Name: Jacqueline Grey (Jacq)
Title: Senior Lighting Designer
Years at VTI: Five years total — I originally joined the team, stepped away for a few years to expand my experience, and returned in 2025.
Favorite Project: The Fenway Concert Venue stands out as a career highlight. The project called for highly specific lighting solutions that we meticulously rendered in advance, and seeing the final installation match those renderings was incredibly satisfying. There is something uniquely rewarding about watching a vision translate so precisely into reality.
Funniest or Most Memorable Memory at Visual Terrain: A trip to Meow Wolf in Santa Fe with five teammates remains unforgettable. The experience itself defies easy definition — part exhibit, part story, part immersive adventure — but what made it special was seeing how differently each of us explored it. Some teammates moved strategically from room to room uncovering secrets, while others (myself included) found spaces with a particular energy and simply absorbed them. And, of course, I got to go down a slide with my service dog, Malarkey, on my lap — which is not something you can say every day.
Favorite Aspect of Lighting Design: Few people outside the design world fully realize how profoundly lighting shapes a person’s experience of a space. With light alone, you can create warmth, tension, intrigue, elegance, or playfulness. Getting to influence that emotional landscape — to quietly guide how a space is felt — is what makes this work so compelling.
What or Who Inspires You: I’m inspired by almost everything: a breathtaking theatrical performance, a brilliantly red leaf against a gray sidewalk, and countless small moments in between. Inspiration is everywhere when you train yourself to notice it.
Fun Fact About Yourself That No One Knows: I have a deep love of languages and am currently (slowly but earnestly) learning six of them.
Favorite Part About Being a Lighting Designer: Seeing a completed project in the real world and watching how it affects the people who experience it. There is nothing quite like observing patrons step into a space and respond to it — often without realizing that lighting is a major part of what they’re feeling.