/

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.

Press F to search

The 2654 Years project deals with the visibility of lesbian love and women. Women who love women still do not receive sufficient attention in 2024. The history of homosexuals is often told with a focus on the struggle and rights of gay men. Thus, the project represents both a feminist moment and visibility within its own community.

The color spectrum, which includes pink and fuchsia, represents not only the dissolution of negative female connotations but also the flag of the lesbian movement. Another form of representation is glitter. In the LGBTQIA+ community, glitter is often used as a means of expression. Glitter is also frequently used in various protests. In the context of femininity in general, glitter, like pink or rose, has a negative connotation and is not perceived as a means of protest, but rather trivialized.

In order to break with this attribution and continue the protest, 2654 Years of Glitter uses glitter as a stylistic device, drawing attention to the issue. In addition to the protest slogans, 2654 years are depicted. These allude to a new „era“. Around 630 BC, the ancient Greek poet Sappho stood at the beginning of lesbian visibility.

Over the millennia of male-dominated historiography, however, FLINTA* people were repeatedly written out of it and received no attention. Thus, the last animation shows the year according to Sapphic historiography.