5 Tips for the Best Display Case Lighting

Bring new light to your collection with these 5 display case lighting tips.

Display cases bring your business and products to life.

In fact, women spend an average of 50 full hours window shopping each year.

It's important to take placement, lighting, and orientation into consideration when placing your products or items in a display case. Here are 5 tips for display case lighting.

1) Use Lights Inside Shopping Displays

While typical room lighting may seem enough to showcase your products in-case, setting up lights in close proximity to your products can completely change your display's feel.

This is especially important if you are using your display case inside a store or retail business. By showcasing your products in bright lights, you can suggest their allure and sparkle. By choosing colored or dimmer lights, you can create a storefront feeling that implements brand identity and shopping mystery. Don't be afraid to be different.

Shoppers remember unique locations. By implementing a memory of super bright or super dark displays, you'll be able to brand yourself as "that" store or location. Easily stay in your customer's mind by staying unique and on-brand in this way.

2) Set the Mood with Display Case Lighting

If your display case if more for ambiance use, consider the mood your item gives off. Next, choose a complementary color to light your display case with.

Is it a shiny trophy or medal, fated to be glowing from bright lighting? Or is a photograph, that could benefit from inter-involved faerie lighting?

We all know that lighting can play a huge part in holidays such as Halloween and Christmas. Lights are used to set eerie or celebratory moods, all according to the amount of exposure and color temperature.

Take the extra step of using lighting to set the mood for your next display case. No matter the business or product offering, it's important to showcase appropriate mood to potential customers. While it may seem like a small detail to consider, it will do wonders to alter the imagery surrounding the display.

Small things like lighting and material decisions can greatly affect display experience. In addition to lighting, you may want to consider glass displays for your business. You may even find your customer interactions with the display to change over time as well.

3) Embrace the LED

Light-emitting diode lights, better known as LED lights are increasingly popular. In fact, by 2020, 69 percent of all light bulbs sold will be LEDs.

This is due to a variety of factors. LEDs are incredibly more efficient than incandescent light bulbs. They are also able to be produced in smaller sizes, allowing for a more flexible decoration or more creative project.

LEDs may be most famous for their popularity in Christmas lights, often seen as bright blue inclusions to a pine tree. However, you don't have to celebrate Christmas or any holiday to enjoy LED lights.

Using LEDs in your display case can greatly increase functionality and unique feel. By surrounding your products in LEDs, you'll be able to conserve energy and decorate more intricately with smaller lights.

So next time you check for decorative light material, consider LEDs as an alternative or type option.

4) Puck Lights for Softer Glow

Are LED strips too bright or defined for your look? Sometimes LED strips light up specific areas well, only to create harsh edges of shadow across other parts of a display.

Try using puck lights for a sweeter, more diffused glow throughout your display case. Worried about flexibility in change? The benefits of puck lights don't stop at their appearance-they are often more portable and easily transferred.

Strip lights can offer a more permanent and solid foundation within a case. With their smaller, more compact area, they are often easy to stick inside cases and around items.

However, it can be very difficult to remove strips for future use. Pucks, on the other hand, can more easily rest inside a case without permanently being attached. You can then remove them and change up your display mood, by placing them elsewhere or changing a layout. Win-win!

5) Grounded Light Fixture Bars

Yet another option for display case lighting rests within ground light fixtures. These often appear in the form of bars of light that rest along the sides of cases.

These are usually much heavier and bulkier when compared to light strips and even pucks. However, they combine the previous two for flexibility and strength.

With a rectangular grounded light fixture, you'll be able to have a relatively stable light source that is also able to be removed and moved with ease.

Since these bars are not permanently stuck on one place within a case, they can be moved just as easily as pucks. However, they can offer stronger lighting than the diffused puck offerings. Like light strips, grounded light fixture bars can offer strong illuminating power.

Next time you can't decide between the two, try a grounded light fixture instead. You may be able to achieve your intended lighting mood with an array of these alone.

Trial is Key

No matter the lights or layout you choose, using lighting in your display case will turn out differently for each user. Keep experimenting with different ideas to get the exact vibe you want.

Want to mix it up? Don't be afraid to use different types of lighting and tools within one display case. Depending on the length and depth of your case, multiple lights may even be absolutely required to achieve your goal.

Ready to create your own unique atmosphere with display case lighting? Check out how dramatic effects can be achieved through lighting alone.