My Biz: Graphic designer helps preserve memories

Name: Mickena Guillaume

Title: Graphic artist

Employer: Cedar Memorial Funeral Home

Address: 4200 First Ave. NE

Phone: (319) 393-8000

Website: www.cedarmemorial.com

Elevator pitch: Preserving memories with music and black-and-white photos

Mickena Guillaume is in the memory business. And she admitted she's a sucker for black-and-white pictures.

“I melt when I see old family photos,” she said.

As a graphic artist on staff at Cedar Memorial Funeral Home, Guillaume uses her design skills to bring comfort to families dealing with grief. Her work begins when family members bring in a collection of photos of their deceased loved one.

“A lot of people are choosing to do this today,” she said she said of the trend that's spread across the country over the past decade or so. “We take the collection of photos that the family brings in and turn that file folder of materials into a living memorial DVD,” she explained.

The DVD contains approximately 30 photos with music laid in behind it.

“We use piano music, usually something soft that won't detract from the images,” Guillaume said, adding that music that can be employed is limited by copyright restrictions.

The DVDs are ready to be shown by the time of scheduled visitation, after which the family has the keepsake to take home.

Cedar Memorial employs two graphic designers who do this work.

“We read the obituary, talk to the family members to get an idea of what that person enjoyed and what their life was composed of so we can get an idea of who that person was in the past,” Guillaume said.

Guillaume, who double majored in graphic design and multimedia at Mount Mercy University, has been creating the living memorial DVDs for two years and views her job as an opportunity to help the families during their time of grief.

“I was very close to my grandfather, and when he died it was very difficult,” she said. “I know these living memorials are important to these families, and I like personalizing them in the way that I would have wanted for my own grandfather.”

In addition to the DVDs another memorial product offered to families are picture collages that can contain from 8 to 11 photos.

The photos are run through a software process that removes the background, then layers the images.

“It becomes a collection of just that person,” Guillaume said. “These photos can also be framed onto 3-and-a-half-by-5-inch cards to be handed out at the visitation to give people a remembrance to take with them ....

“It's cool to see that I am providing that family with something that they will always be able to look at.

“That DVD can be used to explain to someone's kids or grandkids, ‘This is who your grandpa or grandma was.'”

Know someone or a company who should be in “My Biz”? Contact business editor Michael Chevy Castranova, michael.castranova@sourcemedia.net.