What Is A CMD?

A Custom Memorial Design (CMD) is a one of a kind piece of art that tells a visual story about someone who has died. Although I started designing CMDs for bereaved parents, a CMD can be created to honor anyone. CMDs bring comfort to the bereaved and offer a way to honor loved ones who have passed on.

Each design includes the person's photograph, name, birth/death dates and other meaningful photographs or images melded together in a collage using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

A CMD can be applied to a variety of products, such as;

• Window Clings
• Memorial T-Shirts
• Prints for framing

Previous customers have also posted the JPG image of their CMD to Blogs, memorial web sites, and profile signature images on support forums.

A CMD could also be used to create invitations for a memorial event.

 

Tracey loved the ocean, elephants and her homeland of South Africa.	Verle loved her Family, Hawaii and turtles.	This CMD illustrates a very special place and time for Christan's Mom.

 

What is the purpose?

 

Life moves by so fast, and when we experience the death of a loved one, life continues to move forward at warp speed through making burial, funeral, and various other arrangements. By the time our loved one's service has ended, most are lucky to have a day or so before being called back to everyday life. The continuation of life's responsibilities forces us to pull up our boot straps and get on with it, without our loved one.

Many people deal with loss by burying their grief. Shoving it deep down inside and denying the tears they are entitled to shed for the loss of their loved one, is medically proven to be the cause of a variety of often severe medical problems.

Sometimes when loss is so devastating, and life shattering, like the loss of a child, parents struggle a great deal with society's expectations versus their own need to work through the grief process at their own pace. Death is an uncomfortable subject for most, so the grieving go without true support in coping with their grief, and in turn feel as though their loved one has been forgotten.

A CMD helps others SEE the person, and not just think of them as dead and gone. A CMD is a visual reminder that this person is dearly loved, and will never be forgotten. The people who love them, and grieve for them, desperately want others to remember and talk about their loved one, CMDs help cultivate an environment for that to happen.

Previous customers whom have lost a child, stated in a poll that their CMD has helped them on their grief journey.

• 79% said they would feel honored to receive a CMD as a gift and that it would mean a lot to them
• 59% say they have a special area in their home dedicated to their loved one Ex:memorial table

Research shows that throughout history, people want others to know they are grieving. Displaying one’s grief over the death of a loved one, through one’s personal presentation (dress or added ornament) dates back to Ancient Greece, and continues throughout world history.

"Jack Jensen, spokesman for the California Funeral Directors Association, says these new kinds of memorials are part of the same impulse people have always had - to express that a person mattered and to remember them. But technology is giving people more ways to do this, beyond a memorial in a graveyard." ~Christian Science Monitor (May 25 2006)

"These days car owners are increasingly using their vehicles as rolling tombstones, placing personalized memorial decals with names, dates of birth and death, and brief sentiments on their rear windows. Sometimes they add crosses or angels..." ~The New York Times (December 11 2005)

 

The Difference

You have probably seen vehicles with memorial decals on the windshield... white lettering, the person's name, dates, a sentiment, scripture, or even a symbol like a cross, dove or hearts.

My version of this type of memorial is completely different. For starters, my designs are full color.

My designs are much more personalized by including the person's photograph. The person's photo being included holds two purposes.

1. To see your loved one's face, with you where ever you go can give comfort, and can aid in creating a Spiritual connection with him or her.
2. It adds a face to the name, and tells a quick visual story about the person. The design is meant to convey what was important to them, what they loved to do, who they were. In the eyes of others who did not know them, it offers knowledge of him or her as a person.

Lastly, my heart compassionately goes into each design I create. I'm not some machine that spits out white letters, or a large business who has a ton of overhead and just wants to pump out money making products. I am a bereaved Mother, who knows devastating grief.

I hope...

To offer comfort with a design that speaks to you.

To tell your loved one's story through a beautiful custom design.

To hopefully aid you in connecting Spiritually with your loved one.

 

We are visual creatures, words can say a lot, but a picture is worth a thousand words, that anyone can read in an instant.