Imagine trying to create a themed environment based on a classic children’s novel. All the core concepts are represented, but the colors are all wrong, there aren’t any decorations adding life and energy to the environment, there’s no sound, and the lighting is similar to that of a hospital corridor. It wouldn’t work.
This is where understanding the psychology behind themed environments becomes important.
With the right lights, sounds, and decor, people will feel as if they were just transported back into their favorite children’s stories. They know that’s not the case, but psychologically, it elicits that emotion, and emotion can be a powerful tool.
What Factors Affect a Themed Environment’s Psychological Impact?
The psychology behind a themed environment is a lot more complex than it can initially seem. With some types of themed environments, such as historical and educational spaces, it’s more important to be accurate to the theme than it is to worry about psychology.
However, psychology plays a much bigger part in any type of themed environment that is trying to elicit an emotion from visitors.
Here are some of the core concepts that create that effect when they’re handled properly.
1: Color Palette
Think of your themed environment as a painting. Not only do the colors need to match the decorations they’re on, but they need to be chosen carefully to elicit an emotion.
Color has a massive effect on the human psyche, and if you know how to use it, you can edge people toward your goal without a whole lot of effort.
For a simple example, think about how a bright, vibrant, environment makes you happy and stuck in the moment, but a dark, monotone, environment makes you feel a bit uneasy.
Color needs to be implemented correctly to work, but it does have a tremendous impact on the psychological effect of the themed environment.
2: Placement
You wouldn’t go to a theme park and expect the biggest roller coaster and all the gift shops to be right at the park’s opening. That doesn’t set the right tone.
The design of a themed environment is supposed to create an experience, and the different parts of it need to be thought of in an almost cinematic sense.
You need a beginning, middle, and end if you want to work your way to your end goal and slowly convince your visitor to achieve that goal.
That’s true whether it’s a religious environment where you want to teach, a fun display that is just supposed to entertain, or a themed environment for a corporate event designed to convert visitors into revenue.
The way you design that experience is what creates that. Starting with the smaller parts of the project and building up to a big climax.
3: Lighting
This is just as important as color in many situations. If you have a themed environment that is supposed to be happy and cheerful to elicit child-like wonder, but it’s poorly lit and doesn’t allow the color to pop, the atmosphere falls flat.
This is a difficult thing for most inexperienced people to design. Lighting is a lot more complicated than making something light or dark.
You need lights to be the right level of intensity, but you also need them directed at the right parts of the environment to create the effect you’re looking for.
We’ll talk more about this later on, but it’s best to get professional help.
4: Quality of the Architecture and Decor
Even if everything else is perfect, if the architecture and decor of your themed environment aren’t as high quality as possible, the whole thing falls apart.