Mark Carlson

ELLI Founder/ Administrator/ Educator (’19 – present)

  • Advisor: Composition And Design Series
  • Content Creator: Lighting Design Awareness

Company:

  • Avalon Lighting Design—Owner/ Lighting Designer-Contractor (’99 – present)

Education:

  • Degree: Botany (’87), Calif. State Univ., Long Beach

Certifications/ Specialties:

  • Licenced Landscape Contractor, C-27 (’92)
  • AOLP Certified Low Voltage Lighting Technician (CLVLT)–(’06)
  • AOLP Certified Outdoor Lighting Designer (COLD)–(’11)
  • AOLP Educator (’09 – ’12)—primary writer/developer of COLD program
  • AOLP Technical Writer—primary writer for revised Standards for Installation
  • IESNA Visionary Challenge 2020—selected winner for white paper
  • Book Author—’Lighting Design Awareness-Composition’ (’22), and ‘The Original Garden Lighting Book’ (’13)
  • Featured professional magazines—Professional Lighting Design, Sunset, Pro Landscaper, Landscape Contractor, Home Improvements & Remodeling, and several others
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Clientele & Service Areas:

  • Primarily Sacramento regions & N. California/ Some works in S. CA, OR, AZ, and NV
  • International projects: Playa Flamingo, Costa Rica/ Edmonton, Alberta, Canada/ Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Background Overview:
Mark has worked for four different California landscape architectural firms through his career. He served in a junior engineer’s position at Kiewit-Pacific, a western USA based company. In addition, he has worked in several management and/or leadership roles within the U.S. Army, Hunter Douglas, Wendy’s International, as well as his own businesses.

He also served in a sales role for regional development with CopperMoon lighting (’09-’11). Mark provided a blog series (’13 – ’15) to help educate and/or present controversial insights towards poor practices by landscape lighting providers. Currently, he is focused on the development and legacy of what ELLI can provide for the next generation of lighting designers.

Chris Mitchell

ELLI Advisory Board/ Educator (’21 – present)

  • Advisor: Business Series
  • Content Creator: Design-Centric Client Relationships

Company:

  • NiteLiter’s Inc.—Lighting Designer/ Trainer (’98 – present)

Education:

  • Degree: Housing Design (‘91), Univ. of Missouri
  • Assoc. Degree: Business (’91), Univ. of Missouri

Certifications/ Specialties:

  • AOLP Certified Low Voltage Lighting Technician (CLVLT)—(’06)
  • AOLP Certified Outdoor Lighting Designer (COLD)—(’11)
  • ILLI Intensive Course certificate (’11)
  • ILLI Intensive Course Mentor/ Lead Mentor (’12 – present)
  • ELLI Course certificate (Lighting Design Awareness)—(’22)
  • Sandler Sales training (’10 – ’14)

Clientele & Service Areas:

  • Primarily KY, IN, and TN
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Background Overview:
Chris has accumulated most of the landscape lighting certifications that exist in today’s market. For over 20 years, he has served as a lighting designer, installer, and maintenance service provider. His company is one of the few across the country that is a stellar model for success—utilizing systems and focused processes. He has served many years working directly with Janet L. Moyer and the ILLI mentor team.

In addition, Chris has served as Chief Experience Officer (CXO) for Amino Health (’16-’20) where he was responsible for the experiences of both the staff and patients. His unique position allowed him to gather insights on how light/lighting can affect patients. He helped to control these environments to harmoniously synchronize patient biological rhythms—this was part of the well-being experience.

George Winterling

Educator (‘22 – present)

  • Advisor: Legacy Series

Company:

  • Winterling Lighting, Inc.—CEO/ Lighting Designer (’82 – present)

Education:

  • Degree: Social Psychology & Business (’77), Univ. of Maryland
  • Graduate: Realtor Institute, Maryland
  • Educator: Landscape Lighting for Lands. Architect program—Fanshawe College, London, Ontario

Certifications/ Specialties:

  • ELLI Course certificate (Lighting Design Awareness)—(’22)
  • Featured professional magazines: Architectural Digest, Vogue, W, Millionaire Homes, and several others
  • Licensed Realtor: MD, DE, and VA
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Clientele & Service Areas:

  • Primarily Florida, California and New York/ Some works in TX, HI, MD, VA, GA, and LA
  • International projects: Bali, Indonesia, England, Italy, the Americas, China, and Caribbean

Background Overview:
George is credited with so many wonderful projects over his career—too many to list, as it all began in 1979. Initially, George worked with John Watson Landscape Illumination and established an office in Palm Beach, FL and Nassau, Bahamas. In 1982, he left this organization and established Caribbean Lighting Design and ultimately returned to the Palm Beach area. He performed his services throughout the world for elite clients and commercial projects for over 40 years.

Not only is George a lighting designer, but he is a photographer, pilot, and real estate agent. This brings an added level of insight and experience to our ELLI team. One of the aspects that most attracted ELLI to George was his means to address the challenges of landscape lighting design. George believes that lighting design doesn’t have to be done only one way—there are many ways in which to achieve positive results. He wishes to teach others so that they may find the confidence and ability to have their own style.

George is an innovator, too, as he learned many techniques during his early years with John Watson, Artistic Lighting, and William Wertz, as well as several architects, Burle Marx, John Randal McDonald, Carson Wright, Peter Marino and others. He worked with Peter Jackson of Wendel Lighting to develop new product designs. Because of this, George developed his own style of concealing light sources and selectively pruning trees to allow the internal illumination of these forms. He has been recognized for his glare-free designs and treating these environments as a ‘whole’—concepts specifically aligned with the ELLI approach.