An illumination system (10; 100) for generating light comprises: at least one a lamp assembly (14; 114) capable of generating light (17; 117) with a variable color; a controller (15; 115) for controlling the lamp assembly; a user input device (19) coupled to the controller. The controller (15; 115) is designed, on the basis of data received from the user input device (19), to generate color control signals for the lamp assembly. The controller (15) is designed, on the basis of data received from the user input device (19), to calculate a path (47) in a color space (31), to calculate the coordinates of a set of color points (E; CP(2), CP(3)) along the calculated path (47), and to generate its color control signals in accordance with the calculated color points. The illumination system may be for generating dynamic light sequences, or for generating a spatial color distribution.