Steady as water should be

01Overview

The firm

Vlietstra Waterwerken inspects, maintains, and renews pump stations, weirs, and culverts across Friesland and the northern provinces. Founded in 1962, run by the third generation, trusted by the people who work the water every day.

The brand's job is continuity made visible. The firm has always known these assets better than anyone; the identity, the reporting, and the portal put that knowledge in a form a procurement team can score.

02Strategy

Strategy

Mission

Look after the infrastructure others build, for decades at a time.

Positioning

Vlietstra keeps the water where it belongs. Three generations of asset knowledge — now visible in every report, every tender, and the service portal.

Values

• Continuity. Sixty years on the same assets; we plan in decades, not contract terms.
• Vakmanschap. The repair is done right, documented, and explainable to anyone who asks.
• Nabijheid. We are an hour away and we answer the phone.

Who we work with

Waterschap asset managers, municipal project leads, tender boards, and the next generation of crew members.

03Voice & tone

Voice

Quiet authority. Vlietstra speaks when it knows, plainly and without drama — the calm one in the room who has seen this before.

Principles

• Plain. Clear Dutch, short sentences, no jargon the crew wouldn't use.
• Level. Bad news travels in active voice, with the plan attached.
• Evidenced. Numbers where they help; the archive does the persuading.

What we say — and don't

04Logo

Logo

The mark is the 1962 original redrawn: the three waves of the family sluice, simplified to hold at signage scale and in a 16px favicon. The wordmark sets in the headline face, always in Waterlijn or white.

Clear space & sizing

Clear space equals the height of one wave on all sides. On the fleet, the mark rides the front door panel only.

Misuse

• Do not recolor the mark outside the palette
• Do not set the wordmark in any other face
• Do not add effects, outlines, or shadows
• Do not redraw the waves — use the provided files

05Color

Color

Deep water blues on light ground. Waterlijn carries identity and type; Boezem is the working accent; Signaal appears only where safety demands it.

Accent use

Boezem is the only color that behaves like ink — links, chart lines, and active states. Signaal never decorates; it warns.

06Typography

Typography

Case Grotesque for display, Case Text for reading. Engineered forms with enough warmth for a family firm — set tight, never in all caps.

Rules of thumb

• Never set type in all caps — signage included
• Data tables are typography: same scale, same discipline
• Dutch first; English follows the same scale

Case by Fontsmith — licensed for web and print.

07Layout & grid

Layout & grid

Documents and the website share one strict grid: generous margins, a fixed reading measure, and tables treated as first-class design objects. If a report looks like it was measured, it was.

08Photography

Photography

The assets and the land, photographed straight. Wide polder horizons, working infrastructure, natural light — the honesty of a survey photograph with the care of an editorial one. No stock, no drama, no filters.

• Shoot straight-on or wide; never tilted
• Natural light only — overcast is the house weather
• People appear working, never posing

09Motion

Motion

Calm and physical. Interfaces fade and settle; nothing bounces. Data draws in at reading speed — the portal should feel like water finding level, 200ms, ease-out.

10Components

Components

The portal and the website share one kit: quiet fields, hairline tables, and a single accent. Status is a word with a dot, never a traffic light.

Buttons & links

Badges

Card

Form

Icons

Icons are 16px, single-weight 1.5px strokes in currentColor — drawn on the same grid, never filled unless the state is active.

11Do & don't

In short