Monotonous light creates a monotonous space, which has a negative impact on customer perception and mood, decreasing their activity, engagement with the environment and purchasing behavior.
In modern lighting design, accent lighting is key. It plays the central role in the creation of visual comfort, well being and interest. By accentuating shelves, promotion displays and even individual items it is possible to decisively guide customer attention and create a dramatic and emotionally stimulating atmosphers.
Light can be directed at an object from any number of angles. With each angle having a slightly different effect on the overall impression the object makes. Light direction can be classified simply into five areas : light from above, from below, from the side, from the front and from the back. Light from above, below and the sides creates strong shadows, light directed at the front of an object enables effective modeling, whilst light from behind the object creates a dramatic silhouette. By carefully combining these effects it is possible to illuminate an object in sucha way as to almost bring it to life, giving it great visual depth and details.
Ambient lighting is achieved by using hidden lighting fixture, for example in a cove, giving the effect of the ceiling or wall growing from within. Such lighting visually expands a space, providing an airy and soft atmosphere, a highly effective way to promote visual psychological well being and encourage customers to spend time in the space. RGB combine with ambient lighting is greatly influential on customer emotional engagement with a store and its merchandise.
Colour is a fundamental element of our visual lives, informing, influencing and defining everything we experience by sight. By using coloured lighting in the retail environment we can exploit every possible aspect of light available to us and reap the rewards both as sensory driven customers and as a sales driven retailers. The mood and atmosphere of a store can be radically changed by colour, with different colours having a strong imapact on customer reaction to a space. For example red is very stimulating, blue is cool and fresh and pink is positive and encourages customers to linger. RGB colour mixing puts at our fingertips 16 million colours, a variety we can never exhaust and that is fully adaptable to any interior design vision with subtle shades just as accessible as dramatic ones.
