Google Go North: Editorial Design by Underline Studio

Underline Studio pairs with VICE and Google Canada on Go North, an editorial design book celebrating Canadian tech startups and founders.

Tech reports usually end up gathering dust in a desk drawer. When Google Canada wanted to document the country's startup boom across the Toronto-Waterloo corridor, Montreal, and Vancouver, they didn't print a dry corporate whitepaper. Instead, they tapped Toronto-based Underline Studio for their fifth major collaboration together, working alongside VICE on the stories. Underline shaped the book's content structure, built the grid, and art directed original photography with Daniel Ehrenworth and Paul Weeks to capture pioneers like Geoffrey Hinton, Shopify, Hootsuite, and Thalmic Labs.

Pacing and Contrast in Underline Studio's Editorial Design

The physical book makes a strong first impression. Stacked on a table, the matte black softcover carries the words "GO NORTH" down the right edge in white contour lines that twist like topographic terrain waves, while tiny spine imprints line up cleanly across the stack. Open the cover and the editorial design immediately sets up a rhythm between ink-heavy dark pages and bright white reading spreads. On the table of contents, a black left-hand page uses thin gold rules and numbers to index ten chapters — covering Artificial Intelligence, Clean Tech, Coding Camps, Digital Health, Fintech, Hardware, and Software as a Service, right across from a stark white title sheet.

The pacing never goes flat. For Google Canada engineering director Steven Woods's opening letter, "Lightning in a bottle," a moody architectural shot of the glowing Google lobby sign sits opposite two crisp columns of serif copy dropped halfway down the page. Turn a few leaves and the light shifts completely. Ehrenworth and Weeks shot the hardware and founder portraits in warm, saturated studio light, so a cool violet reflection of Interaxon's Muse brain-sensing headband plays directly off a full-bleed portrait of Bridgit founders Lauren Lake and Mallorie Brodie. It's a smart, unhurried print object that gives software and hardware builders real permanence on paper.

See the full project by Underline Studio on Behance.