Are funeral badges a thing?

We've been creating DEAD GOOD funeral and memorial badges since 2019. It started when our friend Jackson died…

‘BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER’

We've been creating DEAD GOOD funeral and memorial badges since 2019. It started when our friend Jackson died. LV designed and ordered hundreds of brightly coloured badges with 'be excellent to each other' on them - Jackson's catchphrase (hat tip to Bill & Ted - thank you, please).

Lindsey brought the badges to the packed service, and while we all waited for Jackson's coffin to arrive, a tote bag full of badges was quietly passed from person to person. Each person took a badge and put it on. Most smiled or laughed as they read the words. Not everyone knew each other at the funeral, but the badges were a visual reminder that we were a community united by our connection to Jackson. 

At my (KV) first funeral as a humanist celebrant - for a phenomenal PhD student in his 20s - his family told me that his nickname was T.A. This stood for Totally Awesome. After my meeting with T.A.'s family, I asked them how they'd feel about having badges for the funeral. They loved the idea and felt T.A. would have loved it, too. 

We made badges for our Dad's funeral, with his favourite lines from a song by The Beatles that he whispered to us in his final days. 

And we supported our client, Claire, to design eight life mottos before she died. Her husband then commissioned us to print the 'LIFE'S TOO SHORT...' mottos onto 200 badges for her funeral.

What would you want on your funeral badge?