Walk into a dark room and turn on a light. The illumination spreads across the floors and furniture. 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 direct the light in a room. Whether we are doing light design for a room or attempting to bring light to aspects of our lives the fundamentals remain the same.

Above all, 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 beamed with bright light, the space becomes uncomfortable and unfocused. Good lighting design can make a small room feel larger and larger rooms feel quaint. By illuminating specific areas the eye is led and fed the images that the designer prefers. The flat uninteresting wall can be shaped 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 space has its positive areas and weaknesses that can be used to the best advantage. Many times 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 weaknesses. Our biggest mistake 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 whole room or life will seem washed out and cold.

A perfect lighting plan isn’t about removing all imperfections of a room or trying to cover them up. A good plan is about incorporating them into the room, using a dark spot for contrast, or turning a giant flat space into something captivating. In our day to day lives there are many possible points of focus. Throwing our energy, our light, onto the most important areas helps define our values, our goals and how we spend our time. In our example of lighting design, light demands energy. Energy is required for us to live. The places we focus require energy. If we try to spread that over every aspect of our daily world, the emotional cost could be dramatic.

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