The last thing a family makes with their person shouldn't look like an afterthought
For most funeral homes, the order of service is the piece that gets left to the end. A staff member squeezes it in between everything else, wrestles with a template nobody enjoys using, and sends it off just in time.
But think about what that booklet actually is. It's the last thing a family will ever create for the person they've lost. It gets held all through the service. It goes home in a handbag. Years later it's still in a drawer, or framed on a wall, pulled out on the hard anniversaries. It is one of the very few things that outlasts the day itself.
That deserves better than a clip-art border and a squeezed-in half hour. That's the work I do.
I'm Lauren Bird, a designer with 20 years of design experience, and I quietly become the design department your funeral home doesn't have. Your staff stop dreading the booklet. Your families get something worth keeping. And because nothing I design carries a logo, the only name that matters on it is theirs.
What this does for your funeral home
It takes a job your front desk quietly dreads off their plate. Almost every home has someone who has inherited the stationery, and almost none of them enjoy it. It's fiddly, it's emotional, and it always lands when they're busiest. Hand it to me and it simply stops being their problem.
It lets you price it properly. When the booklet you hand a family is genuinely beautiful, the price makes sense to everyone. A few upgraded services a month can cover the partnership several times over.
It protects your reputation. The keepsake is part of how a family remembers being looked after. A beautiful one reflects the care you gave. A rushed one undercuts it, however good the rest of your service was.
Three ways to work together
Tier One — Your Design Consultant (exclusive)
I become the design partner for your home. You brief me, I design, and every piece goes out through you, made to the standard families frame and keep. This is the full done-for-you service: order of service booklets, memorial cards, photo presentations, memory books, and the small hand-illustrated touches that make a piece feel like the actual person, a footy jersey, a fishing boat, a favourite ute.
This tier includes territorial exclusivity. Exclusivity means I won't partner with another funeral home within your area. Families who find me on their own are still welcome, and where it makes sense I'll point them back to you.
Because every piece is designed from scratch around the person, and because holding your area means turning other homes away, this tier is a retainer with a set number of included pieces each month and anything beyond billed per piece.
From $1,950/month. Strictly limited to two or three homes at any time.
Tier Two — Design & Approve
Your staff build from my template suites, set up for your team, and send each piece to me for a final polish and sign-off before it reaches a family. You get the speed of doing it in-house with my eye on the finished result, so nothing goes out that isn't up to standard.
Every piece stays about the person and their family. No logos, no funeral home branding, nothing that turns a keepsake into advertising.
This tier scales, so it's open to more homes, with [NUMBER] sign-offs included each month and overflow billed at [PRICE].
From $650/month.
Tier Three — The Branded Library
My template suites, set up once in your brand, for your team to use themselves. Order of service booklets and cards, memorial keepsakes, and the social media announcement tiles you post for every service, all consistent, all beautiful, all yours. No design skill required.
This is the one that quietly ends the front-desk headache for good, and it works while you sleep.
From $350/month.
Why only the top tier is limited
I want to be straight with you about the exclusivity, because I've no interest in false urgency. Only Tier One is capped, and for a real reason: each piece is a full day or more of careful work, so there are only so many homes I can serve at that level before I'm at capacity. The other two tiers stay open because they don't depend on my hours in the same way.
So when I say two or three exclusive partners, that's not a sales line. It's simply the truth of what one designer can do properly. If being the only home in your area with this matters to you, that seat is worth claiming early.
What I create
Order of Service Booklets — 2, 4, or 8-page booklets that guide the service and honour the person at the heart of it, print-ready or delivered.
Memorial Cards — keepsake cards with a photograph and a short tribute, carried away and kept.
Photo Presentations — softly paced tributes set to meaningful music, sequenced so they tell a real story.
Memory Books — bound keepsakes gathering photographs and tributes, treasured for years.
Social Announcement Tiles — the "In Loving Memory" posts you share for every service, finally consistent and beautiful, in your branding.
About Lauren
I'm Lauren Bird, the designer and sole creator behind The Farewell Studio, based in Bathurst and working with families and funeral homes across Australia.
I came to this work through my own losses, designing the keepsakes for my grandparents' funerals and learning first-hand how much it matters to get them right. That's why I can't treat any of this as paperwork. With 19 years of design experience behind me, I bring real craft and a genuinely careful hand to work that most people rush.
There's no obligation and no hard sell. Just a conversation about whether we're a good fit, and whether your area's exclusive seat is one you'd like to hold.
Reach me at lauren@farewellstudio.com.au or on 0413 072 846. I'll answer personally.
The families you serve deserve a keepsake that honours the person they've lost. I'd be honoured to help you give them one.