# Vincent van der Laan > Vincent van der Laan is an AI product strategist in Amsterdam, with twenty years of design and creative direction behind him. He works on AI systems that make text, images and page layouts inside what a brand actually allows. I work on AI systems that make things, text, images and page layouts, and stay inside what a brand actually allows. Current role: Product Strategist, Foleon (2023 — present). Based in Amsterdam, NL. ## Core - [CV](https://www.visualvincent.com/cv/): Experience, core areas and published writing. - [Strategy & systems](https://www.visualvincent.com/strategy/): Governed generation, measurement, layout systems, agentic product vision. - [Design & editorial](https://www.visualvincent.com/design/): Design work 2008 — 2020: apps, online magazines, annual reports, identities. - [Writing](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/): Essays on governed generation. ## Writing - [And this is what the measurement says](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/admissible-space-6-and-this-is-what-the-measurement-says/): I tested whether AI dials actually steer output. First result: no effect at all. What fixed it, what still doesn't move, and why the gap never closes. - [Who holds what](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/admissible-space-5-who-holds-what/): Machines hold the stated part of a brand, people hold what resists statement. Why human judgement isn't a temporary gap, and the loop that shrinks it. - [The edges are soft](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/admissible-space-4-the-edges-are-soft/): The best work often sits just outside the line. Why writing a brand boundary down is what makes deliberately crossing it legible as craft, not an accident. - [Same space, different region](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/admissible-space-3-same-space-different-region/): Informing and inspiring aren't two brands. They're the same axes with different ranges. Why a brand boundary should be coordinates per purpose, not a page. - [Every picture of a boundary lies](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/admissible-space-2-every-picture-of-a-boundary-lies/): Brand guidelines are a flat picture of a many-dimensional boundary. AI doesn't create the gap; it's the first reader honest enough to show it to you. - [The boundary makes it possible](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/admissible-space-1-the-boundary-makes-it-possible/): A pilot flies freely inside a boundary they can't cross. An explicit brand boundary doesn't make AI output dull; it makes delegating to AI reasonable. - [Your Agent Is an Actor Without Organs](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/your-agent-is-an-actor-without-organs/): Everyone is building agents. Without an instrument, substrate, contract and conscience, an agent is an actor without organs. A four-part admission test. - [The Edges of Creativity Are the Part That Becomes Computable](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/the-edges-of-creativity-are-the-part-that-becomes-computable/): Can creativity be computed? Half of it. Separating a design's identity from its manifestation makes creativity's edges computable and safe to delegate. - [The Corporate Website Was Built for a Different Century](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/the-corporate-website-was-built-for-a-different-century/): AI answer engines don't browse, they parse. Why the navigation-first corporate website is outdated, and what replaces it: content units plus smart routing. - [Every Organization Has a Knowledge Fingerprint. Most Never See Theirs.](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/every-organization-has-a-knowledge-fingerprint/): Your content audit feels random because it lacks a structure. Five layers, from differentiator to proof, reveal your knowledge fingerprint and its gaps. - [You can't scale AI on unstructured content](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/you-cant-scale-ai-on-unstructured-content/): AI doesn't read documents, it assembles fragments. Why scaling AI needs structured, governed building blocks of meaning instead of pages and slides. - [SEO optimized for matching words. AEO optimizes for matching meaning.](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/seo-matched-words-aeo-matches-meaning/): SEO matched words; AEO matches meaning. Why clear language, synonyms and accessible structure make content easier to find for AI search and for people. - [On brand, on intent, on risk: why AI content needs governance, not just prompts](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/on-brand-on-intent-on-risk/): Better prompts won't keep AI content on brand. Why intent, brand and risk need explicit governance, and why governance compounds where prompts don't. - [The goal is not to be read — it is to be understood](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/the-goal-is-not-to-be-read/): Content should be understood, not just read. Meaning lives where truth, expression and context overlap; miss one: noise, silence or manipulation. - [G-core: Governing Meaning Before Generation](https://www.visualvincent.com/writing/g-core-governing-meaning-before-generation/): Govern meaning before generation: separate normative from empirical grounding, make RAG an evidence injector, and make AI governable by design. ## Work - [Online TV guides](https://www.visualvincent.com/design/tv-guides-kro-ncrv-avrotros/): Five broadcaster TV guides, one responsive design system — the weekly print guide rebuilt as a subscriber-first product. - [Governing meaning, not prompts](https://www.visualvincent.com/strategy/governing-meaning/): Decide what may be said before anything is generated. G-core, the meaning Venn and the idea of an admissible space. - [Eline Spreekt](https://www.visualvincent.com/design/eline-spreekt/): A speech computer on the iPad that gives people without a voice a voice. Winner, Best Mobile App — Digital Communications Awards 2017. - [Over the Top](https://www.visualvincent.com/design/aws-ott-magazine/): An interactive magazine on the booming OTT market, managed end-to-end from first editorial meeting to final pixel. - [UvA Start magazines](https://www.visualvincent.com/design/uva-start-magazines/): Welcome magazines for international students and staff — four years of practical guides, photography, illustration and video. - [Magnetism](https://www.visualvincent.com/design/hoge-raad-magnetism/): How does a small force relate to a larger one? An annual report about European law, visualised with iron filings and magnets. - [Sixteen languages, one idea](https://www.visualvincent.com/design/anwb-language-guides/): A series of sixteen pocket language guides, with paper cut-out covers built from friendly clichés of each country. - [Robology](https://www.visualvincent.com/design/robology/): A new species is born: technical objects and everyday things recombined into creatures, with vintage typography. - [A first year, told as a magazine](https://www.visualvincent.com/design/brabant-c-annual-report/): A cultural investment fund's first annual report, designed not as a PDF but as a navigable digital magazine. - [Working with AI as a practice](https://www.visualvincent.com/strategy/working-with-ai/): Building became cheap and choosing became expensive. How I run parallel AI sessions without drift — through a folder of readable briefings. - [Uniting, not uniforming](https://www.visualvincent.com/design/vbs-identity/): A brand system built on unity in difference, for a network of independent Dutch schools — plus its members' magazine. ## Elsewhere - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-van-der-laan-9a256716/)