Another nail in the coffin

Apologies for being morbid but here at Design Week, we’ve noticed that there seems to be a growing trend for coffin design long outliving its seasonal Halloween sell-by date.

First there was the particularly elegant Diamant series of coffins and urns, created by Danish consultancy Jacob Jensen Design for coffin-maker Tommerup Kister.

Secondly, there was the altogether more amusing exhibition of Ghanaian artist Pa Joe’s adventurous coffins, which come in the shape of a fish, aeroplanes and an eagle.

So it was with great interest to see that graphic design students at Somerset College were tasked by Co-Operative funeral directors in Bridgwater to design a bespoke coffin.

The winning design, submitted by student Spencer Poole features a photo board where people could leave messages for the deceased as they paid their respects. It is intended that the coffin would allow attendees of a funeral a communal hub to reminisce about their loved one’s life.

Speaking to the BBC, Carl Middleton, head of graphic design at the college, said, ‘I thought the percentage of wholly inappropriate pieces of work would be higher. I thought we would get 60 per cent useful design, and 40 per cent of things which would be machine gun-peppered coffins but we didn’t.’