Regardless of the space you intend to light, interior lighting design involves art and science. Designing interior lighting is a combination of a little artistic style and some scientific knowledge. Well-designed interior lighting is undeniably attractive and provides sufficient illumination for the task at hand. However, the best design in interior lighting goes one step forward: it creates a lighted environment that provides beneficent effects on the senses of, and the perception of space, by the human observer.

Because interior lighting is very important for vision, it becomes a functional element of the office environment. Although office interior lighting has its practical purpose, you can incorporate a design element to create a sense of shape, form and volume. In fact, a good office interior lighting design enhances the character and functionality of the work space by inducing a desired mood and attitude in the mind of the employees. Office interior lighting affects both the aesthetic value of the office and employee motivation. However, improperly designed, it can create a substantial demand for energy.

Because of the effects of interior lighting on the quality of work of the employees, the office environments of today put a premium on the installation of interior lighting designs that provide superior lighting coupled with energy efficiency. This trend of interior lighting is expected to continue in the future. When designing interior lighting systems for the office environment, the main goal is to provide sufficient illumination in a cost-effective way with the best-quality and most appropriate light. With the evolving technology of artificial interior lighting and greater availability in the market, this objective of interior lighting has been approached in many ways through the years.
 
The different types of office interior lighting functions that designers take into consideration when designing interior lighting include:

Accent Lighting

Accent interior lighting is focused light. Small areas or specific objects are directly illuminated for a specific purpose. While task interior lighting provides illumination in an area to allow tasks to be performed there, accent interior lighting provides illumination to highlight an area or an object.

Accent interior lighting is useful if you want the walls in your office illuminated so that their brightness provides contrast to the less bright areas, such as windows and ceilings. It can also be utilized to achieve the effect of making the space more visually comfortable. Most of the accent interior lighting is usually carried out from above, with ceiling-mounted luminaires.

Task Lighting

This type of interior lighting illuminates a task area. Task interior lighting is often situated adjacent to the surface where tasks are to be done. An example of a task light is a desk lamp. A task interior lighting for an office environment provides direct illumination and should be shielded from the worker to avoid glare. In addition, interior lighting should be positioned and lensed in such a way as to prevent eye-distracting reflections on the task at hand.

Task and Ambient Lighting

An energy-efficient option for office interior lighting is the task and ambient approach which utilizes only a single light source. This approach has been developed to get around the difficulty of designing upgrade solutions to pure ambient interior lighting situations that can adequately address the needs of all workers in as far as their visual capabilities, particular tasks and special preferences are concerned.

The single source focuses a measured intensity of light on a surface where the task is done while spreading the needed ambient illumination to surrounding areas. Task and ambient interior lighting started gaining its popularity when computers have become necessary equipment in the workplace, which required interior lighting systems that provided indirect illumination only to reduce glare, avoid veiling reflections, and evade other visual issues arising from direct lighting applications.