Creative office lighting ideas to brighten up your workspace

The impacts of lighting  

Lighting in the workplace plays a vital role in the employee or client experience. It can impact our mood, productivity and overall wellbeing and is a core element of the office space planning process.

Lighting can change how we experience and respond to our environment drastically. In a 2018 survey of over 7,000 working professionals, 40% said that they struggle with productivity in poor lighting. What’s more, 32% said that better office lighting would make them happier at work, and 68% said they’d feel more valued by their employer if they invested in the appropriate lighting to promote wellbeing.

Lighting affects us as individuals in a variety of ways. Too much light can cause eye strain and headaches, and illness often leads to absences. Neurodivergent individuals (NDI’s) can have different reactions to lighting. Just as busy or noisy areas could be over stimulating for NDI’s, strong artificial lighting can be distracting or even overwhelming too.

Sustainability is a top priority for business leaders in 2023, and the workplace can contribute tremendously to furthering a company’s ESG efforts. Artificial lighting can make up to 15% of a building’s yearly energy use – small technical design details like swapping out incandescent bulbs for fluorescent ones can significantly reduce your carbon footprint and save you energy long-term.

There are different levels of lighting that you’ll likely need to incorporate into your space, dependent on the type of activity said space will be used for. A good rule of thumb to use is the more detailed the task, the more light you’ll need. Fuse together natural light for wellbeing and productivity, ambient light for downtime or social spaces and adjustable task lighting for a well-rounded workspace. And let’s not forget accent lighting. Using lighting solutions, like uplighters, around units and furnishings can help you add dimension and character to your workspaces.

Lighting ideas for your office

So, how can you brighten your workplace to benefit performance, create a subtle ambience and provide for a diverse range of needs? Here are four ideas to strike the perfect balance.

Maximise natural light

The most important element of office lighting is natural light. You’ll want to spend some time thinking about how you can let the most natural light into your space and ensure that your desk spaces make the most of it to boost concentration levels and improve mood.

If your space benefits from plenty of natural light, consider how to control overexposure to light – and heat. To prevent technology overheating and irritating screen glare, installing blinds is an obvious solution.

We used natural light to our advantage when working on MG Empower’s bright Clerkenwell headquarters, letting it flood meeting rooms and workspaces through ceiling panes and glass partitions

Introduce adjustable lighting

Adjustable lighting might sound like a sure-fire way to divide a workforce, but it can be beneficial to your employees and the planet. The ability to change lighting levels can benefit individuals who may be prone to overstimulation or headaches. And not only that, adjustable lighting can help you to be more energy efficient during the warmer months, where days are brighter, and lighter for longer – leaving you far less reliant on artificial lighting.

Remember to consider your field or specific task – working in a lab may require more heavily contrasted lighting for lab rooms, but someone working on a video game may need a darker than usual room. To top off, this local control can provide greater job satisfaction all around. You can see below the contrasting atmospheres in Brandpie’s social space and Brainlabs’ main workspace.

Vary your fittings based on the space

Lower ceilings can make a room feel darker, especially on lower floors or built-up areas. Often pendant and spotlights can feel one-dimensional and intrusive without other types of lighting to balance out the space. Introducing layered lighting in the form of floor, desk and wall lights can soften the room and compound your design for a more sophisticated look and feel.

GIB Asset Management’s workspace in Mayfair features a variety of different types of lighting, used to create depth, ambience and identity through shape and texture.

Use both warm and cold lighting

When and where should you use cold or warm lighting? When designing an office fit-out, lighting is what pulls a design together and accentuates its purpose.

We often use warm lighting to set the tone of a space and create an ambience in keeping with the type of space and desired utilisation. For example, walking through the doors at Vedder Price invites you to relax, stepping in from for the hustle and bustle of the City feeling immediately lighter.

The temperature of lighting can affect your mood – you might use colder lighting in areas designed for focus, concentration and productivity, like focus rooms, introducing warmer lights in more relaxed settings to enhance the aesthetic appeal and create a softer atmosphere. We created a space that really set the tone with its lighting for Transcard, with cool tones for working areas and a warm, inviting setting for clients and employees in their social spaces and front desk.

Reach ultimate efficiency and sophistication with circadian lighting

Circadian lighting is a pioneering technology that works with our natural body clocks to provide the ideal lighting conditions for employees throughout the day. For example, colder brighter lighting can be utilised towards the middle of the day, and warmer towards the end of the day, helping our bodies to find more energy during a dip in productivity and wind down later in the day.

Tips for setting up your lighting

Now that you know what lighting would work well in your space, you need to ensure that the implementation is a success and doesn’t cause additional barriers to comfort. Consider positioning of your fittings and fixtures, including floor and desk lighting, to ensure they don’t cause glare or sit directly behind a focal point. Equally, place them out of the way so that your office always feels neat and structured.

You should also consider how you’ll prepare your employees to use personal or adjustable lighting, and set up boundaries that cater for everyone to work in harmony with the use of a change management strategy. It may be right for you to gather feedback from employees both before and after installation so that you can measure improvements in working environment and make adjustments to elements that might not be working for a particular space.

Make the first move towards transforming your workplace

There’s more to lighting than meets the eye. It brings the space together, helps areas to make sense and promotes productivity and collaboration as well as wellbeing – when you make the right choices. We can help with that.

At Peldon Rose, we’re known for marrying functionality and finer detail. Get in touch with our expert office interior design team below.