What's wrong with this picture?

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True, we can still read the name of the development - because I was taking the picture very close to and down toward the sign.

But from the road, all you see is the giant shadow and you can't see the name of the development. 

There are three things wrong with this picture:

1) The fixture being used is too large and too apparent.

2) The light is too "hot"

3) The lighting only focuses on the landscaping and not on the commercial sign.

4) The landscaping is overgrown.

Large, ugly fixtures

Light is meant to be seen. Fixtures aren't. Interior lighting has some great decorative fixtures. And outdoor lighting also has some attractive fixtures such as path light fixtures. But, this lighting application would be much better if the fixture was not so obtrusive.

Hot spots are not good in outdoor lighting

Take a closer look at how this oversized fixture creates a "hot spot" on the flowers. It's simply too much light, too close to the photos. It gives it that "blown out" look. The blown out look basically looks like a flash going off and obscures the area that it's attempting to illuminate.

The landscaping in front of this sign is overgrown creating a challenge any way you look at it. If this fixture was all you had to work with, the best thing you could do to improve this is to cut back the landscaping giving the fixture a chance to illuminate the name of the development. 

The ideal way to design this commercial sign lighting would be to use an uplight directly in front of the sign and to use a small obscure bullet light in front of the landscaping.

How would you light this commercial application?

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What's wrong with this commercial sign lighting picture?

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What's wrong with this picture?

I wish I could have taken this picture a little later at night to show the full effect.

Here are the things that are wrong:

The fixtures are pointing in the wrong directionThe bulbs are dim and need to be replacedThe fixtures are improperly spaced

When doing commercial sign lighting, lighting the landscaping around the sign is equally as important as the sign lighting itself. The sign and landscaping create a total scene that welcomes owners home, entices future owners, and makes it easier for visitors to find the subdivision at night.

You can see by looking at the picture that the area that the fixtures are best illuminating is the mulch landscaping ground cover. A simple small adjustment of the fixture angle could do the trick in directing the light in the correct direction.

The fixtures in the photo above have an elbow on them like you see in this photo which allows for easy hand-adjustment of the fixtures.

The fixture you see here is a copper fixture unlike the one above. There are a couple advantages to using copper fixtures like this one from Outdoor Lighting Perspectives. The biggest aesthetic benefit is that the copper will patina allowing it to blend into the landscaping instead of sticking out like a sore thumb. Before it patinas, the copper is just stunning so you get the best of both worlds aesthetically.

The biggest functional benefit is that the fixture is made of solid metal. It is not painted. Therefore, you won't have any chipping and also a solid metal is much stronger than resin and other synthetic materials.

Dim Bulbs

In the photo above you will also notice how dim the bulbs are. While this photo was taken in the very early evening, you can still tell that this light fixture, although only a couple feet away, is barely casting a shadow on the bush in front of it. It's easy to let bulbs get dim because they dim slowly over time thus making it harder to tell when it's time to change them out.

Proper outdoor lighting fixture spacing

The final problem with this competitor's outdoor lighting design is that the fixtures are improperly spaced. You can see that the only two fixtures are placed close together thus "over-illuminating" one area and leaving the other area dark. The sign is actually to the right of this landscaping so that side is even more important.

It is likely that the landscaping team installed this outdoor lighting. While landscaping teams can be effective at outdoor lighting, it is not their primary business. As well all know, when investing in something critical, it's better to utilize the experts in a given area. It is akin to having our home builder decorate our homes. While they know our homes inside and out, and often get to know us during the process, and... see many beautifully decorated homes -- it's just not what they do.

Take a look to see if there is an Outdoor Lighting Perspectives near you on our locations list.

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