers, the results indicated that most lighting design firms were not
fully prepared for this crisis – not unlike many other businesses
worldwide. Though the majority of the respondents from this time
did not have a business continuity plan in place when the Covid-19 pandemic started, almost 30% of respondents did. While many of
us were hoping for 2021 to start off strong, the ongoing pandemic damped any strong recoveries. In 2021, survey results indicate
that less than 10% of firms reported no negative effect from the
pandemic, and most firms are largely maintaining the status quo since the October 2020 survey.
The full impact of the global pandemic remains unknown. In May
last year, most firm owners (54%) anticipated it would take between
one to three or more years before businesses return to pre-Covid-19 levels. In October, many lighting designers shifted the narrative
from when business returns to normal to how the lighting design
profession will look in the future. And in January 2021, many lighting designers recognised that the built environment will shift and there will be changes in how business is conducted.
Lighting Design Firms Maintain Status Quo Lighting design firms around the world continue to experience a
range of effects on prospective work. While only a small portion of
owners and principals (8%) have not experienced any negative effect on prospective work, most firms seem split among a minor decrease (29%), a moderate decrease (31%) and a major decrease (26%) in prospective projects.
Solo practitioners seem to have been hit the hardest and were among the largest segment of those who cited a major decrease (26%) in
prospective work. Firms with two to five employees were even split
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