Crazy Coffins: An Innovative Approach to End-Of-Life Receptacles

Two unique designs, a guitar and egg, that are from the company Crazy Coffins. Photo from bornrich.com.

In the Western hemisphere, the funereal aesthetic is somber, heavy — even a bit austere. Death is often a taboo subject, where people are loath to discuss end-of-life arrangements prior to the fact. Levity and celebration are not considered a part of such a solemn process, where the typical funeral is furnished with the same uniform design of a dark, oblong coffin.

Corkscrew coffin. Image from myfunkyfuneral.com.

Other cultures approach the end-of-life with more foresight and creative engagement, where caskets are modeled ahead of time after an aspect of the deceased’s life. SevenPonds posted earlier on the ‘fantasy coffins’ of Ghana, where elaborate, fanciful vessels are created as personalized expressions. Colorfully commemorative, these caskets take the form of sneakers, beer bottles, sewing machines — whatever object symbolizes a person’s life in terms of their former occupation or favorite recreation. Just like the Ghanese custom, a company in England, Crazy Coffins, creates products that are stylistically similar. Established over 160 years ago, the company only began its venture designing alternative coffins in 1990. They rebranded themselves as “Crazy Coffins” after a headline in the Sun Newspaper that covered their first breakout model: a casket in the shape of an airplane fuselage.

A Box Kite coffin. Photo from crazy coffins.co.uk

Since then, Crazy Coffins have created more innovative designs from cork screws, cars, ballet slippers and animals. Their director, David Crampton, explains that “I don’t think it’s macabre. Most of the time it’s people saying ‘This is me, this is my life and I want to celebrate it’.” via With an average pricing from 800 to 5000 GBP and over two weeks of labor each, ordering one of these pieces requires considerable planning and financial backing.

Crazy Coffins has gained such notoriety that the business has curated several exhibitions where they display replicas from top picks of their collection. Their last showing was in January 2012 at the Royal Festival Hall in London, where a panoply of sculptural forms were on display such as vertical designs and even one that hung from the ceiling in the shape of a box kite. Certainly, their presence in this cultural milieu strongly associates these pieces with ‘art,’ though the show’s verbiage states otherwise, “The only artists among us are the clients themselves. Each one of them has a vision off how a funeral should be. Each is his or her own theatre director. We ourselves play a subordinate part, just as, in the conventional theatre, the carpenters do, who make up the sets.” via

Ballet Shoe coffin. Photo from bbd.co.uk.

For Further Reading:
-A Huffington Post article on Ghanese coffins.
-The USA division of Crazy Coffins.
-A BBC post on the bespoke creations of Crazy Coffins.

Related articles

• New Eco-Friendly Coffin for Cremation – The Innovative Soul Ash Solace Coffin from Maximal Design of Belgium (sevenponds.com)
• How Much Does it Cost to Die? (creditloan.com)
• From The Old American Way of Death to the New American Way – A fan sends me a strong message to please examine the funeral business (sevenponds.com)