Mission:

“To Educate and To Separate.” This is a simple statement, but it reflects the purpose of what ELLI wishes to accomplish. The focus of ELLI is to teach new concepts that will greatly advance the discipline of Landscape Lighting Design.

How ELLI Intends To Educate and Separate:
Educate
  • Online Video Training
  • Skills Proficiency Training
  • Personalized Mentoring
  • Personalized Studies & Reviews
Separate
  • Defined Practices & Roles
  • Established Parameters & Criteria
  • Understanding Compositional Principles
  • Teaching Affective Lighting Design Skills

History :

ELLI was established in January of 2019 as an Educational Resource for the practice of Landscape Lighting Design. It was developed and operated by Mark Carlson. However, this morphed into a multi-educator platform after 2020, where Mark selected other leading landscape lighting professionals to aid in this offering.

In January of 2024, ELLI launched a membership program that was to serve as a financial stream to aid in its expansion. The goal was to acquire a team of highly experienced professionals that ELLI could pay to serve this profession. However, the lack of membership made its offerings unsustainable. In 2025, Mark became the only educational provider so as to salvage the programs. Although this was considered a setback, it actually became a benefit for ELLI because Mark was able to focus his efforts on the development of ELLI’s advanced training that will launch by 2027.

Future :

ELLI will no longer offer a membership program starting in 2026. It will operate as a “Pay-to-Play” offering per individual needs. In doing so, this will allow Mark and ELLI operations to be paid properly for their contribution to the profession. The ELLI video library has a full offering of educational videos to aid landscape lighting practitioners in their educational advancement.

ELLI will offer its classes for two purposes: 1) professional advancement with certification, and 2) casual, knowledge and learning without certification. Pre-recorded training classes will be categorized by groupings that are called Series. Please see Online Training and Live Training pages.

Over the next two years, Mark Carlson will finish the development of a new, advanced training program called ‘Affective Lighting Design.’ This program will allow current landscape lighting designers the opportunity to advance beyond what is currently offered to the lighting industry. In addition, this will be a conditional training program offered only to those who are willing to follow the program steps. This is and will be the future of our profession. The goal of this new program is to develop the next generation’s leaders in this art form. Please see Emotion & Light page.

Conceptually, ELLI’s educational offering will be broken down into two basic programs:

  1. Landscape Lighting Design — this education and training will be considered our Foundational Level offering, and it is the first step towards true lighting design advancement. Classes will be organized into three (3) categories or series: Designer series, Technical series, and Art series. Please see the Online Training page.
  2. Affective Lighting Design — this education and training will be considered our Advanced Level offering. This is the second step of advancement and participants must complete the Foundational Level prior to taking any of these classes. Classes will be focused on special development to provide atmosphere and mood, as well as a deeper understanding of the psychology of light and emotion.