Visual Terrain, a leading lighting design company, is celebrating a milestone year. In 2025, the company reached its largest size in nearly 20 years, hiring four new team members to bring its staff to 16.
After hiring production designer Amber Montoya to close out 2024, Visual Terrain added senior lighting designer Jacqueline Grey and lighting designers Madeline Miller and Max Okst in the latter half of 2025.
Each of these employees brings new hues to the company’s palette. Grey is a returning employee, having previously worked for Visual Terrain from 2019 to 2022. She worked for an engineering firm in the Pacific Northwest before returning to Visual Terrain and picked up considerable skills in Title 24 and other technical areas.
L to R Jacqueline Grey (and service dog Malarkey), Madeline Miller and Max Okst
Miller is a recent graduate from Carnegie Mellon University and is the first Visual Terrain lighting designer with an educational focus on sustainability. She will lead Visual Terrain’s sustainability efforts, helping to educate clients on how to achieve lighting designs with a smaller environmental impact and carbon footprint.
Okst received his Master’s degree from Cal Arts and returned to Visual Terrain as a full employee after interning in 2024. In addition to lighting design, he brings a design management focus to Visual Terrain and has already begun managing the firm’s many music venue projects alongside principal lighting designer Mike Mahlum.
While Grey and Miller are in the Los Angeles area and will work out of the main office, Okst is in the New York City metropolitan area and will help extend Visual Terrain’s east coast US presence.
Industry recognition
The year also turned out to be a bountiful one for industry recognition, as the company received multiple awards.
The River of Lights installation (pictured, top) in Santa Clarita, California, US, received the APWA (American Public Works Association) High Desert Branch’s 2025 Innovative Design of the Year. The principal designer was Steven Young, and the associate principal production designer and lighting programmer was Steeve Vajk.
Mayor Clayton’s WonderLab at Give Kids the World Village
Mayor Clayton’s WonderLab at Give Kids the World Village in Kissimmee, Florida, USA, received a Lumen West Awards Award of Merit for Interior Lighting Design. The senior lighting designer was Christina J. Martin, and the associate principal production designer and lighting programmer was Vajk.
Brooklyn Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, New York, US received a LIT Award for Interior Architectural Illumination. For this project, the principal designer was Mike Mahlum, the senior lighting designer was Grey, and the associate principal production designer was Vajk.
Brooklyn Paramount Theater
The Vibrant Music Hall in Waukee, Iowa, US, also received a LIT Award Honorable Mention, with the project team being the same as the Brooklyn Paramount Theater project.
Meanwhile, Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center received a Merit Award in the Exhibition category at the 2025 SEGD Global Design Awards. For this project, the principal designer was Young.
The Chimelong Spaceship at Chimelong Resort, Hengqin, Guangdong, China, received a 2025 Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement from the TEA. Visual Terrain contributed to show lighting and programming with principal designer Young and lighting designer Nicole Eng.
Elsewhere, The Priddy Family Foundation Freedom Theater at the National WWII Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, also received a Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement. The principal designer was Young, and the senior lighting designer and lighting programmer was Lucius Lee.
In addition, Lisa Passamonte Green, Visual Terrain’s CEO and principal-in-charge, was recognised as a blooloop 50 Theme Park Influencer.
At IAAPA Expo, the company learned it would receive a Thea in 2026 for WishWorks at Make-A-Wish Southern Florida at the Finker Frenkel Wish House in Miami, Florida, USA. Visual Terrain did the lighting design for the project with senior lighting designer Eng and associate principal production designer and lighting programmer Vajk.
Several successful projects
Visual Terrain also opened multiple projects during the year.
In addition to River of Lights, which the company had worked on for three years, it also opened multiple music venues for Live Nation, an exhibit on the Battleship USS Iowa, a retirement community and a low-income housing project in the Los Angeles area, and Netflix House locations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Dallas, Texas, US, as well as other NDA projects.
Principal lighting designer Young also opened three theatrical shows, including Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Come From Away, and The Play That Goes Wrong, at the La Mirada Theater in La Mirada, California, US. He also supported a lighting mockup for an NDA project in Tennessee alongside lighting designer Austin Kelm.
L-R: Steven Young, Amber Montoya, Max Okst, and Madeline Miller at Give Kids the World
During IAAPA Expo 2025 in Orlando, Florida, the Visual Terrain team volunteered their time and visited Give Kids the World Village in nearby Kissimmee to focus lights on The Avenue to enhance the guest experience at night.
“I love that we can contribute to Give Kids the World,” says Passamonte Green. “It is some of the most gratifying work that we do, and I’m grateful that the company can do work that has a true impact.
"The team at GKTW is the best, and we so enjoy working with them. The fact that Mayor Clayton’s WonderLab received a Lumen West Award earlier this year shows the world that pro bono work can still be first-rate. Our team was inspired to deliver real quality.”
She adds:
“I am so grateful for the year we’ve had. Our company tagline the past two years has been, ‘Experience you can trust to take you into the future'.
"2025 really just exemplified that focus with our senior designers receiving some amazing rewards that recognized their experience and skills, while at the same time, we grew the team with incredibly bright, fresh, young talent that will help us continue to lead in the lighting design space in the future.
"And although they aren’t named on any awards, we couldn’t get things done without our operations team of David Green, Michelle Malakoff, and Lilian Moseley, as well as our production specialist, Mallory Paddock.
“I’m very thankful to blooloop for my recognition, and for helping to elevate Visual Terrain’s platform worldwide. We look forward to continued growth and challenges in 2026.”
See also: Lighting the way: Visual Terrain’s 30 years of creativity & innovation
