Northbound
Toronto 9:41 am Start a project
(N° 01) Independent brand & creative studio Toronto, Ontario · 43.64° N, 79.42° W Booking from March 2027

Northbound is an independent brand and creative studio in Toronto. We name, shape and launch companies that have somewhere to be.

Now showing01 · Junction Bike Share
  • 41 brands launched
  • 34 people, one floor
  • 0 spec pitches, ever
Scroll for the work

What we stand for

Strategy with teeth. Design with nerve. Launches with legs.

(Positioning)

Most brands are built to be agreed with. Ours are built to be picked. We’re strategists, designers, writers and animators who would rather make one brave thing than ten safe ones, then stay long enough to see it work.

Paulina Rehm & Taro Nakamura
Founders, since 2014

(02) Selected work, 2024–2026

Four offorty-one.

A bike share, a coffee roaster, an all-night art festival and a jacket from Thunder Bay. Point at a name to see the work, or just keep scrolling.Tap a name to open the full case.

Want the long version? Ask for our 2026 credentials, 38 pages, no stock photos.[email protected]

(03) Services

Five things,done properly.

Most clients start with strategy and identity, and about half come back for the launch. Every project has a senior creative director and a strategist from the first meeting to the last file. Projects start at CA$40k.

  1. 01

    Brand strategy

    Research, positioning and architecture, boiled down to one page your whole company can say out loud.

    Customer and staff interviews · Positioning · Brand architecture · Messaging

    4–6 weeksFrom CA$35k

  2. 02

    Naming & voice

    Names that clear trademark in Canada and the US and still sound good shouted across a room. Then the voice, the taglines and the words on every screen.

    Name generation and screening · Verbal identity · Taglines · Tone of voice

    3–8 weeksFrom CA$25k

  3. 03

    Visual identity

    Logo, type, colour, motion and the rules that keep it all consistent when we’re not in the room.

    Logo and mark · Type and colour · Motion principles · Guidelines and templates

    8–12 weeksFrom CA$60k

  4. 04

    Campaigns & launch

    The launch film, the out-of-home, the social system and the stunt people still bring up a year later.

    Campaign platform · Film and photo direction · Out-of-home · Social toolkit

    6–10 weeksFrom CA$80k

  5. 05

    Websites & products

    Sites and apps that carry the brand all the way to the checkout button, built with developers we’ve shipped with for years.

    UX and UI design · Design systems · Shopify and Webflow builds · Launch support

    10–16 weeksFrom CA$90k

(04) Process

How itgoes.

Twelve weeks, give or take, from the first coffee to launch day. Four stages, one team, and no hand-offs to people you’ve never met.

Find north

Weeks 1–3

We interview your customers, your staff and your harshest critic. You get a one-page positioning and a name for what actually makes you different.

In the roomStrategist, creative director, your leadership team

Draw the map

Weeks 4–6

Three directions, pinned to the wall and argued about honestly. We choose one together and test it on real things: a sign, a box, a home page.

In the roomCreative director, two designers, a writer

Make the thing

Weeks 7–12

The full system: identity, guidelines, templates and the launch kit. Show-and-tell every Thursday, and no surprise invoices.

In the roomThe whole team, plus motion and production

Ship and steer

Launch + 90 days

We launch it with you, watch what happens and tune whatever isn’t landing. Then we stay on call, because brands don’t stop at launch day.

In the roomProducer, strategist, your marketing team

Then we stay.

Ninety days of tuning after launch, on us. Two-thirds of our clients keep us on a retainer after that.

(05) Clients & results

A few of the 41 brands we’ve launched

Junction Bike ShareTransit/ Dovetail CoffeeFood/ NocturneCulture/ Larch OuterwearRetail/ Polar Credit UnionFinance/ Kinship FilmsFilm/ Ossington DentalHealth/ Field Day FermentsFood/ TessellateSoftware/ Halcyon HotelsTravel

  • 41brands launched since 2014
  • $212Mraised by clients in the 18 months after their launch
  • 92%of clients hire us again for a second project
  • 3 wksfrom kickoff to the first real idea on the wall

“They renamed us on a Tuesday. By Friday our own staff were using the new name in emails without being asked. That has never happened with anything we’ve done.”

Dominique WildeGeneral Manager, Junction Bike Share

(06) Careers

Do great work.Home by six.

We’re 34 people on one floor in Liberty Village, and we hire slowly. Every posting shows the real salary range, and every application gets a reply from a person.

  • 01Four-day weeks, every August
  • 02CA$2,500 a year to learn something
  • 03In the studio Tue–Thu, anywhere Mon and Fri
  • 04No spec work and no weekend pitches

Don’t see your job? Send one thing you made that you’re proud of to [email protected]. We read every one.

(07) Contact

Got somewhereto be?

New business
Paulina Rehm, managing director
(555) 016-4410
Studio
77 Halyard Lane, Studio 4
Liberty Village, Toronto, ON M6K 3R4
Hours
Mon–Fri, 9:00–6:00 ET
It’s 9:41 am here now
KING ST WLIBERTY STSTRACHAN AVELAKE ONTARIO Northbound 77 Halyard Lane
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