Holotype is a brand studio founded in 2018 to create breakthrough brands for clients who can’t afford to settle for uninspired, big-agency thinking. Holotype’s three experts – each an industry veteran and each a leader in their field – work with their clients to efficiently and powerfully reimagine their market, their business, and ultimately, their brand.

D’Addario is a legendary New York brand that’s truly one-of-a-kind. The world’s leading manufacturer of guitar strings, they’re a family-owned business run by music lovers and engineers who are constantly challenging the status quo through continuous experimentation and development of new machinery, materials and processes.

Holotype worked with D’Addario to create packaging for its new, extended lifespan sub-brand, X-Series. The first release, XT, features a groundbreaking combination of enhanced break resistance, pitch stability and long-lasting performance—all while preserving the tone and feel of uncoated strings. These strings are made to stay, for performance that never fades away.

Holotype’s design spotlights a heroic, 3D-rendered and embossed “X,” which depicts not just the name of the product but also the texture of the strings themselves.

The 3D “X” identity has inspired renderings and animations that further explain this revolutionary new technology and its many benefits.

Meanwhile, the nearly monochrome, matte-finish envelope pushes back against all the “noise” on shelf, giving players’ eyes a place to rest, while the colored tabs and vertically oriented product information allows for easy way-finding for both shopper and store clerk.

Taken together, the identity and packaging push the new product centerstage and solidify D’Addario’s position as the undisputed industry leader.