Note from Stephanie
August 8, 2025
By Stephanie Freedman
This year marked my third time serving on the Lumen West Awards Gala committee—and my first time chairing the event. With a background in event coordination before joining Oculus, stepping into this role felt like a natural fit. Surprisingly though, the biggest challenge was finding a venue in Los Angeles. We needed a location that could accommodate 400 guests and offer three separate spaces for cocktails, the awards ceremony, and dinner. You’d think that would be easy in a city like LA—but it definitely wasn’t.
After a couple of months of scouting, calling, emailing, and probably spending more time on venue websites than anyone should, I narrowed it down to three places that fit the budget. We ended up choosing the Skirball Cultural Center—and it was perfect.
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Note from Leslie
July 28, 2025
By Leslie Crapster-Pregont
Growing up in northern Wisconsin, my elementary school career ambitions rapidly evolved from teacher to lawyer to a physician that specializes in sports medicine. My career dreams were a mirror image of my surroundings; all lofty aspirations and admirable occupations that my skillset never aligned with. Ultimately, I slowly turned my passion in lighting into a career through a squiggly trajectory, a series of trial and error, until I found myself as an architectural lighting designer at Oculus Light Studio – for students in Los Angeles, SoCal NOMA’s Project Pipeline Summer Camp now offers a more direct route.
This year, SoCal NOMA hosted its 16th annual Project Pipeline Summer Camp. It’s aptly named “Project Pipeline” as it sparks the interest of Middle School students, provides foundational skills in architectural design for High School students, and offers internship and observership opportunities for college students – it provides a structure for those entranced by the creative world of design and construction, and shows them a path for turning a passion into a career.
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July 11, 2025
Located in the largest Vietnamese American community in the US, the Marian Gardens at Our Lady of La Vang Shrine honors a Marian apparition significant to Vietnamese Catholic history. Designed as a physical representation of the Rosary, Marian Gardens offer a winding path that guides worshippers through four shrines, each shrine offering a distinct space for meditative prayer of each decade (set of prayers in the Catholic faith that represent a segment of Jesus’ life).
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May 22, 2025
Last week, our Seattle team had the pleasure of attending the 2025 IES Gloria Koch Leonidas Illumination Awards, hosted by IES Seattle at Block 41 in Belltown. The evening brought together a vibrant community of lighting professionals to celebrate outstanding projects from across the region. With multiple awards presented among various categories, it was an inspiring night highlighting the innovation and artistry driving Pacific Northwest lighting design.
We’re thrilled to share that our project, St. Callistus Chapel, received the IES Seattle Gloria Koch Leonidas Illumination Award for Interior Design. This recognition is especially meaningful for our Seattle team, as it marks our very first submission to the local IES chapter, and our first award.
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Note from Leslie
August 23, 2024
By Leslie Crapster Pregont
I still remember when I was 5 or 6, going with my Girl Scout Troop to the local theater for a tour. We were invited backstage, and I was given a lighting gel to hold in my hand. The feeling of the crinkly blue square in my hands is forever embedded in my memory. That experience for me was the first step on a lifelong journey navigating my way through performing arts, theater, lighting, and eventually, architectural lighting.
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Note from Stephanie
July 3, 2024
By Stephanie Freedman
Stephanie Freedman, Oculus’ Marketing and Business Manager, put in many hours of work with the Lumen West Event Committee organizing this very successful show. We are so proud of her work assisting the local lighting design community.
The annual lighting design gala of Southern California, the Lumen West Awards were a grand success this year. Tickets were completely sold out two months before the event and nearly 100 projects were submitted for consideration. A total of 33 awards were presented, including 24 awards of merit and 7 awards of excellence.
Oculus proudly received an Award of Excellence for the Google Visitor Experience project in Mountain View, CA. By the end of 2023, this project stood as the largest new construction project to achieve the Living Building Challenge’s (LBC) Materials Petal Certification, a significant accomplishment in its own right.
From a personal standpoint, I had the pleasure of serving on the Lumen West committee for the second consecutive year. Drawing from my background in event planning, it was a rewarding experience to contribute to an organization highly valued by colleagues.
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July 28, 2023
This summer Oculus’ Archit Jain and Leslie Crapster-Pregont volunteered at SoCalNOMA’s Project Pipeline Summer Camp where they worked with kids aged 10-18. The camp is designed to help spark interest in the architectural field to underrepresented communities here in Southern California, so they may consider pursuing careers in the field.
The lighting module for the camp included lighting guides, a mini-lighting expo with 8 lighting product representatives with custom-designed spec sheets, and a lighting demo room which included daylighting, color, and beam spread demonstrations.
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May 30, 2023
This year LightFair was held in May in The Big Apple – New York City – at the Javits Center. Five from the Oculus team attended and four were also selected to present on a variety of topics.
On Tuesday May 23rd, Archit Jain participated in a panel alongside Mariel Acevedo of ALR and Jeff Woodrum and Kurt Hamilton of Cherry City Electric, where they discussed the essential parts of the design process and working together to get the perfect end result. Archit was the designated “designer”, Mariel the “rep”, Kurt the “budgeter” and Jeff the “builder”.
It was lively dialogue about how lighting designers can design in a way that makes the construction process a little earlier, and how contractors can coordinate better with the design team.
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March 23, 2023
The International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) SoCal Chapter hosted a pre-Chase the Dark event on Sunday at Pasadena Stained Glass, where we all created stained glass suncatchers – a perfect tool for shadow play! Glass-masters Janel and Elise expertly guided us through the process of cutting, foiling, soldering, and polishing our works of art. As shadow play comes to life around the world during this year’s #IALDChaseDark, we decided to showcase textured and colored glass sparkling to life under a beam of light. A reminder that lighting is not just about the fixture or source, but how it interacts with the environment around itself. Thanks to IALD’s SoCal Coordinator, and Oculus designer, Leslie Crapster-Pregont for putting together this enlightening event along with help from our generous sponsors Targetti and Performance Lighting Systems.
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September 8, 2022
2022 marks the ten-year anniversary of Oculus Light Studio. Over this time, it has become a thriving firm that collaborates with architects and designers to deliver quality lighting design solutions that not only illuminate spaces but also enhance lives.
With a decade of highly technical knowledge and expertise under our belt, we never lose sight of the fact that we are creating spaces for people. We are a diverse team located in Los Angeles and Seattle and we are approachable, inclusive and always open to new ideas.
The care we take in every part of our work shines through – in the design of our wide-ranging projects, and in our professional approach to our work. Throughout our 10-year journey, we have assembled a series of ideas that drive our practice. Ten of these have guided us for the past ten years and continue to drive us forward. These are: be collaborative, creative, nimble, meticulous, purposeful, humble, fearless, charitable, impactful, and exemplary.
With over 90 lighting design awards, including Lighting Design Magazine’s Emerging Lighting Design Practice of the Year (2019) and Architect’s Newspaper’s Best of Practice Award for Lighting Designer in the West (2021), our future is bright! Many thanks to all of our collaborators and here’s to many more brilliant outcomes.
Note from Likhitha
March 8, 2022
By Likhitha Rangaswamy
Change cannot be achieved in isolation, and when I was asked to host the International Women’s Day event for WILD (Women in Lighting + Design), it became the perfect opportunity to tie in this year’s IWD theme, #BreakTheBias. This global campaign is set to raise awareness around bias, and to encourage action toward women’s equality. Bias, whether deliberate or unconscious, is holding women back in the workplace—with lower pay and positions, lesser opportunities, and inadequate family support. With a focus on building workplaces without barriers so women can thrive, the campaign seeks to elevate the visibility of women creatives, and to continue inspiring women to pursue their goals freely.
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November 20, 2020
With the holidays rapidly approaching, Oculus is keeping a positive attitude for the new year. Here’s what each of us is thankful for this year:
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April 17, 2019
Last week, Los Angeles’ LGBT Center had its grand opening of the Anita May Rosenstein Campus. This 2-acre campus will help expand their services to more of the LGBT senior and youth community. Oculus Light Studio had the privilege to work on this project with Killefer Flammang Architects. This mixed-use center includes a recreation room, Youth Center, Senior Center, 100 beds for homeless youth, and a Youth Academy as well as administrative offices.
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April 5, 2019
This week, Principal Archit Jain spoke alongside two other industry professionals at the Designer’s Lighting Forum hosted at the RDC/Studio111 offices (lighting design by Oculus!). With a mix of architects, interior designers and lighting industry people, this 50-person turn-out was quite a success! Archit’s presentation included valuable information on lighting design for international clients, and how to successfully propose and negotiate those contracts.
International work provides Oculus with a chance to meet new people, work in new locales, on different kinds of projects and creating design solutions that may be entirely unique. From a business perspective, international work also helps by hedging bets across regions.
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January 24, 2019
Oculus Light Studio got involved with the local community by working with DaVinci Rise High School in neighboring El Segundo. We guided their architecture class through the lighting design for their mobile learning center. The overall project was designed by Gensler, managed by Houston/Tyner architects, and hand-built by the students. They installed concealed strip-lights to provide indirect ambient illumination, recessed linears at task areas, and decorative pendants throughout, creating a comfortable and inviting environment for learning on the go! A big thank-you to all the lighting manufacturers who donated or discounted their lighting fixtures to make this possible.
November 1, 2018
Check out this recent Los Angeles Times article featuring Leisuretown, a brewery, bar, retailer and food hall complex being built at 549 Anaheim Blvd. in Anaheim, CA. Modern Times, the project’s main tenant, will be set in a restored two-story, historic craftsman home and two re-purposed commercial buildings. This in-construction cultural hub will bring in the local community, which will surely also lure guests visiting California’s major theme park Disneyland. Anaheim is seeing an explosion of breweries opening up, particularly with a much lower permitting cost compared to Los Angeles.
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October 22, 2018
Blue Ribbon Sushi and Hank’s have recently opened up inside the new Palisades Village upscale shopping center. Oculus Light Studio had the opportunity to work alongside Asfour Guzy Architects on these beautiful designs. Check out these intimate restaurant spaces, which were recently mentioned in Eater LA!
The tranquil dining environment at Blue Ribbon Sushi is surrounded by warm lighting that accentuates the beautiful color of the wood panels and the dark ceiling and walls at Hank’s have a soft reflection from the glowing divertive fixtures that provide a retro feel.
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September 18, 2018
Get ready for the new 28,000 sf shark and sea predators exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium, where visitors will be immersed inside a world filled with the likes of hammerhead sharks, sand tiger sharks, tiger sharks, and sandbar sharks, oh my!
“Sharks are one of the most misunderstood species in the ocean,” says John Kasman, Vice President at PGAV Destinations.“The goal of the new shark habitat is to provide a fresh perspective on the vital role sharks play in our oceans’ health, and educate guests about the significant threats these animals face from over-fishing and habitat loss.”
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May 21, 2018
Can you spot the Oculus lighting design project, Saks Brickell Miami, in Drake’s new music video for his hit single, God’s Plan? We sure did!
Around 2.28 mins into the video try and catch Drake inside the luxury department store as he giving away his entire music video budget to his fans, we thought it was pretty cool!
We can’t blame this spot for being chosen… the twinkling of the ceiling downlights and chandeliers are a great backdrop for the hip hop star and of course the lighting needed to be ‘camera ready’ for the music video set.
Watch it for yourself!
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