Na de eerste vorst: boerenkool. Na de sauna: stamppot.
Winter · IJssel
Havaan · brand book
Jaarrond
A brand that keeps time. The fire and the sauna never change; the year moves around them, and so does Havaan.
The moment follows the season: the sauna jetty in winter, breakfast in the blossom in spring, the river in summer, the fire in autumn. Concept images, AI-generated for art direction; not a Havaan site or guests. Credits at the end.
The mark is the year as one ring in four quarters, each a step further out than the last, like the growth rings in the oak on the estate. Each season one quarter lights up, and the site, the sign plate, the breakfast box and the posts change with it. Same place, another season: that is the reason to come back.
Today, 18 okt. Autumn, the season since Herfstbegin. This book is showing autumn.
Raus
Timeless and still: one cool, solitary picture that looks the same in March and November. Havaan keeps the restraint and drops the solitude.
Wikkelhouse
Modular in space: add segments to make a longer house. Havaan is modular in time: four seasons in the same place, each one worth the trip.
REDUKT
Darkened plywood, fewer things, off-grid. Havaan agrees on fewer things and adds more of what people share: fire, sauna, a table.
Havaan · Jaarrond
The only one of the four whose identity changes on a date. Same restraint, same real materials; the warmth comes from the table and the harvest, not from a filter.
Chapter 1
Essence
Most cabin brands sell an escape from time. Havaan sells the opposite: a few days in which you notice exactly what time of year it is, together.
Positioning
For friends, families and teams who want to be somewhere, not just away: small cabins around one fire, a wood-fired sauna and a long table, where the food and the rituals follow what the land is doing this week.
Personality
| Havaan is | Havaan is not |
|---|---|
| Attentive: it knows the first frost is tonight | Fussy or over-serviced |
| Rhythmic: the same rituals, each at its moment | A theme park of holidays |
| Nourishing: good bread, a fed stove, sleep | Indulgent, a wellness spa |
| Local: names the farmer and the village | Folksy: clogs and windmills |
| Generous with the group | A retreat for one, alone with a view |
Sell the seat, not the season
Twaalf plaatsen aan tafel, zaterdag 19 december.
Not: “Beleef de magie van de winter.”
Everyone in this category sells scenery: a lake in mist, snow on a roof. Havaan sells a place at the long table on a date: the twelfth seat at Midwinter, the bench by the stove the week the kale comes in. The season is why the date matters; the seat is what people buy.
So every headline, post and proposal names a date and a number of people, and the picture shows those people, not the view. The seat count in chapter 7 draws that number.
What never changes
Four things are the same at every Havaan in every season. They carry the brand when the colours move.
The fire
A wood stove in every cabin and one fire circle per site, with no front row. Wood from the estate, split in March.
The sauna
Wood-fired, seats eight, lit every day of the year: 16:00 to 22:00, from noon in winter. Hot, cold, rest: the cold is a tub, a lake or the river.
The table
One long table that seats the whole group, indoors in the longhouse or out on the erf.
The box
Breakfast from within twenty kilometres, with the maker's name on the label. The contents are the only thing that changes.
Four values
aandachtAttention
Notice the small change: the kale after frost, the light at four o'clock. Speak when there is something new, stay quiet otherwise.
ritmeRhythm
The same ritual comes back on the same day every year. Guests start booking by it: "the asparagus weekend", "Midwinter".
samenTogether
Everything is built for the group: one long table, a sauna for eight, a fire circle with no front row.
voedenNourish
Feed people well and credit the people who fed them: the farmer, the baker, the forester.
Chapter 2
Mark
De Jaarring: the year as one ring in four quarters. Every season sits one step further out than the one before, as a tree adds a ring. At Midwinter the ring steps back and the year starts again.
- Four quartersWinter from twelve to three o'clock, then spring, summer, autumn, clockwise. Midwinter is always at the top; the mark is never rotated.
- Three small steps, one largeAt Lentebegin, Midzomer and Herfstbegin the ring steps out by 5 units of its 18-unit stroke: enough to read on a sign from the road. At Midwinter it drops back 15 in one go. That jog at the top is the detail people remember, and what keeps it from reading as a loading circle.
- One meaningA year, and the next one. No letter hidden in it, no flame, no house.
- The live quarterOn screens and print that lives less than three months, the current quarter takes the season's accent; the other three stay ink. It switches at 06:00 on the four dates, and an open page checks the date every hour and whenever it comes back into view. Anything permanent is one colour.
Six routes, one kept
Each was drawn to the same 100-unit grid and tested at 16 px, on the iron and in thread.
Construction and proof at every size
Havaan · IJssel
32 px
24 px cut
16 px cut
The wordmark
Literata Medium at its largest optical size, outlined to paths and respaced: tracking +14 units, the h and v pulled in. The two a's are set to touch, and one bar runs over them, stepped once at the join like the ring at a season's turn: the long Dutch vowel drawn as one sound, the way it is said. That stepped bar is the wordmark's one detail; stock Literata does not have it. Always lowercase.
200 px
64 px
32 px
24 px
16 px
At 16 px the aa join closes into one shape and the bar thins to a hairline, but the step still shows. Below that, use the mark alone.
The live quarter through the year
Winterfrom 21 Dec
Springfrom 20 Mar
Summerfrom 21 Jun
Autumnfrom 22 Sep
Only screens and anything printed less than three months ahead use the live quarter. Everything permanent (signs, irons, embroidery, vans, the door) uses the all-ink mark.
Lockups
Primary, live. Horizontal, today's quarter lit. Screens and short-run print.
Primary, permanent. All ink. Signs, engraving, embroidery, long-lived print.
Stacked. Square formats, the entrance sign, the sauna door.
Reversed. Limewash on peat ink. Firewood bags, the van, the sauna.
On the season. Limewash on the deep colour, for proposal covers and posts.
IJssel
With a place. Region in Literata italic after a hairline. See Places.
Clear space
Keep clear half the mark's height on every side: nearly three times the 18-unit stroke.
Minimum size
small cut 16 px · 5 mm
lockup 80 px · 22 mm
live quarter from 24 px
Below 24 px a lit quarter stops reading as a season: use the one-colour small cut.
Misuse
HAVAAN
Chapter 3
Places & rollout
One name, one mark, one sign board. Each place adds three things: the name of its region as people there write it, a line in its own language, and a harvest notch on the ring at the month it is best.
IJssel
Vier seizoenen, één tafel.
Nº 01 · Deventer · Gorssel · NL. Notch in May: white asparagus from the Salland sand.
Drenthe
Vier seizoenen, één tafel.
Nº 02 · Exloo · NL. Notch in August: buckwheat in flower on the old fields.
Ardenne
Quatre saisons, une table.
Nº 03 · Vresse-sur-Semois · BE. Notch in October: game, chestnuts and the Semois in fog.
Jylland
Fire årstider, ét bord.
Nº 04 · Ry · DK. Notch in January: grønlangkål, kale picked after the frost and eaten after the sauna by the lake. Midzomer here is Sankthans, 23 June.
Regions keep their local spelling (Ardenne, not Ardennen; Jylland, not Jutland). The tagline is written by a native writer in each country and never longer than five words. The four turning points switch the identity on the same dates everywhere. What happens on them is local: the menu follows the site's own harvest calendar, the evening moves to the nearest Saturday, and abroad the ritual takes its local name and date (Sankthans in Jylland, la Saint-Jean in the Ardenne).
Haven register
Every haven gets a number in opening order, and a number is never reused. A second haven in a region keeps the region name, adds its village and takes the next free number: Havaan · IJssel · Olst would be Nº 05. Site names are working names until the land is secured.
| Nº | Haven | Format · code | At the long table | Harvest notch | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | IJssel · Gorssel, NLLandgoed Het Laar | Landgoed 01·L14 cabins in two erven and three huts | 40 seats | meiwhite asparagus | Opens spring 2027 |
| 02 | Drenthe · Exloo, NLErf Exloërveld | Erf 02·E6 cabins round one fire | 20 seats | augbuckwheat in flower | 2028, after a full year at Nº 01 |
| 03 | Ardenne · Vresse-sur-Semois, BEDomaine de la Semois | Landgoed 03·L12 cabins, a longhouse | 36 seats | oktgame, chestnuts | Scouting, 2029 |
| 04 | Jylland · Ry, DKGården ved Ry | Erf 04·E5 cabins by the lake | 16 seats | jangrønlangkål | Scouting, 2030 |
Three formats, one naming rule
Hut
Erf
Landgoed
Naming, always in this order: Havaan · region · Nº · site · cabin. On the sign: "Havaan · IJssel", then Landgoed Het Laar on the plate. In the app: "Wilg 3, Erf Wilgenwaard". Under the names sits one code in Schibsted tabular figures: 01·L is the haven and its format, 01·E1 its first erf, 01·E1·W3 cabin Wilg 3, 01·LH the longhouse. The code is engraved under the tree name on the door plate, stamped on the key tag and leads every booking reference. Guests read the names; staff and systems read the code. The bars above each format count seats at the long table, one per guest.
Unit economics of the brand
What is printed, sewn, cast or burnt per site, for a 14-cabin site on the IJssel. Planning estimates at 2026 Dutch trade prices, excluding VAT, to be replaced by tendered quotes before the first site opens.
| Item | Fixed or local | Qty | Unit | Per site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entrance sign board, charred oak, routed lockup | Fixed. One workshop makes them for all sites | 1 | €2,400 | €2,400 |
| Door plates, cast bronze, 80 mm | Fixed. Cast in batches of 100 | 14 | €85 | €1,190 |
| Branding iron, brass, 60 mm | Fixed | 1 | €240 | €240 |
| Rubber stamp and ink pad | Fixed | 2 | €30 | €60 |
| Blanket labels, woven, ink on limewash | Fixed. Sewn on by the blanket maker | 40 | €3.20 | €128 |
| Sauna ritual card, stone paper, framed | Fixed; translated abroad | 2 | €45 | €90 |
| Season plates, UV print on 9 mm birch ply | Local text, fixed design. Reprinted every 3 years | 4 | €40 / 3 yrs | €53 |
| Welcome cards, debossed blanks, printed at check-in | Fixed blank, local text | 1,800 | €0.35 | €630 |
| Breakfast crate label + season strip | Label fixed; strip printed on site | 2,600 | €0.05 | €130 |
| Photography, six tripod spots, four half-days | Local photographer | 4 | €600 | €2,400 |
| Season switch: plates, strip file, four lines of copy | Host, about four hours a season | 4 | staff time | — |
| Central content and brand care | 0.5 FTE across ten sites | — | — | €3,000 |
| Once, at opening (first six rows) | ≈ €4,100 | |||
| Every year (last six rows), about €440 per cabin | ≈ €6,200 | |||
| Per cabin-night over three years: 14 cabins at 60% sell about 3,070 nights a year; (€4,100 + 3 × €6,200) ÷ 9,200 | ≈ €2.50 | |||
| Central, paid once: identity, booking site with the season switch, templates, shoot brief, about €90,000; over six havens €15,000 a site, or €1.60 per cabin-night | ≈ €4.10 all in | |||
Fixed everywhere
The mark, the wordmark, the sign board, Kalk and Veeninkt, the two typefaces, the four rituals and their dates, the sauna card, the switch at 06:00.
Local per haven
Its Nº, the region as people there write it, a native tagline, four accents tuned from the regional palette, the harvest calendar and its makers, six tripod spots.
Never customised
The mark's shape, the order of the seasons, a fifth colour, a local logo or mascot. If a site asks for its own colour, the answer is its harvest notch.
The register moves one number at a time. Nº 02 is financed only after Nº 01 has run all four seasons with at least 20% of guests rebooking and 50% winter occupancy. After that, a new haven costs a register line, four tuned accents, a harvest calendar, a native tagline and four shoots; everything else ships in the same crate.
Chapter 4
Colour
Three constants that never move, and one accent that changes four times a year. Only one accent is ever live. Everything lighter is mixed from it, not chosen.
The constants
Kalk
Limewash · #E9E8E0 · RGB 233 232 224 · CMYK 0 0 4 9The ground: longhouse walls, paper, the site background. Slightly green-grey, never cream.
Veeninkt
Peat ink · #2E2620 · RGB 46 38 32 · CMYK 0 17 30 82Turf
Peat · #625749 · RGB 98 87 73 · CMYK 0 11 26 62The season accent
Each accent carries the lit quarter, the button, the proposal cover and the harvest notch. Its tint (22% on Kalk) is for plates and strips; its wash (8%) is the page ground on screens. The four sit a quarter-turn apart on the colour wheel (violet heath, young green, river blue, rust), so no two seasons can be mistaken for each other on a stack of crates.
Heide
#523A4C · RGB 82 58 76 · CMYK 0 29 7 68Tint 22%Wash 8%
Winter · Winter
From 21 Dec. Heather on the Sallandse Heuvelrug, brown-violet under frost.
Jong groen
#436B1E · RGB 67 107 30 · CMYK 37 0 72 58Tint 22%Wash 8%
Spring · Lente
From 20 Mar. The first grass on the dike.
Rivier
#2D6284 · RGB 45 98 132 · CMYK 66 26 0 48Tint 22%Wash 8%
Summer · Zomer
From 21 Jun. The IJssel on a clear afternoon.
Roest
#9E441C · RGB 158 68 28 · CMYK 0 57 82 38Tint 22%Wash 8%
Autumn · Herfst
From 22 Sep. Oak leaves and the stove door.
Regional palette
The four slots and their order are the same everywhere; only the shade is local. Each haven measures its four accents from its own spot 1 in the year before it opens and holds them to three limits: hue within 12° of the house accent, Kalk text at 5 : 1 or better, ink on the 22% tint at 8.4 : 1 or better. The IJssel shades are the house values, used for anything national: the booking home page, investor papers, this book. A haven's button, plate and notch take its own shade. Two regions only meet on one page here.
| Haven | Winter | Spring | Summer | Autumn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nº 01 IJsselhouse values | Heide#523A4C · Kalk 8.3 : 1 | Jong groen#436B1E · Kalk 5.1 : 1 | Rivier#2D6284 · Kalk 5.4 : 1 | Roest#9E441C · Kalk 5.2 : 1 |
| Nº 02 Drentheheath and fen | Heide#5B3A57 · Kalk 7.8 : 1 | Esgroen#4D6A26 · Kalk 5.0 : 1 | Ven#365D74 · Kalk 5.7 : 1 | Turfroest#8C4A24 · Kalk 5.5 : 1 |
| Nº 03 Ardenneslate valley | Bruyère#4E3A4C · Kalk 8.4 : 1 | Vert Semois#3E6828 · Kalk 5.3 : 1 | Semois#2B5B78 · Kalk 6.0 : 1 | Châtaigne#8A3B1C · Kalk 6.3 : 1 |
| Nº 04 Jyllandlake and beech | Lyng#5A4258 · Kalk 7.3 : 1 | Bøgegrøn#476A22 · Kalk 5.1 : 1 | Sø#2E5E8E · Kalk 5.5 : 1 | Rønnebær#A3401E · Kalk 5.2 : 1 |
Proportion, any season
The bar follows the season switch at the top of the page. The accent stays the smallest share: a signal, not a mood. The photographs carry the season; the colour only confirms it.
Contrast (WCAG 2.2)
| Pair | Ratio | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Veeninkt / Kalk | 12.08 : 1 | AAA, all text |
| Turf / Kalk | 5.74 : 1 | AA, captions |
| Kalk / Heide | 8.26 : 1 | AAA, all text |
| Kalk / Jong groen | 5.08 : 1 | AA, buttons, covers |
| Kalk / Rivier | 5.35 : 1 | AA, buttons, covers |
| Kalk / Roest | 5.18 : 1 | AA, buttons, covers |
| Ink / any tint | 8.43–8.95 : 1 | AAA, plates, strips |
| Accent / its tint | 3.76–5.77 : 1 | Large text (24 px+) only |
| Turf / wash | 5.05–5.17 : 1 | AA, captions on screens |
| Turf / tint | 4.00–4.25 : 1 | Never for text |
Chapter 5
Type
Literata speaks: a book face with optical sizes, as at home in a 136 px cover as on a recipe card. Schibsted Grotesk labels: dates, times, prices, buttons. That is the whole system.
Literata · display and reading · 200–900, italic, optical size 7–72
Mist op de IJssel, stoofpot op de kachel.
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii IJ ij Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 ëéè åø &
Schibsted Grotesk · interface and labels · 400–900, italic
Vr 16 okt, 16:00
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 € · → %
Sauna aan · 85 °C · 6 gasten · code 4817
Scale
Eight steps: 13 · 15 · 18 · 22 · 28 · 44 · 84 · 136. Between 400 and 1200 px wide, a headline moves fluidly between two neighbouring steps; it never lands between them at full width. The mock-ups in chapter 9 are drawn at reduced scale.
| Cover | Jaar | Literata 300 · 136/122 · −4.5% · covers, signs |
| Display | Jaarrond | Literata 300 · 84/91 · opsz 72 · −2.5% |
| Headline | Het jaar rond het vuur | Literata 300 · 44/48 · opsz 60 |
| Title | Het aspergeweekend | Literata 500 · 28/32 |
| Lead | Mist tot de middag, de kachel tot de avond. | Literata 400 · 22/32 |
| Body | De kachel is aangemaakt. Eén aanmaakblokje, twee kloofjes, deurtje vijf minuten op een kier. | Literata 400 · 18/29 · opsz 14 |
| UI / button | Bekijk beschikbaarheid | Schibsted 600 · 15 |
| Label | za 17 okt · zon onder 18:37 | Schibsted 500 · 13 · +2% |
Pairing rules
- Literata for anything a person would read aloud; Schibsted for anything they would glance at: a date, a code, a price.
- Literata Light (300) only from 44 px up; below that, 400.
- Italic is for place and ritual names (IJssel, Midwinter) and for the one turn in the name, Jaarrond: the year coming round. Never for emphasis.
- Literata sets numbers as old-style figures, so “21 december” sits in a sentence like a word. Schibsted sets lining, tabular figures: times, prices, door codes, anything that has to line up.
- Schibsted never goes above 600, except for one big number per layout: a date or a temperature.
- Sentence case everywhere. No capitals-only labels.
- Keep the Dutch digraph: "IJssel", never "Ijssel".
Chapter 6
Voice
Like a host who has lived here all year: tells you what is ripe, when the sun goes down and where the ladder into the river is. Specific and unhurried. It reports the season; it never sells it. Dutch is written first, by a Dutch writer; the English in this book is a gloss for readers, never the source.
| Principle | Do | Don't |
|---|---|---|
| Noem de weekName the week | Name the week: "De eerste asperges kwamen dinsdag binnen." | Name a vibe: "Omarm de magie van de lente." |
| Tijden, geen gevoelensTimes, not feelings | Give times and numbers: "Zon onder 17:02. Sauna aan vanaf 16:00." | Promise feelings: "Pure ontspanning wacht." |
| Noem de makerName the maker | Credit the maker by name and village. | Say "lokaal", "ambachtelijk" or "farm-to-table" without a name. |
| Praat met de groepTalk to the group | Speak to the group: "jullie twaalf". | Speak to one person: "jouw persoonlijke oase". |
| Nederlands eerstDutch first | Write Dutch as people speak it: "het erf", "stamppot", "even naar buiten". | Mix in English: "cozy", "unwinden", "herfst-evening". |
| Laat het seizoen trekkenLet the season pull | Let the next season pull: "Midwinter valt op een zaterdag." | Push: "Nog maar 2 plekken! Boek nu!" |
| Verkoop de plekSell the seat, not the season | Name the seat and the date: "Twaalf plaatsen aan tafel, zaterdag 19 december." | Sell the scenery: "Beleef de magie van de winter." |
Sample copy
Booking hero, autumn
Mist op de IJssel, stoofpot op de kachel. Zes huisjes, één vuur, en de paddenstoelen staan er.Mist on the IJssel, stew on the stove. Six cabins, one fire, and the mushrooms are up.
Group and retreat booking page
Een erf voor twaalf: zes huisjes rond één vuurplaats, een langhuis met een tafel waar iedereen aan past, en een sauna voor acht. Het menu schrijven we in de week dat jullie komen, met wat de boeren binnen twintig kilometer dan oogsten.An erf for twelve: six cabins around one fire, a longhouse table that seats everyone, a sauna for eight. We write the menu in the week you arrive.
Check-in message
Hoi Sanne, jullie zitten in Wilg 3, code 4817. De kachel is aangemaakt. Vannacht vriest het voor het eerst, dus morgen oogst Tuinderij Het Erf de eerste boerenkool; rond de middag ligt hij in jullie koelbox. Sauna aan vanaf 16:00. Zon onder 16:41.
Hi Sanne, you're in Wilg 3, code 4817. The stove is lit. First frost tonight, so tomorrow the farm cuts the first kale; it will be in your cool box by noon.
Sauna ritual card
Twaalf minuten warm. Dan het water in, hooguit twee minuten, en uitademen bij het erin gaan. Een kwartier bij het vuur, met thee. Dat drie keer, en daarna is de avond van jullie.Twelve minutes hot. Then into the water, two minutes at most, breathing out as you go in. A quarter of an hour by the fire, with tea. Three times, and then the evening is yours.
Seasonal Instagram caption, winter
Na de eerste vorst: boerenkool. Na de sauna: stamppot. Boerenkool van Tuinderij Het Erf, rookworst van Slagerij Nijhof uit Wijhe, en tweeëntwintig mensen die rond de tweede ronde hun telefoon vergaten. Midwinter, 21 december.B2B retreat proposal line
Twee dagen aan één tafel. Het programma en het menu komen uit dezelfde week.Two days at one table. The programme and the menu come from the same week.
Taglines
Chapter 7
Imagery
Photograph the group, the food and the weather, in that order. Each picture should only be possible in its own season: you can tell the month from the frame. Below is the shot list every site commissions first. Until that shoot, concept images show the moments and three openly licensed photographs show the place. Concept images are AI-generated for art direction. They are not real Havaan sites or guests; the commissioned shoot follows this brief.
shadow #221C17mid #866F66highlight #F4DBC4
Sauna and plunge · winter, midday
Concept image: friends between a wood-fired sauna and the river on a frosty morning. Not a Havaan site or guests.
The lead picture, so it gets the biggest frame: the whole ritual in one image, hot behind them, cold ahead, the group laughing on the way. This is the picture that sells a January weekend. Real bodies, real swimwear, nobody posing.
Lens: 35 mm from the water’s edge, 1/500 s. Keep the snow blue-white; never warm it in the grade.
shadow #221C17mid #4E2C1Bhighlight #D7965D
Fire · autumn, dusk
Concept image: the fire bowl in the circle, cropped tight on the flame; the faces stay out of frame.
Fire is shot close: the stove door open, the flame, the split wood and the hands feeding it. No campsite, no outdoor gear, no faces lit for the camera. On our shoot: estate oak split in March, a wool sleeve, the stove’s own light.
Lens: 50 mm, f/2, at the height of the stove door, no flash. Grade: the fire is the only orange.
shadow #221C17mid #3F2A20highlight #AD948B
The table, full · autumn, evening
Concept image: a company retreat at one long table in a timber longhouse.
The longhouse an hour after everyone came in: one table, bread, the box open, a window still light. On our shoot the first frame is the same room empty, from the same spot; this is the second.
Lens: 28 mm shift from the doorway, 1.3 m, daylight only. The stove is always in frame.
shadow #221C18mid #6F503Fhighlight #DAC0AC
Sauna house · any season, low sun
Concept image: the same jetty, cropped tight on the sauna house.
The dark timber, the stove glowing through the glass in a low sun, nothing styled. Shoot ours the same way: the building working, not posed.
Lens: 28 mm on a tripod, 1/15 s so the smoke moves.
The cabins · late summer, low sun
Concept image: a cluster of dark timber cabins round one yard, a family arriving by bike.
Darkened larch, low to the ground, round one fire bowl on a Dutch estate. Shoot it in the quarter of an hour when inside and outside are equally bright, with someone arriving.
Lens: 35 mm shift from 40 m, camera level, verticals straight. No drone.
One grade for every photographer
Every picture in this book, photographed or generated, runs through the same treatment: saturation 84%, contrast 104%, warm 8%, and blacks lifted to peat (#221C17), never pure black. The same values ship to each site photographer as a preset. Shadow, mid and highlight swatches under each picture are measured from the graded frame.
Before. As generated: one golden-hour orange over grass, skin and sky alike.
After. Orange pulled down, shadows opened to peat; the scarf stays rust. Golden hour is one light of many: crop tight, and shoot the grey days too.
One spot, four times a year
The landscape is the supporting layer: never the lead picture, always the proof of the season. Every site has six fixed tripod spots, photographed each season; spot 1 is the view from the dike, 50 mm at eye level. Its four frames sit under the people pictures on the site page; nothing there is ever "evergreen". Here, three openly licensed photographs and one concept-image crop of the view from the dike stand in for one spot.
Wintercool highlights, warm window
Springshadows lifted, greens young
Summerlate sun, no mist
Autumngreens pulled down, mist kept
Always
People together, mid-action. Faces are welcome, lit by the fire or turned to each other, never to the camera; ask first and caption with first names. Hands doing something. Steam, smoke, breath on a cold morning. Food with the maker's name in the caption. The cabin as architecture: a darkened timber box with honest joints, shot level and straight.
Avoid
- A lone figure gazing at a view
- Faces posed to camera
- Drone shots of the roof
- Christmas props, Easter eggs, pumpkins with faces
- Teal-and-orange grading
- Bathrobes, spa towels, candles in a row
- Laptops at the long table
- Food styled with tweezers
- A summer picture in winter
- Text over a busy frame without a scrim
Graphic devices
Seizoenslint, the season strip
The year unrolled into twelve months, the season lit and a notch at today. For tight spaces: labels, the booking bar, email footers.
One dot outside the ring, at the month.
Oogstpunt, the harvest notch
Marks a place's best month, or when the product on a label was harvested. Always in that season's deep colour.
havaan · IJssel
Herfst · paddenstoelen, appels
Seizoensplaat, the season plate
A swappable plate under every fixed sign, menu board and door. The permanent part is ink; the season hangs underneath.
jullie twaalf, aan één tafel
Tafelplaats, the seat count
One tick is one person at the long table, in two rows as the table looks from above. It counts people only, never cabins, nights or euros, and it shows who is coming, never how few places are left.
Icons
24 px grid, 1.6 px stroke, round caps and joins. Icons stay ink in every season; only the mark's quarter changes colour.
Chapter 8
Harvest & ritual
The calendar the brand runs on. It decides the breakfast box, the posts, the season plate and what the host says at check-in.
Harvest calendar · Havaan IJssel
Bars take the colour of the season the product belongs to. The current month is marked. Maker names are working names until the supply agreements are signed.
Product · makerjanfebmrtaprmeijunjulaugsepoktnovdec
Daslookeigen landgoed, uit het bosmrt–apr
LamsvleesSchaapskooi Sallandse Heuvelrugapr–mei
RabarberHof te Boskamp, Olstapr–jun
Witte aspergesErve Kamphuis, Olstapr–jun
AardbeienFruitteelt De Wetering, Wijhejun–jul
KersenFruitteelt De Wetering, Wijhejul
LindehoningImkerij Holterberg, Holtenjul–aug
Appels en perenHof te Boskamp, Olstsep–dec, jan–feb
PaddenstoelenKwekerij Onder de Linde, Deventersep–nov
BokbierBrouwerij Sallands Erf, Deventerokt–nov
BoerenkoolTuinderij Het Erf, Gorsselnov–dec, jan–feb
BoerenkaasKaasboerderij De Hoeve, Raaltejan–dec
Brandhouteigen landgoed, gekloofd in maartokt–dec, jan–mrt
Four rituals, one per season
Each season opens with one shared evening, on the Saturday nearest the day it starts. Every site runs the same four, cooked from its own harvest. They are the reason people come back.
Midwinter21 Dec
Stamppot night in the longhouse, then the sauna in the dark. Boerenkool after the first frost, sausage from the butcher in Wijhe.
Lentebegin20 Mar
Everyone splits wood for next winter, then a table of wild garlic from the estate wood and the last winter roots from Tuinderij Het Erf.
Midzomer21 Jun
A sunrise swim in the IJssel, then dinner on the dike until it is too dark to read the menu, around 22:30.
Herfstbegin22 Sep
A mushroom walk with the forester, stew on the stove, and the first Saturday the sauna stays on until 23:00.
Chapter 9
Applications
Only four things change with the season: the website hero, the sign plate, the strip on the box and the posts. Everything else is made once.
Booking site, mobile
The hero switches on the season's first day at 06:00: new picture from spot 1, new line, new lit quarter, new box. The first screen already names the cabin, the price for the stay and what is in the box. The button is always the season's deep colour. All mock-ups in this chapter use the concept images.
WinterVorst buiten, negentig graden binnen.
Sauna vanaf twaalf uur, boerenkool na de vorst.
Wanneer en met hoeveelvr 15 – zo 17 jan · 12 gasten
Erf Wilgenwaard6 huisjes · sauna voor 8€ 2.6402 nachten
Bekijk beschikbaarheid
In de kist: boerenkaas · Deventer koek · appelstroop
Winterfrom the first day
LenteDe lammeren lopen buiten. Jullie ook?
Asperges, rabarber en lange avonden aan de dijk.
Wanneer en met hoeveelvr 15 – zo 17 mei · 6 gasten
Wilg 3 en Wilg 42 huisjes · sauna van het erf€ 1.1802 nachten
Bekijk beschikbaarheid
In de kist: asperges · rabarber · roggebrood
Springfrom the first day
ZomerHet water is warm tot tien uur 's avonds.
Zwemmen bij de ladder, eten op de dijk, de kinderen bij het vuur.
Wanneer en met hoeveelvr 10 – zo 12 jul · 4 gasten
Els 21 huisje · eigen vuurschaal€ 6902 nachten
Bekijk beschikbaarheid
In de kist: kersen · lindehoning · karnemelk
Summerfrom the first day
HerfstMist op de IJssel, stoofpot op de kachel.
Paddenstoelen, appels en de sauna tot laat.
Wanneer en met hoeveelvr 16 – zo 18 okt · 8 gasten
Wilg 3, Wilg 4, Berk 13 huisjes · sauna za tot 23:00€ 1.5602 nachten
Bekijk beschikbaarheid
In de kist: appels · paddenstoelen · roggebrood
Autumnfrom the first day
Retreat proposal cover (B2B)
The cover takes the season of the offsite, not of the day it is sent, and marks the dates on the ring. Here: November, so autumn, on Roest.
Voorstel · proposalRef. 01·L · 2611
Twee dagen aan één tafel.
- Voor
- Kraanvogel Software, 28 mensen
- Waar
- Havaan · IJssel Nº 01, Landgoed Het Laar, Gorssel
- Wanneer
- 12–14 november 2026 · herfst
- Inclusief
- 9 huisjes, het langhuis, de sauna, twee diners uit de oogstkalender, een facilitator op dag 2
"Two days at one table. The programme and the menu come from the same week."
Pagina 2 · het programma
- do 15:00
- Aankomst. Sleutels liggen in de huisjes, de sauna gaat aan.
- do 19:00
- Diner aan de lange tafel: oesterzwammen van Onder de Linde, wild uit Gorssel, bokbier uit Deventer.
- vr 09:00
- Sessie in het langhuis met jullie facilitator. Om 12:30 klapt de projectorwand weg voor de lunch.
- vr 14:00
- Paddenstoelen zoeken met de boswachter, in drie groepen.
- vr 16:00
- Sauna per team, drie kwartier per ronde. Daarna het vuur.
- za 10:00
- Afsluiting in de kring bij de vuurplaats, brunch uit de ontbijtkist.
€ 465 per persoon, alles inbegrepen, excl. btw. Midweek van november tot maart: € 395.
The full proposal adds the menu with its makers and the longhouse plan with its workshop corners. Winter offsites are priced midweek, which is where retreats fill the calendar.
Product label · breakfast box
One fixed label on a pine crate, printed once a year, with only the year-round contents on it. The season strip is printed on site and stuck across the bottom; its colour sorts the stack in the barn.
Havaan · IJssel
Ontbijtkist
- RoggebroodBakkerij Ten Brink, Gorssel
- ScharreleierenErve Kamphuis, Olst
- Boerenboter, boerenkaasKaasboerderij De Hoeve, Raalte
- KarnemelkKaasboerderij De Hoeve, Raalte
Herfst · Elstar-appels, oesterzwammen, appelstroop · gevuld 15 okt
Product photo direction. The maker hands it over: hands, the cheese, the crate. The box itself is shot from above on the barn boards, soil still on it. Concept image.
Printed once a year, so the mark on the label is all ink; the strip carries the season. The label lists what is in every box, all year, with its makers. The strip lists the season's three, printed on site the morning the box is packed.
Winter · Deventer koek (Bussink), appelstroop, boerenkool
Lente · asperges (Erve Kamphuis), rabarbercompote, lamsworst
Zomer · aardbeien (De Wetering), kersen, lindehoning
Herfst · Elstar-appels (Hof te Boskamp), oesterzwammen, appelstroop
Sauna ritual card
The sauna never changes, so neither does its card: one version, on stone paper, inside the changing room. The ring is reused at the scale of minutes: one round is one small year.
Warm · koud · rust
- Warm, zo’n 12 minuten85–90 °C. Wie het dichtst bij de kachel zit, gooit het water op de stenen. Te warm? De onderste bank is er ook.
- Koud, tot 2 minutenHet dompelbad, of van april tot oktober de ladder in de IJssel. Uitademen bij het erin gaan.
- Rust, een kwartierBij het vuur, ingepakt, met thee. De telefoons slapen in het mandje bij de deur.
- Twee of drie rondesDaarna de tafel, of bed.
Havaan · IJsselSauna 16:00–22:00 · winter vanaf 12:00
Koud, tot 2 minuten. Step two of the card, breathing out on the way in. Concept image.
Written for the group, not the individual: who puts water on the stones, where the tea is, when to stop.
Printed in ink on Veeninkt with Limewash text (12.08 : 1). At sites abroad the whole card is translated, heading included: Varm · kold · hvile in Jylland.
Social posts · one per season
One post the week something turns: the first frost, the blossom, the first swim, the first mushrooms. Same square, same type, text never on the picture, so the grid reads as a calendar when you scroll it.
Winter. The first frost outside, the stove lit inside: kale, stamppot, the plunge.
De appels bloeien. Nog vijf maanden tot de Elstars.
Lente · IJssel
Spring. Late April: breakfast out on the deck under the blossom.
Kersen van de dijk, voeten in de IJssel.
Zomer · IJssel
Summer. The river warm enough to swim; cherries from De Wetering.
Mist tot de middag. De kachel tot de avond.
Herfst · IJssel
Autumn. Scarves on the dike; the stove lit when they get back, with wood split in March.
Entrance sign · IJssel
Charred oak posts and a permanent ink board with the all-ink lockup. The season plate hangs underneath on two hooks; the host swaps it on the first morning of the season.
IJssel · Landgoed Het Laar
HerfstPaddenstoelen, appels, bokbier · sauna za tot 23:00
The four plates. Printed once and reused every year; only the times are re-stickered.
WinterBoerenkool, boerenkaas · sauna vanaf 12:00
LenteAsperges, lamsvlees · rivier vanaf 20 april
ZomerKersen, honing · zwemmen tot zonsondergang
HerfstPaddenstoelen, appels, bokbier · sauna za tot 23:00
Cabin welcome card
One card, printed on demand at check-in, debossed mark on the front. It follows the season switch at the top of this page: one practical line, the season's ritual and the door code.
Welkom in Wilg 3.
De boerenkool heeft zijn eerste vorst gehad, dus hij is zoet. Het recept voor stamppot staat achterop.De asperges van Erve Kamphuis liggen in de koelbox. Schillen van kop naar voet, acht minuten in de grote pan.De zwemladder ligt aan het eind van het weidepad. Eerst stroomopwaarts zwemmen, dan terug laten drijven.De kachel is aangemaakt. Eén aanmaakblokje, twee kloofjes, deurtje vijf minuten op een kier, dan dicht.
Midwinter, 21 december: stamppot in het langhuis, daarna de sauna in het donker.Lentebegin, 20 maart: hout kloven voor volgende winter, daarna daslook uit het bos en de laatste winterwortels.Midzomer, 21 juni: eten op de dijk tot het te donker is om de kaart te lezen.Herfstbegin, 22 september: paddenstoelen zoeken met de boswachter, stoofpot op de kachel.
Same place, another season.
The back carries one recipe from the box and a code for 10% off the same cabin in the next season, valid for twelve months.
Chapter 10
The case
Why guests book it, why investors back it, and why it will look the same in ten years.
Why guests book
Because something is happening when they arrive: the asparagus, the first frost, the river warm enough to swim. A booking is for a moment, not a bed. Every stay ends with a reason to come back next season, to the same cabin, with a code on the welcome card.
Why investors back it
No off-season, only a different one. The sauna and the Midwinter evening carry winter weekends; company retreats fill winter midweeks. The brand costs about €4,100 per site to open and €6,200 a year to run, listed line by line in chapter 3. The switch itself is built to be dull: plates on hooks, a strip from a template, a web hero that changes itself at 06:00, about four hours of host time a season.
Why it will not date
It is made of things that were there before the brand and will be after it: charred oak, cast bronze, limewash, brass, a book face drawn for long reading, and the colours of one field through four seasons. The photographs are of weather, food and people working, which do not go out of fashion. No trend colour, no gradient, no illustration style. The photographs date by season, never by year. What changes, changes four times a year on purpose, so the brand never needs a refresh to feel new.
Investor memo cover
The mark as data: planned occupancy per season, drawn on the four quarters, in ink. The point of the identity in one picture.
Investor memo · seed roundOctober 2026 · confidential
A brand that reopens four times a year.
Planned occupancy by season, year 3: winter 76 · spring 82 · summer 91 · autumn 86 %
IJssel · Drenthe · Ardenne
Planning assumptions, not results or market data; the first IJssel year tests them. What has to be true, per site of 14 cabins:
- 35% of guests rebook within twelve months, through the next-season code.
- Two midweek company retreats a month from November to March, at 20–40 guests each.
- The Midwinter and Lentebegin evenings sell out the weekend they fall in.
- Nº 02 is financed only after Nº 01 has run four seasons with at least 20% rebooking and 50% winter occupancy; the register moves one number at a time.
- Break-even in the plan sits at 58% occupancy over the trailing twelve months. The table below runs the plan three ways; the case does not rest on the rituals selling out.
Three scenarios · model assumptions, not results
Per 14-cabin site at Nº 01. Every figure is a planning assumption that the first IJssel year tests. Break-even is the first month in which occupancy over the trailing twelve months reaches 58%; years are averaged flat.
| Assumption | Downside | Base | Upside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter occupancy, year 3 | 55% | 76% | 84% |
| Spring · summer · autumn, year 3 | 64 · 78 · 68% | 82 · 91 · 86% | 87 · 94 · 90% |
| Guests rebooking within twelve months | 20% | 35% | 45% |
| Midweek retreats a month, Nov–Mar | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Year-round occupancy, years 1 · 2 · 3 | 44 · 56 · 66% | 52 · 70 · 84% | 58 · 78 · 89% |
| Nº 02 gate after year 1 (20% rebooking, 50% winter) | Missed; wait a year | Met | Met |
| Break-even at 58%, trailing twelve months | Month 27 · year 3 | Month 16 · year 2 | Month 12 · year 1 |
Credits
Photography
Concept images are AI-generated for art direction. They are not real Havaan sites or guests; the commissioned shoot follows this brief. Three openly licensed photographs stand in for the place itself. The shoot follows the shot list in chapter 7: six fixed spots per site, four times a year.
- Friends around a fire bowl on the IJssel floodplain at blue hour.AI-generated concept image (OpenAI image model via Codex CLI) · not a photograph
Used for: Cover (autumn), imagery: fire (tight crop), booking (autumn) - Friends at a wood-fired sauna on a jetty, frosty winter morning.AI-generated concept image (OpenAI image model via Codex CLI) · not a photograph
Used for: Cover (winter), imagery: sauna and plunge (lead), sauna house (tight crop), booking (winter), sauna card - Friends at breakfast on a cabin deck among blossom.AI-generated concept image (OpenAI image model via Codex CLI) · not a photograph
Used for: Cover (spring), booking (spring), social post (spring) - Friends swimming in the IJssel on a summer evening.AI-generated concept image (OpenAI image model via Codex CLI) · not a photograph
Used for: Cover (summer), booking (summer), social post (summer) - A company retreat at one long oak table in a timber longhouse.AI-generated concept image (OpenAI image model via Codex CLI) · not a photograph
Used for: Imagery: the table, full - A cluster of dark timber cabins around a shared yard, family arriving by bike.AI-generated concept image (OpenAI image model via Codex CLI) · not a photograph
Used for: Imagery: the cabins, investor memo - A family walking an IJssel dike in autumn.AI-generated concept image (OpenAI image model via Codex CLI) · not a photograph
Used for: Grade before/after, spot 1 (autumn, crop of the view), welcome card (autumn), social post (autumn) - Two friends by a wood stove, frosted floodplain outside.AI-generated concept image (OpenAI image model via Codex CLI) · not a photograph
Used for: Social post (winter) - A team in a talking circle inside a timber longhouse.AI-generated concept image (OpenAI image model via Codex CLI) · not a photograph
Used for: Retreat proposal - A cheesemaker handing farmhouse cheese to guests at a Salland farm.AI-generated concept image (OpenAI image model via Codex CLI) · not a photograph
Used for: Breakfast box: product direction - Frost-covered reeds in a meadow at dawn, with pale pink winter light.Dietmar Rabich · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Used for: Spot 1 (winter), welcome card - Bare willows and golden reeds mirrored in still water in the IJssel floodplain near Kampen, early spring.Agnes Monkelbaan · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Used for: Spot 1 (spring), welcome card - A lone Scots pine in flowering purple heather under a warm, hazy late-summer sky.Dominicus Johannes Bergsma · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Used for: Spot 1 (summer), welcome card
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Concept images are AI-generated for art direction. They are not real Havaan sites or guests; the commissioned shoot follows this brief. All shown with the Havaan grade (chapter 7). CC BY-SA images are adapted only by crop and grade and stay under their licence.