This editorial illustration was created for issue 27 of the German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche, accompanying an article about the economic slowdown in China.

The piece explores how global demand for Chinese products has dropped, partly because of US tariffs, leaving China sitting on mountains of goods it can’t export. Factories keep producing at full speed, but the world’s appetite has shifted.

I developed several visual ideas for this topic. One sketch showed a customs checkpoint at the US border stopping the flow of goods, with a silhouette of Trump rising between the American skyscrapers. Another sketch imagined a Chinese supermarket full of products marked with huge discounts, while customers stroll past without much interest. The main illustration finally settled on a massive dam holding back a flood of exports, threatening to drown the skyline of Shanghai. The dam carries an American flag, symbolizing how tariffs block the trade flow.

I enjoyed working out the scene through sketches and different compositions. Finding images for economic topics can be tricky, but it’s always rewarding to turn something abstract into a picture people can instantly connect with.

Sketch: