Increasingly complex lighting schemes are being applied in retail. EC&M explains how Levi's used lighting to brand its new flagship store in Berlin.
he retail industry has reached a new era. Shopping is no longer seen as a necessity but as an experience. Step into a typical high street store today and you are more likely to be greeted by a bank of massive video screens than a shelf full of jumpers. And playing a lead part in enhancing the new image that the stores are aiming at are the lighting schemes.

One of the companies to take up the challenge in this new era is Levi's. Its London Regent Street branch opened earlier this year to great acclaim and the latest addition to its network of flagship stores has just been completed in Berlin.

Interior designer Checkland Kindleysides commissioned lighting design consultancy Into to develop the concept for the Berlin store; the company was also responsible for the lighting at the London branch.

The main challenge facing the team was how to encourage customers to the main sales area on the first floor of the shop, past the ground and mezzanine levels. Branding was the answer. The interior designer wanted to create a "brand-focused retail experience" that used a concept that runs throughout Levi's flagship stores.

The idea behind the concept is that all flagship stores be instantly recognisable and associated with the company. The branding applied to Levi's clothes had to be transferred to its stores – with the colour blue inevitably featuring strongly.

Here, the colour starts from the moment customers enter the store, with a breathtaking nine metre-high glazed lift shaft. This has been covered in blue film and internally lit at high and low level with high intensity blue floodlights. As the lift leaves the ground floor the floodlights shine an intense blue through its base. Blue metal halide lamps are concealed within the front fascia of the lift doors to reinforce the message.

Levi's products are also introduced at this stage. A ten metre-high wall was created by cutting back the mezzanine level to increase the view of the first floor on entry to the store. This is coloured red and holds a giant jeans graphic. A series of 150 W constant colour metal halide Sill floodlights are mounted on a suspended column in front of the wall – these have been painted in the same red as the wall to enhance the colouring.

The Levi's concept also demands a flexible retail space, so product shelving is concealed behind a series of moveable gates. These are lit from behind using concealed fluorescents through translucent material to add colour and highlight the products.

Two important aspects of the project were the need to reuse the existing lighting system from a recent refit, and to maintain consistency with other Levi's stores to retain the brand identity.

The existing lighting comprised of a combination of Erco 70 W constant colour ceramic halide Eclipse floods and Quinta projectors alongside a number of Erco 90 W tungsten halogen capsule Quinta medium beam spotlights. Their performance was similar to that used in the other stores. But the layout had to be changed to suit the structural changes made, especially in the entrance area.

The flagship concept demands that services be concealed at high level behind suspended ceiling rafts. Hence, the lighting track was removed and reinstalled within the new ceiling layout. The tracks were set at a slightly higher level than the rafts so that the luminaires are semi-visible, while not interrupting the plane of the ceiling.

With shopping becoming one of the top leisure pastimes in the UK, we can now look forward to an inevitable increase in the creation of the retail experience.