Creative direction + Copy

Eric Molina | ericvmolina@gmail.com | (925) 324-2462

Rare case of one of those deck-only brand manifestos turning into something real:

It’s rare that you get to work on a product from the ground up. In the case of D’Addario NYXL, we started with one thing and one thing only: the product. In this case, it was the strongest electric guitar string ever made. Allow me to walk you through what we produced for the biggest launch in the brand’s history.

Naming & Packaging

D’Addario had a naming convention for their electric guitar strings that went back several decades. Each different set had the prefix XL. We wanted the new strings to stand out while staying true to the brand’s heritage. With roots in New York City that went back nearly 100 years, we settled on a name: NYXL.

When it comes to branding, New York City has been an inspiration for…well, forever. We incorporated elements of the city everywhere we could find. Personally, my favorite detail is the bar code manipulated to look like the city skyline.

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D’Addario NYXL strings will bend farther, sing louder, and stay in tune better than any guitar string ever made. You’re about to be heard more clearly than ever before. Get ready for an encore.

Launch Campaign

With these strings boasting an unprecedented strength and stability, they gave aspiring musicians a singular comfort: they wouldn’t have to worry about their gear and could instead just focus on their performance. In other words, they could Play Fearlessly.

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Microsite

If the president of the company, whom the company happens to be named after, personally requests an immersive parallax site about the science of the string and the legacy of his family’s company, you had better deliver. Despite the complexities of this project, we had it up and running in less than four weeks.

Given the time (roughly two months) and resources (three), this was a fairly ambitious undertaking. Nonetheless, we delivered the brand’s most modern and relevant online experience in their history.

The #playfearlessly Project

We couldn’t just go around claiming to be the strongest, most versatile guitar strings without proving it. So we took a single guitar and a single set of strings, and handed to as many musicians as we possibly could. Amateurs, professionals, rock stars, and weirdos alike gave the set a test lick, which we would go on to edit as “the longest continuous guitar lick of all time.”

Theresa Wayman, Guitarist/Vocalist for Warpaint

825 Records Brooklyn, NY.

Random participant, Emeryville, CA.

This guitar toured New York City, then made appearances around the entire United States Northeast corridor. After we established this hashtag, we invited the public to play along with their own guitars - the result was the highest engagement in the brand’s history.