Lighting is the first impression a restaurant makes. When we walk in the door, or even while scrolling for dinner options online, the level of illumination already sends us a signal if this is a place for us.
Let There Be Light
Each bar and restaurant has its own individual style. When designing the restaurant lighting, we should consider three things : Concept, Target Audience and the Space you are using.
Fast food restaurants with bright lights, stimulating colors, and fast music cause people to eat faster, while a fine dining restaurant with dim lights and more relaxing music cause people to eat slower.
Bright Lighting - Brisk & Lively Mood
Consider your typical dining experience at a fast food eatery. It’s saturated in lively colors, loud upbeat music and luminous light. Lightings with a higher color temperature of 3000K to 4000K are often used to produce a brighter white light that can manufacture a more alert setting, hence it's the reason we tend to feel rushed when going to a fast food restaurant.
Low Lighting - Intimate & Leisurely Atmosphere
On the contrary, low lighting with warmer white color temperatures can enhance eating adventure and create a more relaxed and serene ambiance which encourage customers to stay longer, e.g. candlelit dinner at a formal restaurant.
Reveal The Real Color of Food & Drinks
Color rendering ability of a light source is utmost important for bars and restaurants regardless of the types of meals served, design and style etc. Lightings with high color rendering index reveal the real color of food and drink, making food looks fresh and appetizing.
Types of Restaurant Lighting
Steps towards good lighting are to define the purpose of the space and how it is used. There are three main types of restaurant lighting, each type serves a different purpose and can be achieved through different lighting pieces.
- Ambient
- Task
- Accent
Ambient Lighting
Ambient Lighting is the main source of light in a bar or restaurant, and it can be natural light or provided with electric overhead fixtures. It allows people to see and move around easily and comfortably. Used as diffuse surface-directed lighting, it can also make ceilings seem higher or walls wider.
Product Suggestions:
Correlated Colour Temperature : 3000K Warm White / 4000K Cool White
Quality of Light : Premium White , 3 SDCM
Colour Rendering Index : CRI 90Ra
Pendants Downlight Spotlight Tracklight
Task Lighting
Task Lightings are fittings applied in areas where work needs to be carried out, such as allow customers reading a menu, cash register or the kitchen. It can take the form of overhead lamps, bright linear LED lights in your kitchen, or a small table lamp on your hostess stand.
Product Suggestions:
Correlated Colour Temperature : 3000K Warm White / 4000K Cool White
Quality of Light : Premium White , 3 SDCM
Colour Rendering Index : CRI 90Ra
Pendants Downlight Spotlight Tracklight Linear
Accent Lighting
Accent lighting is typically spot lighting that draws attention to the architecture or a particular feature. It is used to construct focal points around your front-of-house area. This can be done by using light to highlight pieces of artwork or menu boards, or you can use colorful lighting behind a bar or water fixture as well as up-lighting on walls or columns.
Product Suggestions:
Correlated Colour Temperature : 3000K Warm White / 4000K Cool White / RGB
Quality of Light : Premium White , 3 SDCM
Colour Rendering Index : CRI 90Ra
Spotlight Tracklight Striplight
Smart Lighting - Color Changing, Dimming, Control via The Cloud
In restaurants and other closed establishments, lighting needs to be adjustable, manually or automatically to different occasions, times of day, amount of daylight (seasons), etc. Luminance Systems provide a series of SMART Lighting Management Systems that allow for optimised energy efficiency and provide total flexibility to the users.
The Importance of Lighting In Restaurant’s Design
When it comes to restaurant design, there are a lot of choices to make. Restaurant lighting has the power to make or break the space. Let us show you how to select the right choices of lighting by contacting us through email hello@luminancesys.com or fill out our online contact form, we will contact you to discuss further.