How an erfstuk is made.
From the first conversation to the day you hold the key: what happens, in what order, what it costs, and what I ask of you along the way.
Nicola van der Walt · Atelier Erfstuk · First edition · November 2026
An atelier, not an agency.
An atelier makes one thing at a time, by hand. So what follows is not a funnel and not a framework. It is simply the order in which I sit with someone until their story is clear enough to draw, and then make everything that has to carry it.
I work in pieces, not in hours on call. Every piece has a beginning, an end and a fixed price, and the end is the point: you leave holding it. I will not quietly become your part-time employee, and you will never wonder what you are paying for this month.
What I will do is ask more questions than you expect, keep the odd bits other people would sand off, and hand you something you can run without me. I stay within knocking distance afterwards, should you want me there.
Start to finish
You talk to the person who makes it. Nobody is passed down a corridor.
Pieces, not hours
Every piece has a scope, a date and one price, agreed before anything begins.
Yours to keep
Files, logins, templates and a handbook. It runs without me, and that is on purpose.
The brand is not "this person has a voice". It is the whole of someone, in everything they put out.
Four turns, seven moments.
The lock on my door takes four turns. Each turn is a stage of the work, and each holds one or two moments where something is decided, made or handed to you.
- 01The first conversationFree, about 45 minutes
- 02De inventarisYour list, ten minutes
- 03The proposalWithin two working days
- 04The First Turn and the workshopSixteen questions, then about two and a half hours together
- 05The HeirloomYour identity on paper, signed
- 06The makingBrand, pieces, house, market
- 07The handoverEverything yours, plus thirty days of aftercare
Het bewaren, the keeping. If you would like me nearby once it is yours, there is a monthly way to keep me, with clear edges. Or simply knock when you need me.
First, I listen.
You talk. I ask why you do what you do, and then I ask again, because the first answer is rarely the real one.
The first conversation
We meet properly before anyone talks about logos. You tell me what you do, who it is for and what is not working yet. I listen for the things you mention in passing; they are usually the point.
You bring yourself, and whatever keeps you up at night about your brand. I bring questions, and the honesty to say so if I am not the right person for it.
De inventaris
The same day, I send you a list made for you, with what we spoke about already marked, together with this document. You tick what you would like: your brand, the pieces it is carried on, a website, marketing, and whether you would like me to keep the house afterwards. Every option shows where its price begins, so nothing in the proposal is a surprise.
The proposal
What I will make, in what order, by when, and one fixed price for all of it. If something on your list is better left out, or would cost more than it gives you, I say so here.
Nothing is decided until you sign. Until then it is a conversation and a list, and you are welcome to keep both.
Then we dig.
Down to the core. Who you are underneath the job, what you love, where you came from, and the odd things you would normally leave out. Those are usually the best bits.
The First Turn, then the workshop
A few days before we meet, I send you The First Turn: sixteen questions to sit with. Answer in sentences, bullet points or voice notes on a walk. Spelling does not count; honesty does.
Then we spend a morning or an afternoon together. It feels more like a long conversation than a meeting, with paper on the table.
- Your story: why you do it, where it comes from
- Your people: who you are for, and who you are not
- Your voice: how you sound on a good day
- Your look: what it should feel like, and what it must never be
- At your office or home, at a café near you, or online
- Everyone who decides, ideally no more than three people
- If we meet at a café, the coffee is on me
Most people arrive knowing what they do. Most leave knowing why. That is the part a brand is made of.
Then I weave, and you sign.
What you love and who you are, woven into one story that makes sense. First on paper, then in everything I make.
The Heirloom
After the workshop I write your Heirloom: your identity, kept in one document. The core in a single sentence, your story, the people you are for, your voice, the direction for the look, and the pieces we will make from it. We read it together, change what needs changing, and then we both sign it.
The making
I make things in the order they inherit from each other: the brand first, then the pieces it is carried on, then the house, then the market. Every piece goes the same way:
Every piece arrives in your chest, De kist, where you approve it or ask for changes. More on that over the page. No group chats at midnight; good work needs sleep, and so do I.
Coloured in, never painted over. Whatever I make, your story stays visible underneath it.
Everything, kept in one place.
From the day you sign, you have your own chest: a private portal where everything we make together is kept. No lost attachments, no "which version was it?", no digging through email.
Every piece arrives here. Pin a note exactly where you mean, ask for changes, or approve it with your signature. Rounds are counted for you.
Where we are, what comes next, and anything I am waiting for from you.
Your signed Heirloom, your brand book and every file in every format, ready to download.
Its address, its health, and backups you can download whenever you like.
Questions and requests in one thread, answered by me, not a helpdesk.
Every invoice, paid or open, with a link to pay by iDEAL.
On a care plan, see what is used this month and ask for more in two taps.
Leave a review when it feels right, or pass the key to a friend.
It works on your phone, in English or Dutch. With a care plan, your chest stays open for as long as the plan runs. Without one, it stays open for three months after the handover, and I write a month before it closes. Everything in it is also given to you as files, so nothing you own depends on a login.
Finally, I hand it down.
You receive an erfstuk: a piece of you that your website, your profile and your work inherit and carry forward.
The handover
We sit down one last time and I walk you through everything, so you know where it all lives and how to use it. The session is recorded, so nobody has to take notes.
- Your brand book and every file, in every format
- Templates you can fill in yourself
- Website logins, with domain and accounts in your name
- A handbook for anything that keeps running
- All of it kept in your chest, and handed to you as files too
If anything does not work as promised in the first thirty days, I mend it, free. After that, it is yours to run, and I am a knock away.
Website care
€39 a monthSecurity first: updates, malware watch and two-step logins. Then hosting, daily backups and repairs.
Care and two hours
€149 a monthAll of website care, plus two hours a month for changes, new pages or simply asking. Hours do not pile up.
A monthly batch
from €395 a monthAround eight designed posts and a newsletter, planned together each month.
Or no plan at all: I am €70 an hour whenever you knock. Plans run month by month and stop with a month's notice. Whichever you choose, security comes first.
What it costs, roughly.
These are "from" prices: where a piece begins, not where it ends. Your proposal has one fixed price for everything in it, and it does not grow without your say. All prices exclude BTW.
IHet merk your brand
- A new heirloomWorkshop, Heirloom, mark, palette, type, drawings, brand bookfrom€1,650
- RestoredA refresh, keeping what you lovefrom€950
- A new piece for the setA sub-brand, product line or eventfrom€450
- Only the HeirloomWorkshop and Heirloom; credited if we go onfrom€650
IIDe stukken brand pieces
- One drawerBusiness card, letterhead, email signature, quote and invoice, profile and backgroundfrom€450
- Three drawersPlus presentation, social templates, a document and a flyerfrom€950
- The whole cabinetPlus brochure, newsletter, packaging, signage and merchandisefrom€1,750
- One more pieceSmall, medium or large; any piece can be swappedfrom€95
IIIHet huis your website
- One roomA single pagefrom€950
- A houseUp to six pagesfrom€2,250
- A house with a shopUp to six pages and 25 productsfrom€3,450
- Extra roomsJournal, bookings, a second language, a little toolplus, from€95
IVDe markt marketing
- A threadOne channel, a 90-day plan, twelve postsfrom€850
- A patternTwo or three channels, a campaign, thirty piecesfrom€1,950
- The whole quiltThe full pipeline, built and handed overfrom€3,950
Security first · SEO, so search engines find you · GEO, so ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI answers can name you · contact forms, click-to-call and WhatsApp, maps, link previews, privacy-friendly statistics, a privacy statement · your words in your voice, built for phones first.
Every brand includes the workshop and a signed Heirloom. Every piece includes two rounds of changes and a final polish.
Time, and the small print, kindly.
- Your Heirloomwithin five working days
- A brandtwo to three weeks
- Brand piecesone to three weeks
- A housetwo to four weeks
- Marketingtwo to four weeks
- All of it, as onesix to eight weeks
As long as replies come within three working days. If they take longer, the date moves with them.
- Come to the workshop as yourself, not as your LinkedIn profile.
- Let one person have the final word, even if several have opinions.
- Respond in your chest within three working days, so the work keeps its warmth.
- Send photos, texts and logins by the dates we agree.
- Tell me early if something feels off. Small turns are easy; late ones are not.
- PayingHalf to begin, half at handover. For projects over €3,500: 40% to begin, 40% when the Heirloom is signed, 20% at handover. Invoices are due within fourteen days.
- ChangesTwo rounds per piece are included, then a final polish for the last small touches; the Heirloom has one round. A round is one list, sent together. More is fine at €70 an hour, always agreed before I start. A new direction after sign-off is new work, quoted first.
- Other costsDomains, hosting beyond a care plan, font licences, printing, shop fees and ad budgets are passed on at cost, and agreed beforehand.
- Moving the workshopFree with 48 hours' notice. Later than that, a small fee of €70 and a new date.
- PausingLife happens; tell me as soon as you know. If the work waits for more than four weeks, we pause and choose a new slot together.
- StoppingIf you stop halfway, you pay for the work done so far and keep everything that is finished.
- OwnershipOnce the last invoice is paid, everything I made for you is yours to use, change and keep.
- Showing the workI may show it in my kabinet once it is live. I always ask first.
- CreditsYour website carries a small, quiet "Made by Atelier Erfstuk" in its footer, linked to my site.
- Care plansMonth by month, with a month's notice to stop. Website care is for houses I have built.
- Your chestOpen for as long as a care plan runs; otherwise for three months after the handover, with a month's warning before it closes.
- Terms and dataMy general terms come with every proposal. If I host your website, we also sign a processor agreement, so your visitors' data is looked after properly. How I look after your own details: atelier-erfstuk.com/privacy.
- Who I amAtelier Erfstuk, Veenendaal. KvK 42215666, BTW-id NL005591959B19. Prices exclude BTW.
Sit in your weekly meetings, answer at midnight, or quietly become your marketing department. If you need someone like that, I will help you find them, and hand them the key.
Lucy · born at dawn
Shall we begin?
Start your list at atelier-erfstuk.com/inventaris, or write to me. I answer every letter myself, usually within a day.