Having left Irvine midway through week 10, I was able to use some locations where I'll be for the next three weeks - Nashville, Tennessee. There is a huge mall on the outskirts of town, called Opry Mills, and so I took a trip down (later at night to avoid the terrible Christmas-time mall traffic), to try to snap some pictures for our final blog assignment.
Opry Mills is your typical middle-America mall, with a ton of big-name chain stores, and small kiosks down the middle of the main aisles. The overall feel of the mall is seen in the picture to the left - bright, uncluttered (except by people), relatively clean, and upbeat. I think this is what the designers were going for - an upbeat atmosphere that would put people in a positive, active mood to spend money.
One of the restaurants in the mall is Johnny Rockets. The lighting enhances the decor and vibe selected for the restaurant - that of a 1950s diner. The bright neon on the outside of the restaurant, and the bright, warm light inside create an atmosphere similar to that of the mall in general - upbeat, fun, happy. Light reflects off the chrome fixtures, and all the individual booths have their own light above them. To me, this is a very successful use of designed lighting - the mood of the customer is manipulated, and the basic theme of the establishment is communicated.
Another shop I found was one I had never heard of, called "Justice". In my estimation, it was geared towards teenage girls, who were picking out decor for their bedroom or locker or wardrobe. There were several green and orange fixtures hung from the ceiling, and it seemed as if the designer was trying to recreate the vibe found in a bedroom, with soft, non-fluorescent lighting. However, the rest of the store's lighting didn't match up to this idea - the non-"bedroom" fixtures were just regular harsh fluorescents. Because of this, the softer incandescent lighting was washed out, not really visible. I think this "bedroom" look would have been a good choice, if it had been executed more consistently; because of how it was executed, I would label this "unsuccessful".
There was one more shop that I just thought was interestingly lit, so I'm including it just for fun. It was "Guess", and the lighting was kind of industrial, with a really great orange fluorescent treatment at the register. This picture isn't the greatest quality, but the lighting made me feel like it would be fun to shop in this store.
I think retail is relatively new to the "atmosphere" created by lighting. Lighting has always sold products (functionality) but actually selling the brand or a feeling is quite different. Sounds like the designers of the teeny bop store weren't very communicative...or maybe they had a "partial re-design" done later on, which couldn't compete. Super interesting :)
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