This paper analyses the influence of fashion retail store lighting on the brand classification and brand personality. Four different interiors with four specific light scenes were combined to form 16 different scenes. The fashion retail stores include stereotypes for low budget, colour, black box and minimalism, and lighting scenes with general lighting, vertical illumination, accent lighting and projection. The results revealed that the lighting had an impact on the brand classification with regard to the factors of social status and value orientation and on the brand personality with regard to the factors of temperament, competence, attractiveness and naturalness. The economic analysis of price perception in relation to investment or operating costs does not show significant correlations.

Architectural lighting provides optimum visibility for tasks but illuminations convey meanings as well. Though many studies analyze technical dimensions of lighting, research on the meaning is rare. Therefore, this article discusses semiotics as a methodology for lighting design within the design process and critically reflects the appearance of light and architecture. The semiotic discourse starts with terminology and presents models of architectural signs. The history of architectural semiotics serves as a background for the transfer to lighting and leads to an understanding of recent debates. The relevance of semiotics for lighting design is shown in three aspects: Firstly, the influence on the lighting design process; secondly, how physical characteristics of light intensity, distribution, and spectrum are interpreted as signs; and, thirdly, the evaluation of different lighting design tasks like daylight, lamp and luminaire design, interior and exterior lighting, as well as media façades. A critique of architectural and lighting semiotics reveals the methodological limitations of the linguistic concept. It can be concluded that semiotics provides a useful instrument to identify the meaning, which helps to improve the quality of lighting design. The semiotic matrix offers a differentiated view of relationships based on the aspects of sign, object, and interpretant with relation to light characteristics, illuminated buildings, and architectural lighting in general. ARTICLE HISTORY

The central focus of this study is to investigate what potential exists for brand communication in the lighting of retail outlets. Lighting not only facilitates the visual task, helping to present the merchandise and contributing to the feeling of well-being, but can also augment the communication of a brand's appearance. For this study, computer visualisations of retail outlets with different lighting variations are evaluated in terms of light, spatial setting and brand impression by regional and international groups using the semantic differential technique. A comparison between rooms with and without luminaires yet with the same lighting effect demonstrates the effect of luminaires as design objects. From the results it can be deduced that light can be used for brand communication in order to define the image of a company more clearly.

Light renders art visible in museums. At the same time, light also interprets. In this regard curators, architects, conservators, lenders, artists, and visitors often have differing expectations about how art should be appropriately displayed. This article is based on the aesthetics of image and exhibition and presents six categories of display-ranging from the objective reception of art to hyperrealism and the dynamic communication of art treasures. Differentiation occurs based on three aspects: The content within the artworks, formal aspects of the image medium, and the spatial and temporal surroundings of the work. By analyzing the artwork's brightness, contrast, and light atmosphere, curators can appropriately specify lighting for the room and exhibit to aesthetically establish a common link between the observer and the artwork or to realize a modification for emphasizing a conceptual idea. The analysis also offers criteria as to what extent the lighting concept communicates an authentic impression in relation to the perception of how the artist created the picture. ARTICLE HISTORY

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