The Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environ­ment (VROM) main aim is to make living, working, leisure activities and moving within The Netherlands pleasant. The name VROM is the abbreviation of the Dutch name for housing, land use planning and environmental manage­ment. The Ministry wants to stimulate the residents of and the companies in The Netherlands to approach issues on nature, the environment and the use of raw materials in a responsible way. Studio Kluif makes a lot of illustrations for the employers’ magazine of VROM, called ‘Tellus’.

Ministry of VROM ‘Holland meets China’ illustration, 2006

The illustration style has the feel and symbolism of traditional Chinese paper-cutting art in which the typical Dutch symbols of a lion and a windmill ensure that Dutch and Chinese culture are merged together.

Ministry of VROM ‘Integrity’ illustration, 2006

The rose symbolises purity and sincerity but at the same time shows the pitfalls of ‘acting based on honour and your own clear conscience’ in the form of a painful thorn. What one person regards as being honourable can be viewed differently by another.