Outside The Box Caskets

08/06/2026

"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. 💪

07/06/2026

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….

04/06/2026

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. 💪

01/06/2026

Five years ago I was asked if I had plans to go global.

On Sunday I fly to the UK for the launch of Outside The Box Caskets.

01/06/2026

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 founder Becs Bartells is used to getting strange looks when driving around town with an empty coffin in the back of her station wagon.

01/06/2026

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.

30/05/2026

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

26/05/2026

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.

21/05/2026

This photo is from 2022, when someone asked why we didn’t have a New Zealand Pīwakawaka (fantail) design.

I’ve always loved drawing, so I sketched this one up myself and scaled it for print.

Still one of my favourite designs on the natural kraft. 🤎

19/05/2026

People always ask where the idea came from.

It started with a Nana called Pearl. The biggest, warmest, most loved woman. Her funeral was huge. She was loved by so many.

But her coffin was a brown shiny thing. Cold. Nothing like her.

Years of design and prototyping later, Outside the Box Caskets launched in 2019.

Not everyone suits brown and shiny. 🥰☺️