As mentioned in other articles on retail design, there are no fixed rules for lighting design that can be applied equally to every space. Therefore, it’s always best to consult a professional who can advise you based on your specific needs; it goes without saying that a jewelry store, for example, will have different lighting needs than a florist.
What’s the most popular light? Warm, Neutral, and Cool Light
LED lighting fixtures are undoubtedly the most widely used, and it’s important to understand that they come in different color intensities:
Warm light, generally color 830 or 827
Neutral light, color 840
Cold light, color 865.
Without getting into the technicalities, it’s a good idea, regardless of the business in question, to avoid cold lighting, which floods the entire space with a violet hue and is often too intrusive and unwelcoming, as well as significantly altering the original colors. Typically, neutral or warm light is preferred.
Which equipment to choose?
It’s difficult to determine the right lighting for a shop: the choice is endless and depends heavily on budget and personal taste. Very often, however, LED lights are used, whether spotlights or long, recessed strips of light. These lights disappear into a false ceiling, without adding unnecessary detail to the space, but simply enhancing it through the placement of the light beams.
What should you think about when positioning lights in general stores?
Natural Visual Rendering
Although it depends greatly on the type of business, typically, we want to display the colors of the merchandise on display as they actually are (i.e., in natural sunlight). Neutral lighting, and even more so, warm lighting, can closely approximate the rendering of sunlight.
Uniform Light
Except in specific cases where focused lighting is required, it’s best to illuminate the entire space uniformly. This requirement also goes well with the use of spotlights mentioned above: they can be mounted on tracks, allowing the spotlights to be aligned, distributing them evenly across the affected area.
Lights of the Same Color
In a space with the same basic theme, it’s best not to change the lighting tones: going from a warm light to a cold light is jarring and doesn’t create a sense of coherence and serenity within the space.
The positioning of lights in shops with specific needs
In specific cases, such as jewelry stores, where there’s a real need to enhance merchandise through lighting, the concept of uniform lighting is lost. Or rather, it remains for the surrounding environment, but it’s certainly necessary to consider the presence of spot lights, perhaps even movable ones, to be directed at the desired object at a given time.
Another example, where uniform lighting is completely irrelevant, is the grocery store, where fresh fruit and vegetable counters, or the butcher’s counter, or even the sales areas, such as traditional shelves (whether at room temperature or refrigerated). Why is uniform lighting irrelevant? Because, in this case, the primary objective is to enhance the quality of the merchandise: in the case of fruit, a neutral vertical light can enhance the products without altering their colors; In the case of the butcher’s counter, special LEDs tending to produce a vaguely pink light are often used, as this hue helps to best display the meat’s colors (be careful not to distort them, but to make it appear to the human eye as close to its natural color as possible). Alternatively, the shelves will be illuminated by uniform lighting, while the refrigerator columns are often accompanied by vertical side lights, allowing a clear view of the products inside.
As can be seen from the above, it is impossible, and not at all effective, to attempt to draw up a list of general, always-valid basic rules.
However, there are some precautions that often prove useful; keeping in mind that each specific case deserves a precise analysis and that some businesses have unique needs that may constitute exceptions to the… “basic rules.”