Outside The Box Caskets

A few snaps from NFE.

My face says it all.

One week in the UK and what a week it's been. I knew this trip would be good. I didn't know it would be this good.

I've met people from across the funeral industry, shared the Outside The Box story and had conversations I never imagined I'd be having. To see people on the other side of the world connecting with something that started as a sketch years ago is pretty surreal.

A special thank you to the team for the warm welcome, hospitality and generosity throughout the week.

To everyone I met at NFE, thank you for the conversations, feedback and encouragement. This is a trip I'll never forget.

UK ✔️
2 more days in London. This Kiwi wasn't built for big cities 🤣

❤️🇳🇿🇬🇧✨
More to come... 🌎😉

Wow. We did it.

After a very long couple of flights I made it to Somerset to meet Anthony and the Somerset Willow team.

I don't really have the words tonight. But what I will say is that spending the day with people who genuinely care about what they do and why they do it is a pretty rare thing. has been a family craft business since 1959, and walking in and seeing that it's still done by hand today was genuinely impressive.

It's a very good fit.

Seeing something that started as an idea in New Zealand now finding its feet on the other side of the world is a strange feeling. A very good one.

🇳🇿 Designed in NZ
🇬🇧 Manufactured in the UK



NFE starts Thursday. Stand 306. Come and say hi, nothing's under wraps anymore.

"But is it strong enough?"

We get asked this a lot.

These photos are from 2019. We tested and tested and tested again. Sometimes I thought this is never going to work.

Here's what that looked like behind the scenes. 320kg strong. 💪

20 years ago at 22 I headed off to Italy in my 4th year as an industrial design student to exhibit my furniture at the Milan Furniture Fair, SaloneSatellite.

I was so excited. I’ve always loved design, right from when I left school and studied character animation because I loved drawing, then later industrial design at university where I got hooked on turning ideas into real 3D things.
Back then I thought my career would be furniture design.

Fast forward 20 years and I’m heading back to the other side of the world again, this time to exhibit with Outside The Box Caskets in the UK. From furniture to funerals. Life takes you in some interesting directions that’s for sure.

The thinking hasn’t really changed though. I still believe good design belongs everywhere, even in a casket. That’s where the whole idea for Outside The Box came from after my nana’s funeral.

Found these old photos the other day too. Leaving NZ carting my ridiculously massive bench design. Clearly no regard for freight costs back then, even a TV interview before we left.
Can’t wait to do it all again at the NFE. Watch this space. More to come….

Where Outside The Box Caskets began.

Before the stockists, before the awards, it was a garage full of prototypes and a heck of a lot of testing, and a very determined NZ industrial designer. 💪

Five years ago, during an interview with the National Business Review, I was asked if I had plans to go global.

"Absolutely, definitely."

On Sunday I'm heading to the UK for the launch of Outside The Box Caskets.
It's taken a lot longer than I expected, but we're finally getting there.

In my latest interview with NBR, we talked about everything from starting out as a new player in a very traditional industry, to expanding into the UK, along with some of the challenges that come with growing a business and protecting your ideas and IP.

I've had plenty of people tell me it wouldn't work. I've had people try to knock me down along the way. If anything, it just gave me more motivation to keep going.

As for the copycats? I suppose it means we're doing something right. 😉

If you're heading to the National Funeral Exhibition at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, from 11 - 13 June, come and say hi!

Outside The Box Caskets expands into UK market Outside The Box Caskets founder Becs Bartells is used to getting strange looks when driving around town with an empty coffin in the back of her station wagon.

Not everyone wants the same kind of farewell.

Outside The Box Caskets was designed to offer something more personal, more individual, and a little less traditional.

And even if sustainability wasn’t the reason someone chose it, the fact it’s fully biodegradable and suitable for natural burial is a pretty good bonus too.

How to Choose a Casket in New Zealand Most people have never chosen a casket before. You're making this decision in the hardest days of your life, often without much guidance.

Not every farewell has to look the same.

That’s always been the thinking behind Outside The Box Caskets.

More colour. More personality. More individuality.