Mondo Arc features OVI in The Storytellers as part of their feature on the work of the founders of OVI, Jean Sundin and Enrique Peiniger.  The piece showcases the work, philosophy, and background of the two principals behind the OVI team.

THE STORYTELLERS
Office of Visual Interaction principals Jean Sundin and Enrique Peiniger use lighting to tell the story of architecture. Vilma Barr caught up with them in their NYC office to get behind the narrative.

Jean Sundin and Enrique Peiniger may be lighting designers by trade, but they are storytellers at heart. Like a team of dedicated journalists, the principals of Office for Visual Interaction (OVI) approach their projects with an investigative line of inquiry, asking questions whose answers reveal the project’s underlying narrative. They then use their novelist-like powers of creative expression to flesh out the story with the details of their design. The team even creates what they call “lighting workbooks” or visual narratives, that capture their exploratory process – research, idea creation, development and testing – for each project.

“This process allows us to explore highly integrated design solutions,” Peiniger explains. “Our philosophy is to set up a dialogue early on with the architect that enables us to understand the project and then create a lighting program tailored to their specific project needs.” Sundin adds: “The inspiration for our solutions comes from the project itself the architecture, cultural context and the
excitement it is meant to create. The final results should look like a natural extension of the architectural story already being told, as if the architect did the lighting design themselves.”

Fittingly, Peiniger and Sundin relate the story of OVI, the New York City firm that they founded in 1997, as a joint narrative written by both and then explained orally in a smooth outflow of thought. They met when both worked in a lighting design studio in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, Sundin had been a designer for Claude and Danielle Engle after earning her degree in interior design from Virginia Commonwealth University. She was involved in the planning and design of their domestic and international projects.

Mondo Arc Features OVI In The Storytellers

Find out more about the work of the OVI team: https://www.oviinc.com/work/

Find out more about the OVI team: https://www.oviinc.com/about-ovi/

Find more at: https://www.oviinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/MondoArc_2016_90_TheStoryTellers.pdf