Jul 14, 2026 · 26 min · 10 segments
In this episode of Monument Matters, Mike Johns talks with Jed A. Hendrickson, CM, FAICA, about the fundamentals of meaningful monument design. Their conversation explores lettering, proportion…
Mike JohnsHost
Jed A. HendricksonGuest
So is there a particular skill or mindset shift you hope builders take away from engaging with this content?
Do you know, for me, I think one of the most important things is once I have finished a layout, I like to pause, read about what I was supposed to be doing, and look at the screen or the printout and say, "Did I do that?" We just have to pause and see that the entire composition is harmonious.
Does it answer our client's needs? Um, you know that I did mostly flat grass markers f- my career, and people will say, "Well, what can you do with that?" Well, the challenge for me, of course, was every f- every layout I looked at it and thought, "How can I make it better?" And if we can get that kind of mindset going, it will improve our work 1% this month, maybe another percent next month, and after a while, we've done great improvements.
And, and I, I wanna key on another thing that you mentioned, the pause, right? I think that if your business is like our business, there's always the push to meet deadlines, to exceed customers' expectations.
You know, when you start working on a layout and you're into it and you're, you're, you've got your tunnel vision and you're focused on getting everything there from start to finish, and you know you've got another one coming and another one after that, sometimes unfortunately, it can be a race to finish.
But if you take and you complete that design and you set it aside, I don't care if it's for 20 minutes or five minutes or the next day, and you open that up and you take a look at it with fresh eyes, I can almost guarantee there's something that you're gonna say, "I can make this little adjustment, and boy, isn't that gonna make a difference."
There are people that, that respond better to pressure, but I find creativity often needs some time, and setting aside a design and looking at it again...
One of my favorite things was we usually had, well, three or four people proofread it before we would colorize it.
And so it would come back to me perhaps that same day or later the next day, and it's all, it's new.
And you know, I don't know about you, but seeing it with my new eyes, I become one of my, my harshest critics, you know?
Just looking at it again, not like something that I created, but something that's there to be digested and understood, so.
So is there a particular skill or mindset shift you hope builders take away from engaging with this content?
Do you know, for me, I think one of the most important things is once I have finished a layout, I like to pause, read about what I was supposed to be doing, and look at the screen or the printout and say, "Did I do that?" We just have to pause and see that the entire composition is harmonious.
Does it answer our client's needs? Um, you know that I did mostly flat grass markers f- my career, and people will say, "Well, what can you do with that?" Well, the challenge for me, of course, was every f- every layout I looked at it and thought, "How can I make it better?" And if we can get that kind of mindset going, it will improve our work 1% this month, maybe another percent next month, and after a while, we've done great improvements.
And, and I, I wanna key on another thing that you mentioned, the pause, right? I think that if your business is like our business, there's always the push to meet deadlines, to exceed customers' expectations.
You know, when you start working on a layout and you're into it and you're, you're, you've got your tunnel vision and you're focused on getting everything there from start to finish, and you know you've got another one coming and another one after that, sometimes unfortunately, it can be a race to finish.
But if you take and you complete that design and you set it aside, I don't care if it's for 20 minutes or five minutes or the next day, and you open that up and you take a look at it with fresh eyes, I can almost guarantee there's something that you're gonna say, "I can make this little adjustment, and boy, isn't that gonna make a difference."
There are people that, that respond better to pressure, but I find creativity often needs some time, and setting aside a design and looking at it again...
One of my favorite things was we usually had, well, three or four people proofread it before we would colorize it.
And so it would come back to me perhaps that same day or later the next day, and it's all, it's new.
And you know, I don't know about you, but seeing it with my new eyes, I become one of my, my harshest critics, you know?
Just looking at it again, not like something that I created, but something that's there to be digested and understood, so.
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