Arcade in a shopping mall: using entrance lighting to pull people in from the corridor

An arcade inside a shopping mall does not get to choose its visitors. They walk past on the way somewhere else, and the entrance has a few seconds to change their plans. Inside a mall the entrance is also usually the only part of the venue that can be seen from outside, so it carries more of the job than a street-front arcade would. This guide is about making those few seconds count.

What does the corridor see?

Stand in the mall corridor and look at the shopfront. Three things are visible: the opening itself, whatever is directly inside it, and the ceiling beyond. Each can be lit.

The opening. An illuminated entrance frame, tunnel door, or arch built to the size of the shopfront turns the boundary into a feature. It is visible from a long way down the corridor, and it is the one element that says “this is an arcade” before any game is seen.

Directly inside. The first few meters inside the opening are the shop window. A feature wall here, or a cluster of wall modules in the venue’s colors, is what people see when they glance in.

The ceiling beyond. A single large ceiling piece, placed on the sightline from the corridor, shows through the opening and gives the interior depth. A giant saucer or a ring with satellite saucers, hung so that it is visible from outside, does more from the corridor than a dozen fittings deeper in the floor.

The sign

The mall will have rules about signage on the shopfront: size, height, sometimes brightness. Inside the opening the rules are usually the venue’s own. An infinity mirror sign or an illuminated sign carrying the name, placed just inside the entrance where it is seen from the corridor, keeps the name visible without depending on the fascia sign.

Working with mall rules

Most malls set limits on the fascia, on anything that projects into the corridor, and on flashing. Three practical answers:

• Keep the entrance frame within the shopfront line, so it is the venue’s own fitting, not a projection into common space.
• Program slow color changes at the entrance. Slow changes are rarely restricted; chases and strobes often are.
• Wire the entrance to its own controller, so it can be dimmed for the mall’s evening rules without touching the interior.

Inside, the scheme continues

The entrance promises what the interior delivers. The same color family and the same kind of fitting continue inside: linear runs from the entrance toward the prize counter, wall modules marking the zones, the ceiling feature already seen from the corridor now overhead. A visitor who comes in because of the entrance should not find a different venue inside.

What to send

A floor plan, a photograph of the shopfront from the corridor, the shopfront dimensions, and the mall’s signage rules if you have them. The first 2D lighting plan follows within a few working days, with the entrance as the first decision.

See the entrance lighting page for frames, arches, and signs, and the arcade and game center solutions page for the rest of the scheme.