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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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c33 Typography Basics: Conflict of Modernity

Term

Participants

Supervision

Projects

In this foundational typography course, students develop a basic understanding of contemporary graphic design and the role of typography. They explore different design positions and discuss their significance within the context of social, technological, and aesthetic developments. This process fosters an awareness of typography as a complex system—from layout grids to typographic detail.
The legendary “Typographic Dispute of Modernism” debate between Max Bill and Jan Tschichold, published in 1946 in the Swiss Typographische Mitteilungen, forms the theoretical foundation of the course. Their debate on the value of traditional design principles versus the New Typography of modernism offers insight into the dynamic history of typography within broader cultural and technological contexts—and sharpens students’ understanding of contemporary design attitudes. The students translate the seemingly opposing positions of traditionalists and avant-gardists into a contemporary, productive typographic coexistence.
Typography Basics is an integral part of the curriculum and is offered every semester. Every student completes this course – a combination of design and laboratory instruction – during the first year of study. The works shown here were created between 2015 and 2023.