The Sound of Success

We designed a sustainable packaging system that showcases Tivoli Audio’s beautiful products and streamlines their packaging production.

The Challenge

Tivoli Audio makes design-driven, high quality audio products. Founded in Boston in 2000, their audio systems bring quality sound and quality design into perfect harmony. Tivoli Audio products are meticulously crafted and built to last — beautiful objects that fill your home with beautiful music.

Tivoli Audio came to our Massachusetts team to help them take their packaging to the next level. This meant addressing two challenges simultaneously. The first challenge was to redesign the entire packaging line with sustainable materials. The European market is a significant one for them, and sustainability standards for packaging are much more stringent over there. Their packaging needed to be reconceptualized from the ground up to maximize the use of sustainable materials.

The second challenge was to improve the customer experience. The previous packaging was not reinforcing the premium quality and price point of the brand. Our new packaging needed to match the level of quality and execution of the product within.

The Solution

Our first iteration on Tivoli’s new sustainable packaging coincided with a switch of contract manufacturers. We completely revamped the packaging for their primary product line, Classic, working on design and production at the same time.

We introduced sustainable materials like wet press molded pulp. The EPS foam in the original packaging was replaced with sustainable FSC-certified paperboard; instead of polyethylene (PE) bags, we used corn starch compostable bags.

The most recent version of the packaging employs a more universal design. Our new system uses the same inner carton across all SKUs in the Classic line, swapping in a different sleeve for each product. This enabled them to order the carton in bulk, creating significant cost savings. The new packages are also smaller, allowing for additional saving and efficiencies in palletization and shipping. Most importantly, it was a superior unboxing experience that strengthened the brand’s reputation for craftsmanship and quality.

Our Pittsburgh Design Center, located in Wexford, PA, plays an integral role in Tivoli’s packaging program, from structural design and graphics to print materials and templates for user manuals. They communicated directly with Tivoli’s executive leadership on many aspects of this project. One of their major undertakings was creating a new file management system that centralized all design files and documentation, streamlining the client’s design operations and helping them take control of a process that had previously been outsourced to a contract manufacturer.

As always, our Shenzhen team has been invaluable in ensuring the quality and integrity of packaging design throughout production. They went above and beyond, particularly when it came to the color matching process for the more complex graphics deployed across Tivoli’s ART line.

The Result

From day one, our goal was to provide Tivoli Audio with packaging worthy of their product. The eco-friendly materials and smaller box sizes of the new packaging system bolstered their position with their European distributors by underscoring their commitment to sustainability. We also implemented numerous operational improvements, such as creating kitting for all print materials packaged with the product, that made life easier for their contract manufacturer. Our wide-range of capabilities also made it possible to create a more consistent brand presence, connecting packaging to other touchpoints like point-of-purchase displays. Our partnership resulted in a packaging system that showcases the premium value and simplified the operational side of Tivoli Audio’s business.