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Design Mart Hosts 2010 EGA Class
The Elberton Granite Association recently hosted a seminar for more than 20 monument retailers from across the US, according to Bill Hood of the EGA.
“We conduct many of the seminar sessions in our classroom space at the EGA,” Bill said. “But it is very important that the students branch out and see how our members work for them.”
This year Design Mart was asked to present a class on memorial symbolism and how symbolism can be used to create and sell unique and meaningful memorials, according to Mike Fernandez of Design Mart.
Mike shows an example of a Maltese Cross used in a CSA plaque, and discusses the modern use of this symbol of protection in fire department emblems.
The group learns about different dating systems used for some Jewish monuments and another type of dating used on some Masonic monuments, as shown here.
“We covered some basic sales strategies, and used our Legacies In Stone book,” Mike said. “This is a book we wrote several years ago, and it has been a valuable symbolism guide and sales tool for many monument companies, cemeteries, and funeral homes.”
By using Legacies In Stone, students in the class learned that there are many options, beyond basic roses, that can be used in monument design.
“It was rewarding to see them discover new symbols to use in sales and design,” Mike said. “Symbols are not new to the monument business, but most of the students had not been exposed to many basic carvings and their symbolic meaning – such as wheat, grapes, dogwood, acanthus, ivy and others.”
The group learns about symbolism and sales strategy.
The group watches as a monument is designed using DMart's Online Monument Designer.
The visit to Design Mart ended with a demonstration of Design Mart's new Online Monument Designer, and participants saw a demonstration of how easy it is to create unique designs using some of the symbolism they had just learned.
After lunch the class reconvened at Elberton's historic Elmhurst Cemetery where Mike took the group on a tour that looked at some older monuments and symbols that were used to create unique and personal messages about the faith, family and professions of some of the founding fathers of Elberton, Georgia.
For more information on Legacies In Stone please click here. Books are $34.95 plus $8.79 s&h and may be ordered online here. For more information on browsing monuments in the Online Catalog or designing monuments with the Online Monument Designer please click here. You can also call 800-736-7455 or email d-mart@designmart.com to receive a user name and password for a free trial.