Week #7 - Unexpected Findings

I was planning on going to Downtown Disney or Disneyland to find an area to do this assignment, because I originally thought the Spectrum might be a little boring in comparison. I even went to Disneyland on Saturday morning and planned to stay until the sun went down to get some pictures, but, long story short, I ended up having to leave long before it was dark and realized I would have to settle on going to the Spectrum for pictures.

I actually worked at this mall over the summer so I was there almost every day, and I didn't ever notice lighting that the stores and restaurants used. I assumed that they must use just plain lighting that had a purpose of only making sure you can see what's in front of you. I was quite wrong in my assumption. Once I opened my focus, I found so many stores that I thought had really great lighting I had a hard time choosing which one to use for the blog. In contrast, there were a few stores that really missed the opportunity to use lighting to draw people in.

The first thing I saw when we were pulling in to the Spectrum was the sign. This is not really very close to where I took the other photos, but I thought it was a good representation of the feeling of the entire mall in general. It really stands out where it is placed, and the bright and saturated colors that they chose to light it with are used throughout the inside of the mall. It's also a little bit over the top with its size and the changing of the colors, which seems to be the feeling that the mall tries to create--almost an elevated lifestyle scenario.

Once I got into the mall, I immediately started noticing whether stores were successful or unsuccessful with lighting. One of the stores that I thought was most clever and successful with their lighting was Cream, an ice cream store that is in almost an alley of the mall with nothing else around it. Because of their placement that would make the store hard to see normally, they used lighting to draw people in and make their shop noticeable. Even several feet away from their door, they projected their logo onto the ground, which made it seem like the entrance to the store was much closer to the main part of the mall than it actually was. They also had light up benches shaped like ice cream sandwiches all along the alley that also bore their logo. The colors they chose were very strong but gave a fun atmosphere to the store. All of these lighting elements made this area all about this one shop, even though it was actually pretty small in reality. 

 

In contrast, PF Chang's lighting was incredibly boring, and although they had a much better location at the entrance of the mall, I almost didn't notice it was there, and probably wouldn't have noticed it if I wasn't looking for examples of bad lighting. Their sign was lit, but the rest of their building had no lights. There was a statue of a horse on the side that was supposed to add to the theme of the restaurant, but it might as well not be there because there was only one tiny light underneath it that made it barely visible. Overall, they really missed an opportunity to use lighting to create more of a theme and make their restaurant stand out. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the use of lighting that most of the stores employed, and I'm almost glad I was forced to go to the Spectrum for this assignment because it opened my eyes to the fact that lighting is used, and used well, in a lot of places that are less theatrical than Disney. I will definitely be noticing lighting and architecture much more now that I have seen how it can be used.