Mervare brandbook
AI-powered operating system for small marinas and their guests.
How Mervare is positioned, how it looks, sounds and is spelled, and where it speaks from. This brandbook is normative: it is the source of truth that the product, the marketing sites, decks, social, outreach, press and partner material converge on. Brandbook → production, never the other way round. Where a surface has not caught up yet, it is listed under Migration status.
Maintained in English. The navigation around it follows your language; the guidance itself is not translated, because a brand rule paraphrased is a brand rule changed.
Positioning and brand architecture
Mervare is the AI-powered operating system for small marinas and their guests.
Mervare brings harbour data, guest management, bookings, payments and communication into one platform. It reduces the manual work of running a small harbour for the teams who do it, and gives the sailors who visit one digital place for their journey — from finding a harbour to paying for the berth.
Estonia and the Baltic are the launch market: the first register imported, the first harbours live. Nothing in the positioning, the naming or the visual identity is tied to one sea, and copy never describes the company as a Baltic product.
One master brand, two product propositions
The company line leads everything that describes Mervare as a company. The B2B and B2C lines describe a product surface and are never promoted to company positioning.
AI-powered operating system for small marinas and their guests.
For F6S and accelerators, EU programmes and funders, investors, press, institutional and harbour partners.
Use Anything that describes Mervare as a company. Always the lead line; the two below are never promoted to it.
The operating system for small marinas.
For Harbour masters and small marina teams.
Use The operator product: bookings, berth maps, payments, telemetry, guest communication. mervare.io/marketing and operator decks.
Harbours of the Baltic Sea.
For Visiting sailors.
Use The discovery experience for the launch region — the harbour directory and map. A product proposition for sailors, not company positioning.
Domains and official communication
Four domains, four jobs. Each one is lowercase, and each one is used only for its own job.
mervare.eu
Official company communication and institutional/legal identity.
Legal notices, contracts, EU and public-sector correspondence, funders, formal partnerships. The address a counterparty should be able to rely on.
mervare.io
International marketing, brand, expansion, investor and partner-facing website.
The international home, /marketing for marina teams, this brandbook and the media kit. English by default, with Latvian, Finnish and Swedish outreach pages.
mervare.ee
Estonia-facing harbour discovery and local-market content.
Every harbour in the Estonian port register, in Estonian and English. It never transacts: berth intent hands off to mervare.app.
mervare.app
Authenticated product surface for marina teams and sailors.
Bookings, payments, boats, per-marina dashboards. Not indexed; not a marketing surface.
Official communication is sent from the mervare.eu domain.
Use an @mervare.eu address for:
- ✓Legal notices and contractual communication
- ✓EU projects — Interreg, Atlantic Area and similar programmes
- ✓Grants and public funding
- ✓Public-sector and municipality communication
- ✓Institutional partnerships
- ✓Formal harbour partnerships
- ✓Accelerator and funder follow-up
- ✓Formal outreach and official company correspondence
mervare.io, mervare.ee and mervare.app addresses are product and market surfaces — fine for a support reply, a survey or a product notification, never the sender of a contract, a grant application or a letter to a ministry.
Brand principles
Useful information, honestly sourced. Internal framing for how Mervare behaves — not an external tagline.
These began as data rules on the harbour pages. They are brand rules now: they bind copy, decks, social posts, partner material and anything an AI writes on Mervare’s behalf, not only the product UI.
Don't invent what you don't know
A missing fact stays missing. Copy, UI, decks and AI output say “not published” rather than fill a gap with something plausible.
Absent is not zero
A harbour with no depth on file has an unknown depth, not a shallow one. “Depth: 0 m” is a measurement; nobody measured it.
Register data is not capability data
What a public register publishes about a harbour and what a visitor can do there through Mervare are different facts, from different sources, and are never merged into one claim.
Listed is not a customer
Only a handful of the harbours Mervare lists run on Mervare. No copy, image or count implies that every listed harbour is a customer, a partner or an endorser.
Every operational fact has a source
Depths, restrictions, services and sailing directions carry where they came from and when. If the source cannot be named, the fact does not publish.
Useful before impressive
Say what a visitor can do and what it costs them. A verified number beats an adjective; an unverified number is worse than none.
Voice & tone
Simple, maritime, useful, human — in that order, and never at the cost of being accurate.
Useful before impressive
Say what a visitor can do here, then what it costs them. Nothing is sold by adjective.
Honest about what we don't know
Absent is 'not published', never zero. A harbour with no depth on file says so.
Maritime, not nautical-themed
The vocabulary of people who actually go to sea — harbour, berth, draught, fairway — in British/European English, used correctly or not at all.
Plain about capability
Only a handful of the register's harbours run on Mervare. Copy never implies otherwise.
Grounded, not adversarial
Say who Mervare is built with, not who it is against. No competitor-bashing, no us-versus-them.
Say this
- ✓Book a guest berth
- ✓Depths where the register publishes them
- ✓No depth on file for this harbour
- ✓Request a berth
- ✓Harbours of the Baltic Sea
- ✓Built with the small marina teams who run the harbour day to day.
Not this
- ✕
Book any harbour instantlyBooking is live at a handful of harbours, not at 245. - ✕
Trusted by marinas across EuropeAn endorsement nobody has given. Endorsements appear only when explicitly approved; otherwise state a verified fact. Guarded by test/marketingClaims.test.mjs. - ✕
Built with the marinas that actually run docks, not for landlords who don'tAdversarial. Say who we build with, not who we are against. - ✕
Harbor, draftAmerican spelling. Mervare writes British/European maritime English: harbour, draught. - ✕
Depth: 0 mAbsent is unknown. Zero is a measurement. - ✕
Revolutionary marina platformAdjective doing the work a fact should do. - ✕
SeamlessSays nothing a reader can check.
Maritime English
British/European maritime English in every string a person reads. The glossary governs copy only: code identifiers, routes, database fields and API names keep the names they have.
| Write | Not | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| harbour | The generic place a boat comes in to — any harbour in a register, whatever its size or owner. | |
| marina | — | A leisure harbour, and the word in operator-product context: marina teams, the marina dashboard. |
| berth | The individual place one vessel lies — a guest berth, a seasonal berth. | |
| draught | The depth a vessel needs, and the terminology of depth requirements and measurement. | |
| fairway | The marked approach route into a harbour. |
Naming and capitalisation
One capital, no translation, and domains always lowercase.
MervareOne capital. This is the spelling in the public site chrome, the footer and og:site_name.MerVareA camel-cased older form. Do not use it in new work; surfaces still carrying it are listed under Migration status.mervare.eu / .io / .ee / .appDomains are always lowercase, even at the start of a sentence.Mervare (Estonian)The name does not decline and is not translated. Estonian case endings attach with a hyphen: Mervare'i, Mervare'is.MERVAREAll caps is for the 12px label style only, never for the name in running text.
Logo system
An anchor and the word. The symbol carries the brand where there is no room for the name; the lockup is the default everywhere else. Both are real files — see Downloads.
The anchor is the official mark for current launches, F6S included. It is drawn as geometry Mervare owns, not the ⚓ emoji: where a live surface still shows the emoji, that is a migration item, not a second logo. A more distinctive symbol is later exploration and blocks nothing — see Migration status.
Clear space and minimum size
Backgrounds and misuse
Colour
Two grounds used as rhythm, three weights of ink, and exactly one accent. Every value below is a live token from the production stylesheet.
Ink
Text and anything that behaves like text. Three weights, never more.
--mv-inkHeadings, body copy, the wordmark on a light ground.
--mv-ink-2Secondary copy that still has to be read.
--mv-ink-3Labels, captions, metadata. Not body text.
Grounds
Two grounds used as rhythm rather than decoration: deep marine navy for the moments meant to feel like being out there, warm off-white for the moments meant to feel like reading. Pure white is never a page ground — it is reserved for surfaces sitting on top of something.
--mv-sandThe reading ground. Default page background.
--mv-sand-2A second step of the same ground: wells, insets.
--mv-surfaceCards and sheets that sit above a ground.
--mv-deepHero and map grounds. The open-water register.
--mv-deep-2Raised surfaces on a deep ground.
Accent
One accent. It marks the thing a visitor can act on, which is why it appears sparingly.
--mv-seaPrimary actions, links, the symbol on a light ground.
--mv-sea-inkText on a Sea fill.
--mv-sea-softA wash for a chosen option or a highlighted row.
State
Something is wrong. A warm brick rather than a signal red, because it has to sit on sand next to teal without shouting.
--mv-dangerErrors, destructive actions, withdrawn content.
--mv-danger-softThe ground under a danger message.
Contrast
Computed from the hex values on this page, not recorded alongside them — a pairing that stops passing stops saying it passes in the same edit.
| Pairing | Ratio | Body text | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| AaInk on Sand | 15.34:1 | passes AA | Body copy. |
| AaInk 2 on Sand | 9.05:1 | passes AA | Secondary copy. |
| AaInk 3 on Sand | 3.81:1 | fails AA | Labels only — it does not clear 4.5:1. |
| AaSea on Sand | 5.25:1 | passes AA | Links and primary actions. |
| AaSea ink on Sea | 5.76:1 | passes AA | Text on a filled button. |
| AaSurface on Deep | 16.73:1 | passes AA | Copy on a hero or map ground. |
| AaDanger on Sand | 5.09:1 | passes AA | Error text. |
| AaSea on Deep | 2.9:1 | fails AA | Never. The accent does not survive the dark ground — use white. |
Typography
No webfont, by design — these pages are read on deck, in sunlight, on one bar of signal. The wordmark is therefore live text in the reader's own platform UI sans, not a drawn logotype. Recognition comes from layout, colour, imagery, language and product behaviour — not from a fashionable typeface.
The stack
-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serifHarbours of the Baltic Sea.
Sailing directions
Approach and entrance
Depths and services where a register publishes them.
ESTONIA
Photography & social
Real harbours, photographed as they are — starting with the Baltic coast. The product's own imagery comes from the public register and from sailors, and it sets the standard for everything else, including automated social posts.
Yes
- ✓Working harbours: pontoons, fenders, a fuel berth, a crane
- ✓Northern weather — flat grey water and low light are on-brand
- ✓Small craft, not superyachts
- ✓People doing something: mooring, walking a pontoon
No
- ✕Tropical water, palm trees, Mediterranean light
- ✕Stock-photo business handshakes and dashboards on laptops
- ✕Heavy filters, teal-and-orange grading, fake sunsets
- ✕Any harbour presented as a Mervare customer when it is not
Credit is not optional
Imagery carries its licence with it. OpenStreetMap data is ODbL and attributed; Mapillary photography is CC BY-SA 4.0 and shown with the photographer, Mapillary and the licence named. Google Street View is linked, never re-hosted. An absent licence is not a permissive one, and a credit never creates a permission that was not given.
Rules for using an image
- Horizon and compositionThe horizon is level — correct it, never leave a tilt. Place it on a third, not through the middle. Leave calm water or sky on one side as the space text will use; keep the subject off that side.
- Aerial and droneUse aerial shots to show a harbour's layout: basin, pontoons, entrance, fairway. High enough that the layout reads, low enough that boats are boats. Only where flying was lawful and permitted, and never presented as a chart or as navigational information.
- PeopleIncidental people — small, not the subject, not identifiable — need no release. A recognisable person as the subject needs their consent on file before the image is used anywhere. No identifiable children without a guardian's consent; never a crew caught in trouble.
- Hero aspect ratios16:9 for web heroes, at least 1920×1080; 3:2 is acceptable for harbour-page imagery. Keep the subject in the central two-thirds of the 16:9 source, so a phone crop to 4:5 still holds it.
- Social aspect ratios1:1 (1080×1080) for feed posts and profiles; 4:5 (1080×1350) for portrait feed; 9:16 (1080×1920) for stories and reels, with the top and bottom 250 px kept free of text and logos; 1.91:1 (1200×630) for link previews.
- Text over imageOnly over the calm area left for it, never across a boat, a face or the harbour's defining feature. One headline and at most one line under it, white or Ink, in the system type stack, reaching 4.5:1 against the pixels actually behind it.
- Overlay and darkeningThe only overlay is Deep (#07202e): a gradient from the text edge at 30–60% opacity, or a flat wash no stronger than 40%. No blur, no coloured tints, no vignettes added for mood.
- CroppingGood crop: horizon level, whole hulls and masts, the harbour's defining feature — entrance, breakwater, crane — kept in frame. Bad crop: a hull cut at the waterline, a mast through the frame edge, a crop so tight it hides the weather, or any crop that removes a watermark or credit.
- AttributionFormat: “Photo: {photographer} / {source}, {licence}” — for example “Photo: Jane Doe / Mapillary, CC BY-SA 4.0”. Set in the Label style in a bottom corner of the image or in the caption; on social, in the post text when it cannot sit on the image. Mervare's own images: “Photo: Mervare”.
UI expression
Depth from elevation and space, not from borders. One hairline token, used sparingly.
Example Harbour
Depth not published · 40 berths (register) · booking on
- Radius --mv-r 12px · --mv-r-lg 16px
- Hairline
rgba(11, 31, 45, 0.09)— One hairline token, used sparingly. - Elevation two shadow tokens,
--mv-shadowand--mv-shadow-lift - Tap targets 44 px minimum. These pages are used on a phone, on deck, in gloves.
- Accent discipline one Sea-filled action per view. A second one makes neither primary.
Build UI from the tokens in styles/globals.css and the components in components/ee/. Do not fork a parallel set of styles for a new surface — that is how /marketing once ended up on a palette of its own.
Messaging
Three lines are brand — one company line and one line for each product surface. Everything else is a campaign until a decision promotes it.
AI-powered operating system for small marinas and their guests.
The company line: F6S, funders, EU programmes, investors, press. Leads this brandbook and closes mervare.io/marketing.
The operating system for small marinas.
pages/marketing.jsx — the operator proposition for marina teams, in English.
Harbours of the Baltic Sea.
The sailor discovery proposition for the launch region. Never used as the company line.
Kuhu täna sõidame?
lib/eeStrings.js — the Estonian discovery hero on mervare.ee. Estonian only; it has never been the brand line in English.
A simpler sea for everyone.
Not present anywhere in this repository or on the production site. Treat as unapproved until it ships somewhere.
Press description
Mervare is the AI-powered operating system for small marinas and their guests. It brings harbour data, guest management, bookings, payments and communication into one platform, reducing manual work for harbour teams while giving sailors one digital place for their journey. Mervare starts in the Baltic Sea: sailors can browse every harbour in Estonia's port register — depths, services and contacts where the register publishes them — and book a guest berth where a harbour has turned booking on.
https://mervare.io
Downloads
Public, no sign-in. SVG for anything that scales, PNG for anything that cannot take one.
Symbol
The anchor on its own — the official mark for current launches. Transparent: put it on Sand, Surface or Deep, never on a busy photograph.
Lockup
Symbol plus wordmark. The wordmark is a <text> element, not outlines — Mervare has no licensed typeface, so the file renders in whatever UI sans the reader's platform supplies.
Profile and app icons
Square, with the Deep ground baked in. This is the one to upload to a directory or a social profile.
Examples
The system applied, at the sizes it actually gets used at.
AI-powered operating system for small marinas and their guests.
mervare.io
Harbours of the Baltic Sea.
Migration status
Where production has not caught up with this brandbook yet. The rules above apply regardless; each row is work to do, and the goal is a list with nothing open.
6 open · 2 done · 1 later
- MS-1done/marketing migrated to the current brand
Mervare casing, the --mv-* tokens instead of its private navy-and-blue palette, the symbol instead of the anchor emoji, grounded voice, the company line, harbour and draught in its copy, and no endorsement-style claims. The embedded passage tools are MS-7.
- MS-2openProduction header still uses the anchor emoji
The shared discovery header (components/ee/EeLayout.jsx) and the onboarding header (components/OnboardingShell.jsx) render the ⚓ emoji before the wordmark — a character every platform draws differently. Migrate both to the symbol and lockup from the asset kit (components/brand/BrandMark.jsx).
- MS-3openThe old “MerVare” spelling survives outside /marketing
The mervare.app landing and signed-in product pages, admin pages, the marina signup flow and the survey pages still render “MerVare” in places. Replace it in visible copy as each surface is touched. /marketing and the share-card renderer are done.
- MS-4openThe share card sets its title in Georgia
pages/api/og.js renders the social-preview title in a serif that appears nowhere else, next to the ⚓ emoji. Move it to the system sans and the symbol.
- MS-5openLegal pages name a mervare.io contact
/terms and /privacy list hello@mervare.io. Legal notices belong on mervare.eu; switch them once the @mervare.eu mailbox for legal correspondence is confirmed.
- MS-6openAmerican spellings in product copy
The brandbook and /marketing, including its passage-planning tools, follow the glossary. Other product and admin copy still says “harbor” and “draft” in places. Copy only — code identifiers keep their names.
- MS-7openThe passage-planning tools keep a private palette
components/HarborTools.jsx — embedded on /marketing and on the mervare.app landing — still styles itself with its own navy and a blue accent (#1e6fa8) that are not tokens. /marketing sets it on a Deep band so it reads; the component itself still needs moving to the --mv-* tokens. Its copy already follows the glossary.
- MS-8doneBrand assets exist and are published
The symbol, lockups, profile image, app icon and favicon ship as SVG and PNG under Downloads, drawn from one geometry. The lockup is the logo; the emoji in the live header is migration item MS-2, not an alternative logo.
- MS-9laterA more ownable symbol
The anchor is clean, works at avatar size and is the mark for current launches, including F6S. A more distinctive Mervare symbol — M geometry, berth or finger-pier geometry, a harbour entrance or fairway, a mooring or chart motif — is later exploration, not a prerequisite for anything.
Something here out of date, or need an asset that isn’t in the kit? hello@mervare.io