Industrial Design
Industrial Design
Client: Tsunami
Ideas
Tsunami is the premium mobile electronics accessories brand of Metra Electronics. The brand identity is high-end, and is heavily promoted as being competition-quality. At the time that EVOK Advertising was approached by Tsunami, mobile electronics factories were generally manufacturing the same products for every company. As a result, the market was driven by price rather than by product quality and features. Tsunami wanted to offer distinctive products that were unmistakably its own and worth the premium pricing.
Work
Drawing upon our experience and knowledge of the consumer / mobile electronics industries, EVOK Advertising rethought conventional product design and looked for ways in which to improve upon styles and configurations that had remained fundamentally unchanged over the years.
In doing so, we considered two important factors: technological advancements and the end-user. On the first front, LED lighting, digital readouts and extruded aluminum casing opened up a world of cutting-edge design possibilities to explore. On the second, Tsunami’s target market of serious car sound enthusiasts are technically savvy and tend to be early adaptors of new consumer electronics product categories. They also reflect cross-pollination among video gaming and extreme sports cultures. Designing products that combined these considerations led to innovations on many levels.
Results
EVOK Advertising created three full lines of mobile electronics installation accessories – each different from the other, and all definitely different from competitors’ products.
Tsunami’s Competition Series, Elite Series and LiteWave Series each have a high-tech oriented family look. Competition Series product shapes are smooth and sleek with a minimalist touch; Elite Series are rectangular, with transparent cases and black bases and trim; while LiteWave incorporates such eye-catching illuminated features as bright LED lighting and digital readouts. EVOK Advertising also designed packaging for all product series.
The most innovative product – LiteWave RCA audio cables – featured an industry first: embedding the tips of RCA-style audio cables with LED lighting inside transparent tips. A 12-volt power source makes each light glow red or blue for an impressive installation. As with the entire LiteWave line, the cables’ GlowTip technology addresses the demand for mobile electronics equipment and installation accessories that make a visual statement while delivering excellent performance.
Developing GlowTip technology also led EVOK Advertising to create a new type of connection between the cable wires and termination for the cable’s second generation, the TLW1.0, to accommodate the LEDs within the new machined nickel-plated barrels. The red and blue lights glow through the barrel’s perforated circles for an aesthetic effect that better complements the rest of the LiteWave Series products.
The breakthrough LiteWave Series cable won a prestigious 2006 International CES Innovations Award in the Vehicle Audio Electronics category.