A good lighting is one of the most important elements in the design of a jewellery shop: it helps to invite the customer into the shop, to make the environment more attractive and to pleasantly extend the time spent inside. It is an elegant and refined space, where the expected shopping experience should be unique and exclusive. The light must be carefully designed so that the different precious materials are enhanced to their best: to ensure the highest visual comfort and to avoid annoying reflections and glare.
The role of light is also fundamental during the customer’s journey through the shop; cleverly lit showcases will lead the customer towards certain products, spaces with comfortable seating will be illuminated with softer, more enveloping and less punctual light, to make the shopping experience a relaxing and involving moment. The right lighting also enhances a product, making it more attractive.
In the general lighting the colour temperature and the amount of light play a key role and change depending on the type of jewellery store. A luxury jewellery store, whose time spent inside is much longer, will have a warm, soft general lighting that makes customers feel at home, so as to extend the shopping experience. In this case, the main lighting therefore comes from the display cabinets, which are constantly illuminated with accent or diffuse lighting. The light is used to recreate an immersive atmosphere and to increase the emotional involvement of the customer. On the other hand, jewellery shops selling more affordable products use a cooler general lighting and a higher amount of light: the shopping experience is faster and less exclusive.
As in all retail shops, the spaces in which lighting plays the most important role in jewellery are the display windows. In the case of jewellery, because of their size and the characteristics of the materials they are made of, the task requires even more care and attention to detail. A key element in the lighting design of showcases is the colour temperature of the light source, which varies depending on the material to be illuminated: yellow and rose gold will be lit at 3500K, platinum and white gold at 4500K, as will stones. Diamonds, depending on their purity, need a cooler light that enhances their facets and details. It is also crucial that the light sources have a CRI>90 to allow customers to see the different colour tones of the jewellery at its best.
The outdoor showcase is a true stage where the most representative pieces of the entire collection are usually displayed. It is a preview in which samples of all the product categories that can be found within the jewellery store are shown: the lighting in this case is complex because the requirements of each material are different. Furthermore, the lighting as well as the layout cannot be standardised and fixed as it is constantly changing. It would be preferable if the shop windows on the street of the jewellery store were always illuminated, both when open and when closed.
In most cases, interior showcases are usually designed specifically to accommodate a certain merchandise category. Consequently, the colour temperature and beam angle of the luminaires are fixed and differ from display to display. In the most virtuous cases, on the other hand, the lighting design uses a DALI system with variable colour and light intensity so that the same shop window can adapt to different product display changes. This prevents a monotonous layout and allows experimentation with different display solutions. One type of lighting that is indispensable in display cabinets are recessed or track-mounted orientable spotlights.
Project: Arch. Ulderico Lepreri
