The Art of Remembering: How one Coweta business is changing how some say goodbye

Written by MELISSA JACKSON
Photographs courtesy of HENSON SIGNS & GRAPHICS

Henson Signs & Graphics, in Newnan, custom wraps caskets to personalize them for funerals and celebrations of life.

In a world increasingly dominated by corporate efficiency and depersonalized technology, Jeremy Henson has
found a way to bring art, compassion, and community to one of life’s most difficult moments. His work represents something deeper than decoration. It’s about ensuring that people are remembered not just for how they died, but for how they lived.

Jeremy looks like he could be the lead of a pop country band or the owner of your favorite barbecue restaurant. He’s simultaneously “all over the place” (his description) and remarkably centered and self-reflective. His toughness quickly gives way to compassion and deep regard for the community he loves.

At any given moment, as owner of Newnan-based Henson Signs & Graphics with his wife Brandi, Jeremy works on multiple projects and oversees a dozen employees. 

Their business makes everything from stickers to bus wraps, but it all stops when they get a call for a casket wrap.

Custom vinyl wraps created by the Henson team transform ordinary caskets into personalized works of art that celebrate a person’s passions and personality. NASCAR enthusiasts might be honored with their favorite driver’s car speeding around a track, complete with checkered flags and racing imagery.

Veterans’ families might request dignified tributes featuring the American flag, military insignia, or scenes from their service years. A farmer’s coffin might feature a tranquil scene of rolling fields with a tractor silhouetted against the setting sun. Sports enthusiasts may spend eternity under the logo of a favorite team, player or coach.

Jeremy says he often searches through photos of the deceased, provided by the family, to find the right combination of images. Each wrap begins with high-resolution printing on durable vinyl that’s meticulously applied to every curve and corner of the casket. Henson designs frequently incorporate portraits of the deceased seamlessly blended into scenes representing their favorite activities. 

Each design is customized to the individual, whether that’s a grandmother tending her prize-winning roses, a mechanic working under the hood of a classic car, or a teacher surrounded by smiling students.

The artwork, according to Jeremy, “creates a celebration of life” that turns the casket into a visual story depicting who the person was in life.

Jeremy says he never intended to wrap caskets and urns and doesn’t typically advertise it as a service he offers, but it’s become a fairly regular request. 

Over the past 15 years, Henson has completed hundreds of these deeply personal projects, many of them for local families.

Located on Millard Farmer Boulevard in Newnan, the Hensons’ community-centered business creates art that markets and promotes other businesses. But it also helps grieving families honor loved ones with custom-wrapped caskets, according to Jeremy, who previously worked 19 years as a firefighter, most of those in Newnan.

“As a fireman, I felt like I made an impact in the community,” he recalls.

While he was skilled in fire and rescue, his background was in art – and he felt something was missing. “It wasn’t creative, and it wasn’t who I was,” he says.

When he transitioned to the graphics business in 2009, Jeremy focused on helping small businesses survive the economic downturn. What he didn’t expect was how the work would connect him to the community.

“I have been surprised at the impact and how many events that we’re involved with as a sign graphics company,” he says. “Birthdays and funerals, and all these grand openings, and closings.”

One moment that captures the business’s impact happened when the Hensons were out for dinner.

“A child whose father had passed away came up to us, holding a picture of the casket, and thanked us, grateful and in tears,” he recalls.

In turn, the Hensons are grateful to be integral to extraordinary moments in other families’ lives. The caskets, Jeremy believes, are “part of the healing process that most people don’t realize or understand.”

While a firefighter, he witnessed unmitigated tragedy time and again. His deep connection to funeral projects stems from a genuine empathy with grieving families: “I know it goes back to trying to deal with some of the things that I saw. It’s a way to connect with others. Since I’ve seen the tragic side, I can connect with the family
and provide some support in their grieving.”

Creating a custom casket wrap is unlike any other design project Jeremy undertakes. The turnaround is necessarily quick.

“I might only have four hours,” he says. “Hopefully, I have a full day, but in the midst of that, I have to create artwork and a proof that the family can approve, and then get it in production.”

The process begins with gathering clues often including internet research and family interviews, according to Jeremy who finds out the decedent’s job, hobbies and favorite color, even if that means mining information on social media and the internet. Through his ingenuity and curiosity, he builds customer profiles that help him craft individualized celebrations of life.

“I take all those clues and put them together to create a piece of art,” he says.

Jeremy’s goal is to make a final memory that captures the essence of who each family’s loved one was in life. Whether the service is open or closed casket, the casket itself can provide a visual, according to the Hensons.

“Wrapping the casket is a way to help others visualize aspects of a person’s life that not everyone may have known,” says Jeremy.

When the business first started offering casket and urn wraps 15 years ago, it encountered resistance, according to the Hensons.

“I’ve had funeral homes say we would never sell a wrapped casket,” says Jeremy. “Eventually, they came to me and bought a wrap.”

Jeremy describes custom designs that feature photographs and montages placing the deceased in idyllic scenes depicting the lives they lived. His expertise has taken him beyond Newnan to teach manufacturers.

“A company was paying me to consult and sending me to body shops to teach them how to wrap cars,” he recalls.

“They said, ‘Hey, can you go to a casket manufacturer in Tennessee? They want somebody to teach them how to wrap caskets.’ I wasn’t the first person to wrap a casket, but I wanted to – you know – do it better.”

The most meaningful example came from Jeremy’s own family.

“We, as a family, wrapped my nephew’s casket,” he recalls. “We made it a family thing, and it really was healing for us.”

Colin Henson was 12 when he died in an ATV accident in 2023. He lived in Harris County where he enjoyed being outdoors and was active in all kinds of sports, including football, basketball and shotgun club.

Jeremy used multiple images of Colin participating in the sports he loved to create a casket wrap for his nephew. 

Jeremy also incorporated shotgun shells (from the range where Colin practiced) as inlay decorations on the casket.

Wrapping the casket was a way the Hensons bonded as a family, with Colin’s brother, cousins and family friends assisting, according to Jeremy, who says the wraps themselves help families with their grief process and healing.

Jeremy imagines archaeologists centuries from now as they discover these embellished caskets.

“One day, they’re going to excavate some of these, and it’s going to be like the Egyptian graves,” he surmises. 

“And they’ll ask, ‘Why are they ornate? Who put this art on there?’”

To learn more about coffin and urn wraps and other customized funeral products, talk with your funeral home representative or contact Jeremy Henson at Henson Graphics. NCM