VMSD - April 2017 - 34

ABOVE LEFT This Saks

Fifth Avenue location
used mostly LEDs for its
illumination, lending
to its range of unique
fixtures and lighting
mediums.
ABOVE RIGHT LEDs
continue to be more easily
integrated into shelving
or fixtures, illuminating
product without diodes or
lenses being completely
visible to shoppers.

APRIL 2017

VMSD.COM

YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION
"The developments are baby steps, but they mean a lot
in terms of widening the application possibilities," says
Renée Cooley, principal, Cooley Monato Studio (New
York), about LED improvements. "When it comes to
linear products, more are getting smaller and have diffused lenses so there is no diode image." Other advances
include lower-profile LEDs, which can be seamlessly integrated into millwork, shelving and fixtures.
"The LED revolution has already happened, but
they are evolving over time to be more consistent in
color, have tighter binning, higher color-rendering
indexes, higher lumen output with greater efficacy -
while the price has been going down," she adds.
The biggest challenge is avoiding lights sourced
purely from a cut sheet. Archit Jain, principal, Oculus
Light Studio (Los Angeles), explains that in previous
years, similar PAR or M16 lamps usually produced
the same illumination, even if the fixtures came from
different manufacturers, and that isn't always the case
with LEDs.
"Even if manufacturers are sourcing their chips
from other standard manufacturers, it's how they're

DRESSING ROOM DRAMA
While sales floors are reaping the benefits of LEDs,
according to Cooley, dressing rooms are still in the
dark. "Because LED strip lighting is small and has better color qualities, it can be located under lips of shelving units, or even behind mirrors in fitting rooms," she
says. "After all, that is the point-of-purchase, I think,
where the customer makes the decision."
While there are several manufacturers that create
mirrors with various forms of integrated tunable lighting, it seems not that many retailers have taken on the
new products in store.
Adam Kroll, senior designer, Cooley Monato Studio, agrees, "It's shocking how bad some of the lights
are [in fitting rooms]," he says. "Designers fight to
include lighting on the walls and mirrors, but the
default seems to be having the light [placed] on the
ceiling, which casts bad shadows and doesn't light the
customer well."
Tunable white light, which was (and still is) a
buzzworthy trend, has remained a mostly healthcareoriented application, with few retailers adopting the
technology. A big reason, according to Kroll, is the
sometimes complicated controls of many products,
which could be difficult for some retailers to deal with
on a daily basis and use properly, though some controls are evolving to become more end user-friendly.

( L) M AX BOL ZO NE LL A PHO TOG R APHY, NE W Y OR K; ( R) KR I S TAM BUR E L LO , M I AM I , F L A. /C C S AR C H I T E C T UR E

integrating them into their fixtures, which can change
the light spread, color [or] distribution," he says. This
means if three manufacturers carry a version of an
18-watt LED, all producing 1200 lumens at 3500K, they
may not appear uniform, so mockups are crucial.

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