A face-lit waveguide illumination system employing a waveguiding substrate and one or more light sources, such as light emitting diode (LED) devices. The waveguide illumination system further includes one or more elongated light coupling elements attached to a broad-area surface of the substrate with a good optical contact and disposed in registration with the respective light sources. Light emitted by the light sources is received on the elongated light coupling elements and is propagated along the longitudinal axis of the elements in response to optical transmission and a total internal reflection resulting in coupling at least a substantial portion of such light into the waveguiding substrate. The coupled light is distributed over the waveguiding substrate and emitted from a predefined area of the substrate's surface.