Omer Arbel

The Vision of Omer Arbel — At the heart of Bocci is the work of designer and creative director Omer Arbel, whose approach to design blurs the line between industrial production and artistic experimentation.

Born in Jerusalem and raised in Vancouver, Arbel studied architecture at the University of Waterloo before establishing his own design practice in 2005. Rather than beginning with a fixed concept or form, his process typically starts with materials themselves—glass, metal, or concrete—allowing their natural behaviour to guide the outcome. Through experimentation, chance, and careful observation, forms emerge organically rather than being strictly predetermined.

This philosophy is central to Bocci, the Vancouver-based design house Arbel co-founded with entrepreneur Randy Bishop. Together they created a studio and manufacturing environment where designers, engineers, and craftspeople collaborate closely, enabling ideas to move fluidly from experiment to production.

Within Bocci’s Vancouver workshop, designers, engineers and artisans work side-by-side, allowing Arbel’s investigations into glass, metal and concrete to evolve directly into production. Many of Bocci’s most iconic lights are born from these experiments — where chance, gravity and material behaviour play just as much of a role as the designer’s hand.

Rather than designing a single static object, Arbel often creates a method of making. Each piece produced from that process carries subtle variations, giving Bocci lighting its distinctive character: sculptural, atmospheric and quietly unpredictable.