Tips to Create Perfect Event Lighting

Welcome 2022! There are many events to celebrate in this new year, weddings, baby showers, anniversaries, graduations, grand openings – just to name a few! Joy and excitement fill our hearts as we come together and connect through these special occasions. Event lighting can have a drastic impact on your event. Expert designers know how to express elegance and ambiance throughout your theme to create a truly unforgettable experience. Here are our tips to get the process started.

Know your Theme and Aesthetic

No matter what event you are celebrating , lighting has the ability to transform the mood, whether it’s reflective and serene or colorful and upbeat. Think about the event and how you want your guests to feel. Are you going for sleek and sophisticated? Are your guests mostly families with children? Is it a celebratory party versus a business-focused conference? Bold lighting schemes can energize a crowd, while soft color schemes can relax your guests. You’ll want to share all the details about the look and feel that you’re aiming for with your lighting designer.

Focus On Your Color Scheme

Once you know your theme and aesthetic, you can focus on your color scheme. This is a fun process and allows you to be imaginative while creating the mood for the event. When choosing a color, or color palate, decide what the primary color is going to be and then what complimentary colors will be included. Consider the overtone you want to achieve, such as dramatic, glamorous, elegant, or casual. You can go bold with your main color while adding a soft accent or vice versa. Some popular color combinations include blue with silver or gold, black with champagne or white, plum with ivory, red with black, and fuchsia with apricot.

Implement Functional and Directional Lighting

It helps to thoughtfully examine where your guests will enter and exit the space and how they will maneuver and experience their surroundings. When guests arrive, does a path need to be lit? Is there key signage for navigation? Once your guest is inside, are there bars, buffets, stations, or specific seating that you want to highlight? Is there a stage or podium? Are the restrooms visible? Are there logos you want to project and promote? Ensure that you go over the floor plan and design strategy accompanied by a live walkthrough to get a full scope of your event space.

Locate Your Ambient Lighting

Ambient lighting (general lighting) is used to create contrast and natural lighting in your space. Warm ambient lighting welcomes people into a space and can elevate the atmosphere energetically. LED lights are an excellent choice for ambient lighting. LED lights are exceptionally efficient, have a long lifespan, and are inexpensive compared to other light sources. This means you will be able to use less electricity to produce the same amount of ambient light. Regardless of whether your event will take place during daylight hours or after dusk, it’s beneficial to schedule your lighting test for the same time of day on the day before the event, so you’ll know what to expect.

Have Fun with Lighting Effects

Lighting effects like patterned gobos (light projection of corporate logo or patterned design), color transitions, dynamic video, and similar options can be immersive and yield stunning results. Even a simple design can be surprisingly effective in the right space. Gobos or dynamic video include various features that can transform a static space into a magical atmosphere. Lighting projectors can adjust the focus, angle, width, brightness, and color of an image to produce incredible effects. Other lighting techniques worth checking out include image pixel mapping, video pixel mapping, and LED happy tubes.

Choose the Right Event Lighting Designer

Choose experienced lighting professionals who are committed to the entire process from consultation and design, installation, disassembly, and management services. The goal of your designer is to translate your vision into your dream event, through listening and working with you to showcase your celebration. Here at Mobile Illumination, we strive to turn an ordinary event into something extraordinary! Click here to speak with a Mobile Illumination team member today!

Want to see more landscape lighting designs? Check out our photo gallery!