All posts by t_schielke115

Light for Brand Communication: When Lighting becomes Part of CI

All over the globe, brands are looking to achieve a striking visual appearance within the urban space. Local and international companies have started to link light planning for retail spaces with the CI for a holistic brand appearance. Media façades have therefore been turned into a fascinating tool for creating an architectural landmark on the nocturnal cityscape. At night, the brand stories are told by shining messages that range from the conventional light boxes and illuminated advertisements to dynamically lit architecture. The colourful and dynamic appearance of façades and stores inside will trigger a debate about the importance of LED for brand communication, the limits of architectural lighting for CI and the way sustainability impacts marketing strategies.

IALD Enlighten Europe, Berlin. Photos copyright:
IALD International Association of Lighting Designers

Conference

IALD Enlighten Europe. Berlin, 2014

Keynote: Streetscapes at Night – Lighting between Identity, Transformation and Safety

Lighting is an essential element to perceive the environment at night. Diverse ideas like transformation and branding, safety requirements and technological progress have led to different nocturnal streetscapes. Street lighting has been widely installed with the argument to improve safety. With the emergence of powerful and adaptive headlights in the automotive industry and highly reflective textiles for pedestrians, the role and effectiveness of conventional street lighting is questionable. From a technological point of view, energy efficiency and low maintenance have dominated the public debate and contributed to the immense growth of LED lighting in cities, but additional developments have accelerated this trend. The miniaturization of the light source and sophisticated control technologies have paved the way for new applications. On the one hand, wearable textiles and gadgets allow pedestrians to communicate and present themselves as luminous objects in streets in a small scale. On the other hand, global and local brands have turned facades into dynamic displays to send corporate messages in a large scale. Political activists have recognised the nocturnal communication possibilities and started to use light for raising awareness regarding social and political issues. A comprehensive semiotic analysis provides the framework to identify lighting as a sign to communicate messages within the city at night. International permanent and temporary projects illustrate how the role of lighting has changed and will influence our streets in urban areas.

Conference

3rd City Street Conference, 2018. Notre Dame University-Louaize, Lebanon

How Apple strives for the perfect sky and revives cities

Apple stores do not only reveal the evolution of Apple`s design, but also how the concept of daylight and lighting has changed over the last two decades. The stores have become highly successful and over the years Apple have expanded their number of retail locations worldwide. Renowned architecture offices such as Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and Foster + Partners have developed iconic store designs where daylight and lighting play a central role. The translucent Apple cube on Fifth Avenue in New York City opened in 2006, and has even become the 5th most photographed building in New York according to Cornell scientists. The Apple stores worldwide are used as case studies to analyse the lighting design with regard to the aesthetic quality and cultural context. A focus is set on three aspects and how they contribute to brand communication: daylight, interior lighting and exterior illumination. Hence, the lighting is not observed as a tool to enhance visibility, but from a semiotic point of view where light is interpreted as a sign between the brand and consumer.  

Conference

PLDC. Rotterdam, 2019

Publication

ArchDaily: How Apple strives for the perfect sky and revives cities

The aesthetic of luminous ceilings: From the image of heaven to dynamic light

Luminous ceilings provide spacious room impressions and can provide different types of lighting. Besides this, they are, however, also metaphors of the natural sky and a mirror of an aesthetic and architectural debate. The historical observation of ceilings reveals that the image of heaven, which reached a theological culmination in the luminous Renaissance stucco techniques, turned into large-scale light emanating surfaces. Even if the luminance of contemporary LED screens has increased intensely and thereby creates a point of attraction, designers still look to establish a pictorial language for an impressive appearance.

Conference
Professional Lighting Design Convention. Berlin, 29.-31.10.2009

Luminaire design towards LED light boards – Task lights and spotlights

The first decade with white LED light reveals how designers have implemented new technology in existing housing, added LED as part of a product group or created a unique design specifically for LED. The focus on task lights and spotlights vividly shows the dialogue between form and technology. The analysis includes international designers and architects like Norman Foster or Yves Behar.

Luminous walls: From stained glass windows via modernist wallwashing to pixelated planes

Luminous walls belong to the essential repertoire of qualitative lighting design. With light, spaces can be defined and reinterpreted. Illuminated walls allow us to provide orientation and to perceive the form and dimension of space. Further, their glow and play of brilliants could bestow a space with an impressing scenography. The lecture by Thomas Schielke at the Professional Lighting Design Convention in Madrid revealed a timeline to explain different lighting approaches: From backlit stained glass windows for spiritual enlightenment in the gothic period to modernist uniform wallwashing. Contemporary examples opened the view for pixelated colour changing planes based on LED and OLED technology. The talk with an overview of international projects covered lighting methods and techniques for luminous walls and their visual appearance for interior spaces. With a perception-orientated design perspective the architect could use vertical illuminance to create bright spaces and thereby also contribute to sustainable lighting solutions.

Conference
PLDC – Professional Lighting Design Convention. Madrid, 2011