urn:en collection

  • Urn Label Farvel

    Katharina and Sebastian, both from Zurich, founded Farvel together in 2024 – a wonderfully sympathetic, young urn label. Their paths first crossed in 2008 while studying in Zurich. The idea for Farvel emerged many years later, high above Lake Geneva, during a conversation about the loss of a loved one and the difficulty of finding an urn that met their standards for aesthetics, sustainability, and meaning.

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  • Designer René Odermatt

    René Odermatt is Swiss and has worked as a self-employed designer in Zurich for ten years. He designed the Farvel urns, thus creating a new urn label with Katharina and Sebastian, the founders of Farvel. While working on the urns, he sought lighter approaches to make the design language of urns somewhat more modern, fresh, and diverse. It was important to him to create beautiful objects. "After all, the urn is somehow the last house one occupies on this earth," says René.

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  • Our Models

    The design language of Farvel urns combines the impressive and rich tradition of the Swiss Alps with a recognizable influence of Japanese architecture, which can also be heard in the names of the collection and the three urn models: Minka, Nami, and Nesuto. They are similar in their clear and delicate lines, and each is unique and very special in its respective form.

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urn:en Models

Designer

In conversation with urn:en Designer René Odermatt

The conversation with René Odermatt offers a sensitive insight into the creative engagement with death, remembrance, and form. The Zurich product designer describes how both his general openness to unusual projects and his personal interest in cultural farewell rituals led him to design urns – a task he finds particularly meaningful.

For Odermatt, an urn is far more than a functional object: while it rationally represents finitude, emotionally it stands for remembrance, appreciation, and a place of commemoration. This is precisely where his design approach begins. He often finds classic urns heavy and outdated, which is why he deliberately sought a lighter, more modern design language. His designs are conceived as a person's "last home" – an image that combines intimacy and dignity.

A central aspect of his work was the choice of materials: the urns had to be sustainable, biodegradable, yet stable, and suitable for 3D printing. This technological approach enabled new design freedoms and led to innovative forms, some of which evoke associations with architectural influences.

Odermatt's design process begins not with a form, but with understanding – for the subject, the team, and above all, for the people affected. From this, an approach develops that combines function, emotion, and aesthetics. His goal is to create moments of calm, contemplation, and appreciation with his urns.

At the same time, he reflects on society's handling of death, which he perceives as often tabooed. He sees his work as a small contribution to greater openness and a more comforting design of farewell processes.

Even though he is currently working on other product areas again, the experience remains formative: for him, designing urns is not just a design task, but a deeply human engagement with loss, remembrance, and closeness.

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urn:en Label

With much ♥ from ZÜRI

Farvel

Katharina and Sebastian, who met during their studies in Zurich, founded Farvel in 2024 based on a very specific experience: the loss of a loved one – and dissatisfaction with existing urns that did not meet their standards for aesthetics, sustainability, and emotional significance. This deficiency sparked a clear idea: the urn should no longer be merely a functional object, but a thoughtfully designed keepsake. Together with designer René Odermatt, they developed a collection that combines design, craftsmanship, and ethos. Their urns are 3D-printed from biodegradable wood fibers and finished by hand in collaboration with social workshops. Each piece is thus a unique item – shaped by material, form, and the individual story it accompanies.

At the heart of the brand is a philosophy that unites sustainability, social responsibility, and individuality. Farvel sees its products as a contribution to a new, contemporary culture of remembrance: moving away from heaviness and standardization, towards lightness, personal expression, and the conscious design of farewells. The materials used are renewable and ecologically harmless, while the design combines modern aesthetics with a respectful approach to nature and tradition.

Innovative is not only the formal language but also the use of 3D printing, which opens up new creative possibilities while allowing for sustainable production. The urns can both exist as a remembrance object in the living space and be biodegraded and returned to the earth.

By expanding its distribution to Germany, Farvel aims to make individual ways of saying goodbye more accessible – and thereby make a sensitive but important contribution to a more open and personal culture of mourning.

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