November 10, 2013

Beware, The New Title 24 2013 Requirements Are Upon Us! (Updated*)

*Or not, since on December 11, 2013, the California Energy Commission has decided to postpone the implementation until July 1st 2014.

While the new standards are estimated to reduce energy consumption by 25% for residential and 30% for commercial buildings, the impacts design are pretty significant. Lighting is said to currently account for approximately 30% of California’s electricity use. So, you know this will affect your project’s lighting design, but how?

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November 1, 2013

October 16, 2013

vis-a-vis Lighting Experience Center, Delhi, India

Oculus principal Archit Jain was invited to New Delhi, India to attend the launch of vis-à-vis India Pvt. Ltd.’s new lighting and outdoor furniture experience center. The event also coincided with an exhibition on Design as Social Capital, in a dedicated exhibition space inside the experience center. Amit and Hardeep Gupta, owners of vis-à-vis had invited the who’s who of India-based architects, along with what it seemed like all the lighting designers practicing in India, whether based in India or in other parts of the world.

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October 15, 2013

Lighting Design at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport

By Archit Jain

Passing by New Delhi’s HOK designed new (or somewhat new at least) Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal 3, I was struck again by how different the concourses of this this airport “feel” when compared to other airports in other cities.  I’ve flown through Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London Terminal 5, Seoul, Bangkok, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and the just opened Tom Bradley International Terminal in Los Angles and somehow the Delhi airport is still different.  So what is the difference?
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October 10, 2013

Pirch Glendale Galleria Opens

26,000+ sft, 1000+ luminaires, 1.5 years of design and construction, metal halide, LED and fluorescent, heartburn at times—it’s all done and The Pirch Store (formerly Fixtures Living) is now open.  Scott and David spent a collective 28 hours on ladders to aim the lighting in the store, and it looks great.

So  if you’re looking to build a new home, or even redo your existing one, and want to make home fixture shopping a fun experience, head on over.  They’ll even serve you a handcrafted espresso while you do so.

September 19, 2013

Goodsill in the News!

Oculus’ project, The Law Offices of Goodsill, Anderson, Quinn & Stifel, was in the news as Callison’s entry to the IIDA Northern Pacific Chapter People’s Choice Award.  We enjoyed working with Callison’s team on this project, and Goodsill is clearly happy with the design of their space, as it appears prominently on their website.

Good luck to Callison on this entry!

The full entry for all projects is available here.

August 19, 2013

Oculus visits the James Turrell Retrospective at LACMA

“Sir—keep away 4 feet from the art!” What do a bunch of lighting designers do when they see lighting art? Get in trouble of course.

The Turrell Retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is a very impressive way to experience light. Even as lighting designers used to working with a variety of lighting design projects over the years, some of us who visited the show were pretty amazed by the variety of unusual perceptual illusions created in the installations. And of course the urge to dissect the installation is always there—so in addition to legitimately poring over the details in Turrell’s displayed notebooks, we could not resist sneaking behind the magic curtain too, only to be quickly reprimanded by the guards.
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August 15, 2013

The Point Appointment

Excited to work with our friends at Lifescapes on the new The Point development in El Segundo, CA.  The 115,000 sft. shopping, dining and lifestyle destination is located at the crossroads of the Rosecrans Avenue and Sepulveda Blvd. in South Bay.

We will be working with the landscape architects to create a comfortable and pleasing shopping and dining experience for the project, while designing a strong nighttime identity.

August 10, 2013

AT&T Stores featured in All Things Digital

The AT&T new prototypical store was featured in the All Things Digital website of the Wall Street Journal.  Oculus collaborated with Callison Seattle on this project.  On completing the mock prototypical design, built in full-scale, and fully stocked, Oculus is now working on the roll-outs and further design revisions with the design team.

More posts can be found online:
“AT&T unveils next-generation store design” Chain Store Age

August 2, 2013

Oculus is Hiring! –updated

We are a forward-thinking, growing lighting design firm located in beautiful Santa Monica, California. As our firm grows, we are looking for full time entry and mid-level lighting designers to join our talented team.

Entry to Mid-Level Lighting Designers (2 positions)

You will be working in close contact with the principals and senior designers on all aspects of the art, science and business of lighting design, including marketing, design, project management, presentations and lighting calculations. You will be working on a number of lighting design projects at a time, so good time management is a must. You will be enthusiastic and resourceful, always looking for a unique perspective and a more efficient method to help us be the best. You will be a team player and collaborate with coworkers and project team members alike. You will have the opportunity to show us a better way, and implement it too. Travel would be part of the position, both domestic and international.

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July 20, 2013

Designing a “Moonlit Theater” for YouTube

With its ever-expanding base of creative content producers and viewership, YouTube has built three production facilities—in Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo—specifically dedicated to their most consistently prolific YouTube content generators. In each of these spaces, those exceptional YouTube channel stars can collaborate in studio space with audio-visual and filming equipment, all free of charge. Aside from its indoor sound stages and screening room, the Los Angeles YouTube Space also boasts of an impressive outdoor theater, seating up to 200 at a time, with a 1080p resolution projection screen and 5.1 surround sound.
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July 1, 2013

Lighting Design’s Big Night in Los Angeles–Lumen West 2013

“Surreal–a celebration of dreams and discoveries within the Lighting Design Industry”—that was the theme of the Lumen West 2013, the annual lighting design event organized by the Illuminating Engineering Societies of Los Angeles, Orange County and Inland Empire.  And then what is surreal music? That was the question that our own Scott Hatton had to answer as the guest DJ for the cocktail hour at Lumen West.
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June 10, 2013

Supporting Future Lighting Designers: The David L. DiLaura Fellowship

By Scott Hatton

Oculus Light Studio is a proud sponsor of the David L. DiLaura Industry Professor of Architectural Engineering Fellowship!  David DiLaura was a 26 year professor at the University of Colorado’s Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering department and the reason why the Lighting Design Program there is one of the top ranked in the country.

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April 4, 2013

Consumer LED Lighting in Japan

By Archit Jain

As Lighting Designers we cannot escape looking at lighting everywhere. Instinctively we look at the ceilings and critique lighting in any place we go to (just ask my wife). We also appreciate when lighting is done well, and welcome thoughtful lighting design as it raises the bar for all of us.

The same applies to products. While in a train in Tokyo recently (JR Yamanote Line in case you are familiar with Tokyo and are interested)—I came across an ad panel for a consumer grade color temperature changing LED surface mounted fixture.

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March 7, 2013

November 19, 2012

October 16, 2012

Oculus 参与设计的苏宁超级旗舰店在中国开业

Oculus,与华盛顿贝尔维尤的建筑公司MulvannyG2合作,为苏宁超级旗舰店南京店完成了灯光设计,还包括位于上海、北京和广州的连锁旗舰店。苏宁是中国最大的家电用品零售商之一, 改进设计区域包括-建筑、灯光、展示架、指路标、图像和标牌。店铺面积由97,000平方英尺 (9000平方米)到538,000平方英尺 (50,000平方米),大部分的设计仅在5周内完成!
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October 15, 2012

Oculus Designed Suning Expo Retail Stores Open in China

Oculus designed the lighting for the flagship Suning Expo Retail Store in Nanjing and other rollout stores in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou in collaboration with MulvannyG2, architects based in Bellevue, Washington. Suning is one of the largest appliance and electronics retailers in China, and the upgrade included all areas—architecture, lighting, display, wayfinding, graphics and signage. The stores range from 97,000 sft. to 538,000 sft., and the majority of the design was completed in just 5 weeks!
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September 26, 2012

5 Steps to Mall Lighting

Once you’ve seen one shopping center, you’ve seen a mall. Puns aside, what makes ‘em all not look the same, and how do you create a definite nighttime and indoor identity to the shopping center that you are designing? These 5 key lighting strategies have proven to be successful.
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August 17, 2012