Week 10 Spectrum

I went to Irvine Spectrum for this final blog. The overall feeling of the mall is happy, bright, colorful, and festive. Most of the trees are wrapped by yellow LED strings. The lighting design feels great when I first walk in, but after a while, my eyes get tired because the the lights in the mall are very similar.

American Apparel has good lighting design. The neon lights at the front door is fun and it pops up. It contrasts with the white wall inside the store. The lighting inside the store is bright. The place feels vibrant, and it attracts customers to go in.

I find the lighting at Urban Outfitters is not a very efficient design. The lights are white and industrial. The lights did not guide my eyes where to look at. The lights are spread evenly in the store, so there is no any focus on anything. I just see many clothes in the store, but it does not attract me to continue walking in and the clothes do not look interesting under this dull lighting. I assume the LED strings are installed for the holiday theme, but the white lamp and the yellow LED strings do not fit well with each other, and it does not change the dull look very much.

Week 10 –– Irvine Spectrum Center

Irvine Spectrum Center (7pm, 12/5/2015) - Long Exposure

Irvine Spectrum Center is a pedestrian mall that provides shopping, dining, and entertainment. Its overall atmosphere is relaxing and Christmasy in December. When I was walking on its street and exploring different stores last night, I felt its lights were great to provide visibility for the customers: they were neither too bright nor too dark. This mall also had many yellow and red lights to increase the Christmasy atmosphere. However, these lights didn't make me want to buy more things in this mall, because different stores had their own lighting styles and they didn't match the overall lighting. And the contrast among them were so obvious that took away my willings to purchase something.

Lucky Brand

Lids Locker Room

This store really captured my eyes when I walked by. Lucky Brand's lighting was soft and Christmasy. The clothes inside this store was organized. This store was decorated with green belts and yellow light bulbs. The small light bulbs were like stars that created a romantic environment. The imperfect indigo light under the blue brand light was very interesting and it seemed to lead me into this store. So I thought this store's lighting was very successful.




Lids Locker Room's lighting was not very successful because it just had some boring bright white downlights to light the store. This store sold sports outfits and it should be energetic. However, I just felt sleepy to look at its clothes. Its clothes were not organized by their colors and they just randomly hung in different places. When I walked by this store, I wouldn't pay attention to it.

Cheesecake Factory

Cheesecake Factory had a great lighting. It had colorful lights on the ceiling and warm lights on the wall. The intensity of these lights was not strong that it created shadows on almost every guests' faces. This helped the guests stay low and focus on their food or private conversation. If I went to this store, I would eat more. However, it was funny that two people pointed at me when I took this picture.

Blog #10: Irvine Spectrum Shopping Mall

            

          

 

Irvine Spectrum is an upscale mall, fitting for the upper-middle to upper classes that live in the surrounding areas. To give the mall a more elegant atmosphere, the designers have chosen to use theatrical angles such as uplight and downlight to create an ambient and dramatic shopping experience.Permanent fixtures in the mall include uplight on the top portions of the buildings and in fountains that can be found around the mall. There are even foot lights in some parts of the mall that create a dramatic image when people cross over the lights. The string lights are used to create an ambient and comfortable feeling as you walk by store fronts. In California, to decorate for the holidays, malls like to wrap string lights around trees. Ironically enough, these lights are often wrapped around palm trees. These lights are meant to remind shoppers of the holiday season and, in turn, evoke a happy feeling most people feel when thinking about the holidays. This happy feeling is meant to encourage shoppers to buy more.

                            

                       

The lighting in the store, MaxStudio, was all downlight. In the window display the down angle worked to create dramaic and angular shadows on the clothing. However, the lights failed to actually light the clothing very well. The flourescent lighting gave the store a stark, white look and feeling to it. While it was clear that the store was trying to achieve a mod, high end look, it was unsucessful. The store was a little dirty and the stark lighting only served to excentuate this. There was a high back light that was used for evvery rack that was against a wall. These lights were purely decorative and failed to light the clothing. But they did achieve their purpose of directing the shopper's attention towards those particular racks. In the back of the store, there were shelves of shoes that were backlit. This back light was ineffective and barely lit the shoes at all. The back area where the shoes were, was barely lit besides the backlight for the shoes. This was probably done to bring emphasis to the shoes, but only resulted in a poorly lit area of the store. Overall, the store was trying to achieve a high end look, but only succeeded to achieve poorly lit products. 

                      

                                          

The store that really captured my attention was Yankee Candle. Though Yankee Candle is not as high end as MaxStudio, I feel it achieved a more welcoming atmosphere for shoppers and better displayed its products. While Yankee Candle also used flourescent lighting, it achieved a warmer look to the store. This look was probably achieved by the warm wood that is seen in the flooring and displays. Yankee Candle uses the lights to their advantage by placing all of their glass products under the lights, thus making the glass candles and hurricanes look shiny and luxurious. Similar to MaxStudio, Yankee Candle uses down light for their window displays. However, MaxStudio uses fixed lights that cannot be moved/focused to better accentuate the clothing. Yankee Candle uses flourescent lights that are placed on a grid and can be moved around the grid, to better lights the products being sold. The lights on the grid can also pan and tilt to get a better focus. Overall, the store has a very welcoming feel that invites the shopper into the store to look at (and smell) all the shining and glittering products.

Week 10 Janani

For my final blog assignment, I chose the Irvine Spectrum mall. To me the overall environment of this mall is a bright and happy one. It also has a rich air to it with the fancy shops and lighting. It caters to all ages -- the little kids who are attracted to the Merry-go-round and the teens who like the Giant wheel and temporarily installed ice skating rink. And also the parents and grandparents of these children can enjoy this environment as there are ample benches and sitting areas. However, the overall feeling I got from this place was that it was meant to appeal to youngsters while also slightly catering to children by keeping them occupied on rides while their parents and older siblings go shopping.

This picture shows the general environment of the Irvine Spectrum Mall.

This is the Merry-go-round at the spectrum and the water fountain.

The store below is called Yankee candles and has a very warm feeling to it. It is bright and welcoming and not harsh at all. Just like the rest of Spectrum that is lit with bright lights which are warm and welcoming. The overall vision of the designer for this particular store was to create a welcoming atmosphere and with the store racks being lit from the top so we can see the names of the products that they have in the store. From the outside Yankee candles looking highly appealing, warm and inviting. This shop also has a certain richness to it because of its warmth.

Yankee Candles from the outside.

Inside Yankee Candles

I personally didn't like the lighting for Urban Outfitters as we can barely see the name of the store. The inside is also very brightly lit in the harsh white light. I think the focus of this store was to go for a very earthy urban look but they achieved part of that through their architecture as opposed to the lighting. The lighting was too bright and not appealing to me. They had differently shaped display tables for their clothes as shown in the pictures below.

This is a fancy looking table to display clothes on.
Very modern and perhaps even has an urban look to it.

Store name poorly and barely lit.

Fancy, chic-looking displays for clothes.
Lighting doesn't do much for this store except
for making the store bright and blinding.

Lighting in Other Places - Disney

Disney is worldly renowned for two things, Magic, and incredible theming. There attention to detail is so absolute, there are passages below the park to make sure a cast member is not seen with the wrong costume in the wrong location. Disney prides itself in the ability to make ordinary buildings feel magical, and there shopping district is no exception. Downtown Disney is lit up with Christmas lights galore to remind every patron that the most wonderful time of the year is fast approaching, and they should be thinking of their special someone (and what gift to buy them). Disney is still corporate after all.

When it gets dark, Downtown Disney lights up into a festive event of lights and colours. Though there aren't that many street lights, you can certainly see all there is being offered.

One example of incredible theming and deliberate lighting is the World of Disney store, selling Disney's own merchandise. Disney Certainly goes all out when it comes to there own merchandise. All the store, inside and out,  have been decorated with fairy lights and Christmas decorations. The brightness of the front sign against the blue backdrop in the picture above give an adventurous sort of feeling, and the light behind the telescope really helps with the idea that someone is at the other end watching you. All the windows along the side depict back lit images of the Disney parks, and the warmth in both the blue sign and the amber lights really give the impression of friendly service and gifts for all ages. The lights are bright and welcoming on the inside, and the store as a whole really invites guest to come and visit the World of Disney.

The building that felt incredibly out of place to me was the Starbucks. The rest of the street is brightly lit, and gives off a warm energetic vibe. Even the trees are bright and friendly. Starbucks feels like it belongs in a trendy part of a big city, and sitting right next to World of Disney, feels a bit dark, almost unwelcoming. All the lights are much dimmer, both inside and out, and the brightest light is the sign telling guests which store it is. There are no holiday lights anywhere in the building, and the store in comparison is stark and uninviting. This building is meant to appeal to a certain type of crowd, but when at Disney, everyone is in a different mindset. It is out of place with the rest of the world, and hence, far less busy then any other store. Whether this is deliberate or not is up to Disney discretion.

Lighting in Other Places - Celebration

What I find odd is how we use light in routines and rituals over the years. It's it a bit odd that in order to celebrate someone's birthday we stick wax sticks into their food and ignite it? Fire is something very primal and most celebrations around the world use lights to indicate some sort of ritual. Big commercial holidays string lights around trees or building, make art with them, or simple have a few dancing lights atop one food. Fireworks are used as a form of celebration, candles are lit as a form of memory, so using light in celebration is an age old tradition in many different cultures. The light creates a sort of focus on the element of celebration.  Light is more common in festivities than we often remember.