Brand & web design studio · Portland, OR

We build brands
people remember.

Northbound is a small, strategy-led studio. We make identities, websites, and motion for founders and teams who are tired of looking like everyone else.

See selected work Start a project

2017Founded

40+Brands shipped

5People, no fluff

Selected work

A few things we're proud of.

Branding · Web Aster & Oak A botanical skincare brand, from naming to shelf.
Web Harbor Collective A booking site for a coastal hospitality group.
Motion · Branding Cadence A living logo system for a music-discovery app.
Branding Northstar Roasters Packaging and identity for a third-wave roaster.
Web · Motion Veridian A climate-tech site that makes carbon legible.
Branding Juniper Press An art-directed identity for an indie publisher.

Case study · Aster & Oak

From a shy idea to a brand that sells itself.

Aster & Oak came to us with a great formula and a name nobody could remember. We led a two-week strategy sprint, rebuilt the identity around a hand-drawn botanical mark, and shipped a fast, story-first storefront.

+38%Add-to-cart rate
2×Avg. session time
11 daysStrategy to launch

"Northbound didn't just make us look good — they made us make sense. Sales doubled in the quarter after launch." — Priya Anand, Founder, Aster & Oak

The old Aster & Oak packaging — plain and forgettable

The redesigned Aster & Oak packaging — botanical, warm, and bold

What we do

Four things, done properly.

Every engagement starts with strategy. We're generalists with depth — we'd rather do four things well than fourteen badly.

01

Brand identity

Naming, logo systems, type, color, voice, and the guidelines that keep it all honest as you grow.

Strategy · Logo · Guidelines
02

Web design & build

Marketing sites and storefronts designed and shipped by the same people — fast, responsive, and easy to edit.

Design · Front-end · CMS
03

Art direction

Photography, packaging, and campaign systems so your brand looks deliberate everywhere it shows up.

Photo · Packaging · Campaigns
04

Motion & film

Animated logos, product films, and social-ready motion that give a static identity a pulse.

Animation · Product film · Social

The studio

Small on purpose.

We started Northbound in 2017 because the best work we'd ever made came from tiny teams and short distances between idea and decision. We've kept it that way. When you hire us, you work with the people doing the work — no account layer, no hand-offs to a junior, no surprises.

We believe a brand is a promise you can see. Our job is to make that promise clear, distinctive, and durable — then build the website that delivers it.