When 80’s new wave band Devo lost their co-founder Bob Casale his family turned to a new 3D printed urn company to turn his remains into a tribute worthy of the music icon. Foreverence created an urn in the iconic shape of the legendary energy cone hat that has become an almost universally recognizable symbol for the band.
The funeral industry has been undergoing a rather rapid change lately. In the past few years more and more people have begun turning to cremation instead of burial as practicality and cost become more important when dealing with loved ones’ end of life choices. Industry experts expect that up to 70% of North Americans will choose cremation within the next few years. If people are choosing to keep their loved ones remains, then being able to create an urn that suits the style and personality their nearest and dearest seems an obvious use for 3D printing.
To Foreverence, the energy dome hat was an obvious choice when designing Casale’s urn. While cost and practicality were probably not factors to his surviving loved ones, creating something worthy of his legacy was. The iconography of Devo’s signature headwear is undeniable, and with modern 3D printing and additive manufacturing techniques they can create a custom designed and 3D printed urn in just about any shape that you can imagine. And the process is greener and leaves much less of a carbon footprint than many other options.
Co-founders of Foreverence Pete Saari, Wally Danielson and Noah Miwa wanted to use 3D printing as a way to help their customers remember their loved ones, and to them that meant focusing heavily on the design process and helping their clients pick the perfect urn.
“We want to be remembered for the life we led — our experiences, triumphs and everyday actions that made us unique,” says Saari “This has always been about helping people discover life’s greatest meaning. We welcome the opportunity to help customers and funeral service providers alike, elevate the conversation to appropriate expressions of legacy.”
You can have a custom made urn created for you in a range of materials including ceramic, metal and several composites and plastics. If you’d like to learn more about the process you can visit Foreverence at their website or ask questions on their Facebook page.
The idea, as with anything that deals with death, seems rather morbid. But these are the choices that eventually all of us will have to make either for ourselves or for a loved one. I’m not going to even try to envision what I would choose for any of my loved ones, but I have thought a little bit about what I would choose for myself. That being said, I’m not sure how happy my surviving family would be about my final resting place being a large piece of bacon but IF my remains have to be stored in a small box for eternity, it might as well be something that I loved.
