Enter a dark room and flip on a light. The light spreads across the walls and tables. Darkness retreats and the room takes on a very different feel. Lighting create remarkable nuances in the ambiance of a room. Pendant lighting and Vaxcel lighting can provide a certain elegance and focus the light in a room. Whether we are lighting a room or attempting to bring light to aspects of our lives the fundamentals remain the same.

First and foremost, shadows are not the enemy. The goal of light design is not to dispel all shadows, but to shape the light, to create highlights, lowlights, and areas of focus. If a room is blasted with light removing all shadows, the space becomes less comfortable and institutional. Creative lighting can make a small room feel larger and giant halls feel warm. By illuminating specific areas the eye is led and fed the images that the designer prefers. The flat uninteresting wall can be painted with shadows to create depth and texture. The light can be focused onto the best features of the room whether it is the fishtank in the corner or the statue of Johnny Depp in the corner. Every room has its strengths and weaknesses that can be used to the best advantage. Often it is the very design obstacle that a room presents that creates the most innovative solutions and helps create a more interesting space.

In our daily lives we are similar to a room that needs to be lit. Every one on earth has strengths and short comings. Our biggest error is that we think our flaws need to be hidden. If we create our world like we might light a room we will quickly realize the first thing we need to do is to figure out what the center of focus is going to be and what other elements of our lives need to be lit up. If we throw all of our energy on all aspects of our lives it will be like trying to blast light on every corner. There will be no sense of depth or areas of detail. The entire space or life will seem washed out and cold.

A perfect lighting plan isn’t about removing all imperfections of a room or hiding them. A good plan is about incorporating them into the room, making the odd shape interesting, or turning a giant flat space into something captivating. In our everyday existence there are a hundred possible points of focus. Putting our energy, our light, onto the most important areas helps create our values, our goals and how we spend our time. In our example of lighting design, light demands energy. Energy is required for our everyday lives. Where we put our focus demands energy. If we try to place energy into every aspect of our day to day life, the emotional cost could be dramatic.

Plan a lighting design of your life. Figure out what is important, where you want to invest your effort and what can take less of your focus. Walk into a well lit room and take clues about focusing attention.

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