Seeing the Light: Why Lighting Matters in Interior Design
Light has intrigued man since the dawn of time. Without lighting designer , there is no color. In his quest for the control of light, man supplemented daylight with an array of artificial devices. What started out as tallow candles and gas lamps in the early centuries evolved into to a plethora of light sources powered by electricity, chemicals or combustion in the modern day. While the physical attributes of light fixtures contribute to the design of a space, the intangible aspects of the light they emit are more far reaching. In order to understand light and how it affects color, one needs to know that color perception is the result of the eye seeing a specific reflected ray of color. A carpet appears red only when all other colors of the light spectrum, with the exception of red, are absorbed by the flooring, allowing the eye's sensors to receive the reflected red light. Lighting essentially determines color. Different types of light accentuate different areas of the spectrum: t...