AOLP Lighting Design Certification: COLD
The Association of Outdoor Lighting Professionals (AOLP) is an international trade group of contractors, manufacturers, lighting designers, landscape architects, and wholesalers from across North America. AOLP works to establish standards, educate professionals, and increase the appreciation of outdoor lighting.
The Certified Outdoor Lighting Designer (COLD) program offers an advanced level of specialized training in landscape lighting design; currently the only certification program of its kind. Participants spend 4 years in the program developing their lighting expertise. They follow a course of study, educational events, design exercises, and peer-group review of their own and others’ projects. The goal of the program is to promote design excellence, while allowing for the development of an individual’s own lighting design style.
The COLD program announced its first 14 certified professionals in 2011. Certification renewal is not required.
Other lighting certifications
There are many other industry groups that educate and evaluate lighting professionals, including lighting designers. In the series “Lighting Design Certifications: From A to Z,” we sort through the alphabet soup of lighting credentials that recognize illumination professionals as literate, competent, or even expert, in their respective fields.
Written by Lois I. Hutchinson