s the primary point where the consumer and the brand meet in real life, retail store design is one of the most basic aspects to establish your product’s image and brand identity. Now that almost everyone identifies themselves via products that they buy, either it’s fashion apparel, gadgets, or even food, it is essential that brands represent themselves effectively through different ways possible.
Brands have their own consistent design concept and atmosphere to present their identity and enhance shopper experience. While aspects of interior design such as color, materials, and furniture have always been the main factor, lighting design aspects such as contrast, brightness, color temperature usually got overlooked, even though it plays a quite big role in building overall feel of the place.
Other than establishing the visibility of the environment and the product itself in a retail setting, lighting as a part of building infrastructure could also affect how people perceive coziness, liveliness, and the tenseness of the space, according to the brand’s projection of how they want to be perceived by the consumer.
Different types of lighting will elicit a different evaluation of social status and value orientation. This is where the dynamic between lighting and marketing comes into play. Value orientation relates to brightness and uniformity, while the actual luminaire design is not as significant.
Specific lighting concepts will also lead to different effects on brand perception. For example, buyers will associate brightly lit space, clear and modern feel of the environment with an expensive price point.
In general, there are 4 factors of lighting that could influence branding, such as: Brightness, or how much light that’s imparted to the space. Contrast between dark and light in the space. Color temperature and chromatic effect, as in the color of the light itself. And finally, the methods of illumination.
Methods of illumination can be categorized into 4 types. Downlight, Wall wash, accent grazing, and accent projection. Downlight will affect the perception of space through general illumination. Wall wash will affect the space through hierarchy. And both accents will affect the perception through space information.
Looking at how some little adjustments of lighting factors could change one’s perception of space, now you can see that lighting infrastructure can collaborate with interior design to showcase your brand’s characteristic the best way possible.
