Planning a family memorial is a task unfamiliar to most, and often comes at an emotionally difficult time. Since your memorial is made only once, it is of the utmost importance to have an experienced team who can lead you to success. Brown Memorials has the experience and resources to not only guide you through our design process, but to make it easy, enjoyable and turn-key.

Conversation & Discovery

Planning a family memorial can be a deeply personal task, and we believe that the memorial should reflect your values, personality, and style. An initial conversation, where we can openly discuss ideas, budget, timelines, cemetery requirements and expectations, is often the best way to establish a solid foundation on which we can work.

Many clients come to us with ideas already in mind. It could be the general style of the monument or specific elements that must be included in its design. We can find inspiration in architectural details from your home or artwork created by a family member. We encourage clients to bring any and all ideas to us. We thrive on creative challenges.

We also encourage the use of visual aids. These can be from one of our projects or a photograph or visual reference from somewhere else.

Conceptual Drawing

Brown Memorials has been a designer of fine memorials for over a century, and we have an abundance of conceptual drawings that range from modern day back to the very beginning of our company’s founding. Establishing a direction for your family memorial could be as simple as choosing from our collection of contemporary or classic conceptual drawings.

A century of memorial design references is helpful to most clients, but we understand that everyone is different and not all who view our existing collection will find a memorial to their liking. If you have not seen the perfect memorial to suit your family and tastes, then it is likely because it has yet to be designed.

Every custom design is directed by Bran Oswalt, AICA, one of the nation’s most awarded contemporary family memorial designers. With your ideas and requirements in hand, we draft a number of thoughtful and artistic concepts. The purpose of each concept is to introduce a shape, proportion, and arrangement of elements - an impression of the finished monument. Each concept is paired with an artist statement that emphasizes creative and symbolic decisions.

Refinement of Details & Design Rendering

Once a conceptual drawing has been selected, we will build full scale details of the memorial in our CAD software. This includes the development of architectural molding and decorative ornament. It also includes font selection and deciding which finishes will best complement the design.

The refined details will then be rendered into a scale, comprehensive illustration that accurately shows how the finished monument will look - much like the designs shown in our collections gallery.

Ordering of Materials

Once you are fully satisfied with the design, we prep the production drawings and order the materials. All stone is sourced directly from quarries that share our standards for a high quality monument.

Quarrying, cutting, and finishing the blocks of stone to our specifications will require the most time during the entire process. Large, intricate monuments and mausoleums can require a year or more to source and finish materials. If needed, the time after ordering materials and before final engraving can be used to finalize any remaining design details. If all design details are final when the materials are ordered, then this time can be considered the end of the planning phase.

Final Engraving

Engraving the stone is the final step in the production process. The engraving includes the lettering and other decorative ornament. The depth of the engraving is determined by the color of stone.

We engrave a deep V-cut letter on white and light grey colored stones. The deep letter casts a sharp shadow that contrasts the light stone, making the letter easily legible in good lighting conditions.

The standard engraving on a dark colored stone is not nearly as deep for good reason - a shadow on a dark object will disappear. Instead, we sink the letter just deep enough to create a permanent change in finish and contrast. A pigment is then applied to highlight the letter contrast even more.

Engraved lettering is often enhanced with a natural shade of pigment that can maintain the contrast even in poor lighting conditions. The designer will recommend a pigment application if deemed important for the design.

Installation

A monument’s installation is permanent. For this reason, the foundation must be substantial enough to withstand the test of time. Each monument and geographic region will have have different requirements, so a foundation will be planned and prepared accordingly.

With a solid foundation in place, the monument can be erected.