Week 10: Downtown Disney Decor

 So, I went to Downtown Disney as my on site blog assignment. I felt that overall, the lighting design of the outside store fronts and location was very appropriate for the fun mood of the happiest place on earth. The lights were soft and warm, and the designer also utilized different ways of lighting besides just streetlamps. The string lights made the area seem like a fun place to be, more than just a simple shopping center. The lighting was soft and warm, with no crazy angles or colors that might make anyone uncomfortable. Also, the lights in the multicolored tree lights made it seem even more festive and fun for children and adults to walk around and shop in.

The store that did a good job of lighting that I chose was the Lego Store. Although the lighting was a little overly bright for my personal taste, it did a good job of selling the product. The lighting was clean, bright, and almost sharp, much like a Lego is. In addition, they used a lot of primary colored light to appeal to young children that they would want to buy the product. In the above picture, you can see the blue lighting on the dinosaur and the towers, the red lighting on the towers, and the yellow lighting on the sphinx. You can also see the smaller bright lights that were placed all over the store. The smaller, brighter lights helped bring more light to the store, while the bigger, more focused lights projected the colors to make it more attractive to children. I personally am not into Legos, but the store was successful to me in its use of color and atmosphere.

The store that didn't work for me was the merchandise store of the Rainforest Cafe. While the outside looked very promising with its architecture and lighting, the interior was very disappointing as far as atmosphere was concerned.

                                                    

Inside, I felt blasted by the lights, where the exterior was very dim and mysterious. I wanted  a lot more of the dim and mysterious look. While I can understand that they would want to display the merchandise, I think they could have done it in a lot more subtle way. Perhaps making the interior more dim, with more focused lighting rather than a bright wash of the entire area. Also, maybe adding colors, ambers or blues, to make it seem more like a rainforest with a dense canopy... the dissonance between the interior and exterior just didn't work with me.

That being said, it was very difficult for me to find a store where the lighting dissonance was evident. I walked through the whole venue and found a lot of it was very well designed to make people comfortable within the store with the product they wanted to sell. Overall, I give downtown Disney a good grade on lighting to fit the atmosphere and theme of fun to be comfortable for people of all ages.