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is a platform for parametric design in graphic design. It documents the work of students and teachers at the Department of Design at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW), who are investigating the significance of the system as a conceptual model and design method under the title “Parametric Design in Graphic Design.”

Design is less about intuitive, even ingenious “strokes of genius” and more about a holistic and rule-based (systemic and systematic) process of gaining knowledge and shaping form. It is becoming increasingly important to be able to design dynamic systems that both guide and inspire the design process.

Parametric design refers to this design in and of systems—with rules, their modes of operation, and systematic manipulability. The research project, led by Prof. Heike Grebin, is an integral part of teaching and aims to raise awareness of design as a performative process.

Play the System brings together selected study projects in which the system plays an important role as a design method – whether analog or digital. The works are created in a fruitful symbiosis of theory, design, and technology. Socially relevant issues and positions from philosophy, art, and avant-garde design from around 1900 to the present day are repeatedly discussed.

Play the System is an invitation to become aware of the systemic competence of graphic design and to gain the maturity to use the tools of digital design critically.

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Play the System / Courses /

c34 Typography Basics: Other Books and So

Term

Winter 2023

Participants

Supervision

Projects

“The book is an autonomous space-time sequence. A book is not a case of words … punctuation, capitals, various margins, etc. All these conventions are original and extremely beautiful discoveries, but we don‘t notice them any more.“ (Ulises Carrión, The New Art of Making Books, 1975)

Inspired by the course Other Books and Code, the foundation course is newly conceived. We examine graphic design and book design through four thematic fields: Line and Surface, Time and Space, Order and Chance, and Structure and Navigation.
Each student develops a personal collection of texts — drawn from readings including Stéphane Mallarmé, Walter Nikkels, Carlos Spoerhase, and Sara Kaaman — and interprets and designs it typographically according to her chosen focus.

The basic typography course is an integral part of the curriculum and is offered every semester. Every student takes this course – a combination of design and laboratory instruction – in their first year. A selection of works created in 2023 and 2024 will be presented here.