Congratulations to the Winners of the
2025 IESNYC Student Lighting Competition

The IESNYC is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2025 IESNYC Student Lighting Competition. The Grand Prize was awarded to Veronica Gonzalez, Clay Mohrman, and Callie Walton from the New York School of Interior Design (NYSID).

This annual event celebrates the creativity and ingenuity of students from New York City’s top design, architecture, and engineering programs, challenging them to push the boundaries of lighting design. This year’s competition theme, A Sight for Sore Eyes, invited students to explore the growing concerns around visual discomfort caused by modern LED technology. Participants developed three-dimensional design studies that addressed issues such as glare, flicker, and spectral spikes while creating thoughtful lighting solutions that prioritize viewer comfort. The competition attracted over 130 projects, with approximately 200 students competing individually and in teams.

The competition culminated in a live exhibition at the 2025 LEDucation Trade Show and Conference at the New York Hilton Midtown on March 18–19, 2025. The projects were displayed throughout the event, with the awards ceremony taking place on March 18 at 5:00pm.

Grand Prize Winners

"Soluna" by Veronica Gonzalez, Clay Mohrman, and Callie Walton
New York School of Interior Design (NYSID)

Soluna, a dining table luminaire, addresses the disruptive glare of phone flashlights in dimly lit restaurants. Designed to balance task lighting with ambient glow, its dual-mode system seamlessly shifts between precise illumination and atmospheric radiance. Featuring a precision-engineered optic and retractable flashlight handle, Soluna enhances visual comfort while preserving ambiance.

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Second Place

"Harbor Glow" by Nidhi Jairam, Pratt Institute

Third Place

"Untitled Lamp"  by Nazakat Adigozalova and Chiziterem Maduka, Parsons School of Design

"Untitled Lamp" is an inventive response to the relentless glare of non-dimmable desk lamps in our studio space. With a focus on simplicity and practicality, this design introduces rotary vellum paper "hands", each one offering a layer of light diffusion to protect the user's eyes. Understanding that a complete overhaul of the lighting system is neither feasible nor cost-effective, our solution is an inexpensive and transformative attaché that acts as a detachable lampshade, addressing a critical need without compromising functionality. The hands of the lamp not only diffuse light but also provide a tactile experience, allowing design students to engage with them during intense brainstorming sessions. Like the hands of a clock, this dynamic solution reinvents itself with every passing hour, evolving to meet the shifting demands of creativity and focus. Our proposal stands as a testament to the power of thoughtful design, offering a seamless fusion of form, function, and interaction that is tailored to the ever-changing needs of the designer.

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Honorable Mention

"Dayglow" by George Batska, Pratt Institute

Honorable Mention

"The IRIS" by Paulaine Lockward, Gabrielle Nunez, and Jiun Lee, School of Visual Arts

The human iris regulates the amount of light entering the eye by contracting or dilating to control how much light reaches the pupil. People with lighter-colored irises are generally more sensitive to glare due to lower pigment levels, while those with darker irises experience less glare sensitivity. To address this challenge, we designed The IRIS, a customizable lighting solution that adapts to individual glare sensitivity. The fixture features an adjustable density of bubbles that diffuse light to minimize glare. For individuals with lighter irises, a higher concentration of bubbles is generated, allowing light to ease the users experience, creating a softer and more comfortable illumination. Conversely, those with darker irises require fewer bubbles for optimal lighting. By tailoring the bubble density based on various iris pigmentations, The IRIS offers a personalized lighting experience that enhances comfort and reduces glare.

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Honorable Mention

"Synthetic Glimmer" by Estefania Martinez, Pratt Institute

City lights can be harsh—glaring LEDs from streetlights, blinding high beams, and flickering signs all contribute to visual discomfort. But sometimes, in the blur of brightness, beauty emerges. My piece captures this duality by transforming an urban skyline into a dreamlike experience. A zoomed-in image of a skyscraper is layered with twinkling lights, creating a hazy, softened effect. Framed as a window view from an apartment, this study imagines the city’s glow as someone drifts off to sleep, wrapped in the quiet hum of the night. The twinkling lights become artificial stars, echoing childhood nights spent gazing at constellations—only now, the sky is man-made. The muted tones mimic the way vision blurs as you close your eyes, like seeing the world without glasses, softened and distant. There’s a longing in this glow, a reminder of a time when stars weren’t drowned out by neon, when the night felt vast and full of wonder. Yet, even in this altered landscape, there’s still something kind of magical about it—a reminder that even artificial light can be beautiful. 

Honorable Mention

"Glare Guard" by Riddhi Doshi, Aronda Alvarez Martell, and Shane Moan, NYSID

"Glare Guard" is an exploration of how to mitigate the glare from blue emergency lights mounted on emergency vehicles through the manipulation of the color spectrum.

Honorable Mention

"Billow Beacon" by Zara Braun, Pratt Institute

About the IESNYC Student Competition

The IESNYC Student Lighting Competition is dedicated to our founder, Patricia DiMaggio. As an NYC educator and past president of IESNYC, we uphold Patricia’s goals of education, community, and friendly competition. Having grown from 8 students in 2000 to over 100 students today, it is a legacy which will continue to grow with all your support.

One of the goals of the IESNYC is to promote education and greater awareness about the importance of lighting and the Student Competition is one of the contributors towards these efforts. Since 2000, they have invited students from New York City Art and Design schools to participate in a city wide design competition. The competition empowers students to explore light as an art form, demonstrate light as a stimulus, and prove light as a valuable medium. Every year, students in lighting, architecture, interior design, art, product design, photography and electrical engineering programs have submitted projects, resulting in a diverse showcase of ideas and interpretations on a single theme. The IESNYC Student Competition has been incorporated into the curriculum lighting classes in several area schools and has piqued an interest in lighting design of close to a thousand design students to date.