I tend to focus on the nuts and bolts of LED lighting. However, there is a whole other side to it -- aesthetic, artistic, and human -- that is every bit as important.
Good lighting designs should always start with the needs of the users. Clearly, performing the intended visual task ranks high on the list of priorities, but that's not sufficient. Good lighting should address safety, comfort, and mood, as well. Safety is the ability to see and avoid obstructions, navigate an environment, and exit safely when necessary. Comfort is having light of sufficient quantity (e.g., foot-candles or lux) and quality (e.g., spectral content), to perform visual tasks easily and clearly. Comfort is also the lack of glare, flicker, and other distractions or annoyances.
Then there are the softer aspects of lighting, such as the mood it creates. Much like music, mood speaks to the typical feeling that a light environment engenders. Warm white light stimulates feelings of warmth, closeness, and relaxation. Cool white reinforces the sentiment of work, activity, and performance.
Recently, there's been a trend at airports and aboard airliners to take mood lighting to the next step. Passengers transiting via the underground walkway between Terminals A and B at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport see color light displays set to music throughout the length of the corridor. New aircraft, such as the Boeing 787, offer full-color cabin lighting. These sophisticated lighting systems can produce white light or changing color scenes for different phases of a flight.
While passengers are boarding and disembarking, the light scene might accentuate the airline's brand, or its identifying color, causing the interior features to pop. Later in the flight, the cabin lighting might simulate the color changes typical of a sunrise or sunset, particularly if it's an overnight flight, to help synchronize the passengers' internal clocks with the destination time zone. I've even heard of a scene shown at mealtimes that features red content and purportedly makes steaks and other delicacies look more appetizing. I have to admit that I find that one a little amusing. It's been a very long time since I've been on a flight that served a steak, but I assume the high red content will make peanuts and pretzels more appetizing, too, not to mention the red can of Coke.
The exterior of the Empire State Building, located in my home state of New York, features dazzling mood lighting displays to mark any occasion -- we highlighted the Halloween display. For the Fourth of July, the building sports red, white, and blue, of course.
Aesthetics also form an integral part of lighting, in terms of both lighting effect and luminaire design. The lighting effect is the placement of light to create contrast or to accent features in a room. Stages, high-end stores, and museums all use light to direct attention where it is wanted.
A conference room might have wall sconces to produce light scallops along the wall, while using overhead lights to provide the task lighting over the conference table. Aesthetics can also play a big part in luminaire design (overhead fluorescent troffers notwithstanding). Most of us buy task lights or fixtures for our home based upon how we perceive the design. Sometimes, the aesthetics can become the overriding consideration. I don't recall ever seeing an isocandella profile for a home lamp or chandelier. In these cases, people are not really buying a luminaire. They're buying a piece of art that identifies their sense of aesthetics and style and happens to produce light. So what if it's not useful light? It reminds me of the beautiful but not so functional lamp I have on my piano. But that's another story.
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