Image © 2009 Andrew Rubtsov; text © Mette Keating
Mette Keating is the principal / interior designer at InDeVision Interior Design. She works with business leaders to conquer the “Dead Office Syndrome” and create inspirational and productive work environments with her Office Alive SolutionTM. Mette kindly allowed us to share this from her latest newsletter:
Light in most indoor environments comes mainly from two sources (other than from our mother sun, of course): fluorescent lighting… and incandescent lighting…
The ability to distinguish between contrasts and black-and-white is not as good in fluorescent lighting as it is in incandescent lighting. Your eyes and brain have to put more effort into reading in the low energy lighting rather than the more ‘old fashioned’ type of lighting.
One of the main reasons for this is that there are only nine (!) basic colours in low energy lighting versus 1200 in incandescent lighting. And because we use the colours in the lighting to see depth and sharpness, it naturally gives us a disadvantage — a “sight handicap”.
So when you start feeling that you really can’t see the true colours of the food, your artwork, your colleagues, your own reflection in the mirror, or that you simply think that you have old and tired eyes, it might just be time to change the lighting in your space.
Hmmm, this can also explain why the clothes you buy under fluorescent lights at the store look different at home.
