# Four Seasons — DESIGN.md

## Overview
Four Seasons is the Canadian-founded ultra-luxury hospitality brand that built its empire on service consistency across 100+ properties worldwide. Canvas is warm parchment-ivory (`#f7f3eb`) or velvet-black for evening-mode landing pages. Type runs a refined serif (Trajan / Cormorant / custom display serif) at editorial scale — never sans-serif at hero. Photography is travel-magazine grade: cinematic full-bleed property shots with golden-hour light, infinity pools photographed from drone height, lobby chandeliers in candlelit warmth. The voice is whispered luxury — never loud, never claiming, always implying. The wordmark sits at the top in a serif lockup that resembles a luxury watch dial more than a hotel sign.

## Color
- **Primary / Ink:** `#1a1a1a` — Deep ink for type and rare CTAs
- **Canvas:** `#f7f3eb` — Parchment-ivory
- **Canvas velvet:** `#0e0e0e` — Evening-mode near-black
- **Accent (restrained gold):** `#a07f4b` — Subtle gold for hairlines and inline emphasis
- **Body:** `#3a3a3a`
- **Muted:** `#7a7a7a`
- **Hairlines:** `rgba(26,26,26,0.10)`

## Typography
- **Display:** Trajan Pro / custom serif, weight 400, 60–120px property-name hero
- **Sub-display:** Trajan weight 400, 24–32px section heads (often small-caps)
- **Body:** Cormorant / Trajan, weight 400, 17px atmospheric prose, 1.7 line-height
- **Caption:** italic serif, 13–14px for credits and metadata
- **Mono:** none

## Spacing & rhythm
8-base (8/16/24/32/48/64/96/128). Section padding 96–160px — luxury is breathing room. Property hero is a single landscape photograph + a serif property-name + a short atmospheric paragraph. The page refuses multi-photo grids in favor of single full-bleed images.

## Motion signature
Cinematic full-bleed. Hero videos auto-play silent: drone shots of resort properties, gentle pans across infinity pools, candlelit lobby reveals. Cross-fades are slow (~2s) — luxury is measured by how long the brand can hold a single image. Hover states change opacity faintly, no scale, no shadow.

## Components observed
- `cinematic-property-hero` — full-bleed drone or golden-hour photograph
- `property-name-serif-lockup` — Trajan property name at 80–120px
- `destination-card-editorial` — image + serif property name + short atmospheric prose
- `experience-tile-double-image` — two-image experience composition (interior + landscape)
- `concierge-cta-text-link` — booking action as thin underlined text-link
- `booking-search-bar-thin` — minimal hairline search bar
- `button-secondary-thin-rule` — hairline-bordered secondary CTA
- `footer-multi-language-elegant` — multi-language footer in serif

## Trademark signals
- Parchment-ivory canvas with serif typography at every tier — 'old-world luxury' rendered in modern web layout
- Trajan / custom-serif wordmark — refusing the modern grotesk convention every other hotel chain has adopted
- Full-bleed cinematic property photography — golden-hour drone shots, infinity pools, candlelit interiors
- Whispered luxury voice — copy reads 'A sanctuary above the city' rather than 'Book now and save 20%'
- Property-page hero with property-name in serif at 80–120px followed by a single landscape photo — refusing multi-photo grids

## What they DON'T do
- No modern grotesk substitution — Roman-inscriptional serif IS the brand voice
- No bright accent colors — parchment + ink + restrained gold; saturated CTAs read as deals-site
- No multi-photo property grids — each property gets a cinematic single-photo hero
- No marketing-bullet copy — property descriptions are atmospheric paragraphs about light, ocean, dining
- No booking-discount stickers — promotional pricing is off-brand
- No emoji, no urgency badges, no people in lifestyle staging

## Exemplar pages
- https://fourseasons.com/
- https://fourseasons.com/maldives
- https://fourseasons.com/dining
- https://fourseasons.com/private-retreats

## When to reference
Reach for Four Seasons when the user wants global ultra-luxury hospitality with restrained voice — premium hotel chains, residential property marketing, private-aviation/yacht charter brands, white-glove concierge services. The "parchment + Trajan + golden-hour cinematic single-photo hero + atmospheric prose" combination is the most-copyable Four Seasons move. Pairs well with brands that want to project century-old institution rather than boutique freshness.
