★★★★★
Het Financieel Dagblad
An editorial commission for Het Financieel Dagblad
For the publication of Muskism by Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff, the Dutch business newspaper Het Financieel Dagblad gave Agnès Ricart two editorial tasks: portray Elon Musk for the front page and develop a visual representation of “Muskism”.
The subject reaches beyond the entrepreneur himself. The newspaper also wanted to evoke a movement presented as a broader social and political phenomenon. The illustration therefore needed to show a recognisable face while pointing readers towards the ideas and influences explored in the book.
From a portrait to a wider phenomenon
Ricart responds with a stylised, minimal typographic composition. The portrait remains legible, but its graphic construction encourages viewers to look beyond likeness. A familiar public figure becomes an entry point into the newspaper’s wider subject.
That economy of means is especially effective on a front page: the image must register quickly, attract attention and retain enough ambiguity to make readers want to explore the story.
An image made for business journalism
The project shows how Ricart’s graphic language can distil a complex question into a direct image. By bringing portraiture, typography and editorial interpretation together, she gives Het Financieel Dagblad a visual that identifies its subject while conveying the wider social and political dimension.