The customs officer of Dutch business

Claartje Bulten of the Van der Heijden Institute needed an illustration for the symposium marking the publication of the Investment Screening Handbook. An image that would give the book visibility on LinkedIn and serve as the opening slide for the presentation.

The Dutch Investment Screening Act (Wet Vifo) gives the Ministry of Economic Affairs the power to review acquisitions of vital companies on national security grounds. Legal, geopolitical, timely. Visually a tricky subject — clichés lurk around every corner.

We started by searching for the right metaphor. Ownership versus control: the law pulls the two apart. The government intervenes in control without touching ownership. Legally interesting, but visually it quickly becomes vague or generic. A broken chain or an interrupted line. Not enough story.

We tried the geopolitical frame: national sovereignty under pressure, a border that becomes visible the moment someone tries to cross it. Stronger, but still too conceptual for LinkedIn. Another attempt: the frozen signature, a transaction on pause. Accurate in substance, but required too much explanation. And the puppet master with strings was too dramatic, too cliché, not right.

We changed tack: what actually happens here? A foreign investor wants to (partly) acquire a Dutch company. The government says: we'll take a look. The government decides what comes in. That's a customs officer. Not as a metaphor for power or threat, but as the everyday image of an authority that decides who gets through. Everyone knows the feeling of the queue, the stamp, the bureaucracy.

The line of investors with briefcases bearing national flags tells the story and its geopolitical dimension. The BTI sign on the customs booth is an instant recognition moment for those in the know. In the background: wind turbines, a drone, vital infrastructure. The Netherlands as the object to be protected.

Joost drew it in the colours of the book cover: aubergine and shades of grey. Recognizable as part of the series, without copying the cover.