Has Lighting Switched-Off Your Money?

Designing with Color & Light

By, Denise Turner, ASID, CID, CMG

Color Turners

Prior to my keynote presentation, this week in Helsinki at LOHAS Pack, I had the pleasure of meeting leaders, in the food manufacturing and packaging industry. In reviewing their packaging, the majority of them had a common challenge…color and light.

While their product’s designs were perfectly fine, the lighting in the grocery stores where their products were on display was not. This article meant to help businesses wrestling with the same challenges.

Have you ever designed a package, applied cosmetic or dressed yourself under one lighting condition and everything looked perfectly fine? But when you looked at the same colors in a different lighting environment they looked horrible? Most likely you experienced a color and light phenomenon, called Metamerism. This happens when two colors appear to match one light source but not in another. This is due to applying different light energies to two colors with different components or pigments.

Light Sources

When selecting colors it’s imperative that you consider the light source, in which the design will ultimately be displayed in. Natural daylight (morning, noon, sunset and the time of year) fluorescent, incandescent and LED affect colors differently. Be sure to view your package designs in their intended position, because colors look vertically and horizontally.

Lighting Conditions
Fluorescent Lighting have rapidly replaced incandescent, saving consumers a bundle on their utility bills. But they’re not all are created equal. The lighting industry has been making great strides in improving the quality of fluorescent lighting, however there’s still work to be done.

LED
LED (Light Emitting Diodes) are lighting the way of the future. Everyone’s on the cut cost-cutting and saving the planet band wagon. It’s important to use our resources wisely. It’s equally important that quality lighting isn’t sacrificed in the process, because poor quality lighting will adversely impact your sales.

CRI

Light quality is measured by CRI (Color Rendering Index).The higher the CRI number for a lamp, the more it renders a “true” color in an environment. The CRI measurement for outdoors is 100. If quality lighting with a higher CRI than CFL is your priority, LED are for you. LEDs have a longer life span than and fluorescents and emit more light per watt. But here’s the catch. To replace your standard light bulb, with an LED will put a dent in your pocket book (about $69.00 USD each). On the up side, you won’t have to replace it for years.

Color Turners-Turns The Art Of Color Into Profit

We help businesses and manufacturers make the best decisions where color choices are critical. By providing accurate and tangible ways to significantly reduce your business and manufacturing risks and turn that knowledge into increased sales and customer satisfaction. http://www.colorturners.com/

denise@colorturners.com