Play the System
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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 Projects /

p379 Thinking Open Space Vertically

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Looking upwards broadens the horizon and opens up inspiring new perspectives. When horizontal open spaces are extended vertically, new urban open spaces can be created. In collaboration with landscape architect Isabel Zintl and students from the Technical University of Munich, a visual identity was developed for the Vertical Open Space research project that accompanies and communicates all activities related to the topic beyond the original core project Publication. In May 2018, Vertical Open Space was presented as part of a group exhibition at the Akademie der Künste Berlin. A key component of the graphic concept is the non-proportional display font Vertical. Its design is based on writing with a vertical broad nib, which creates a strong alternation of strokes between the vertical and horizontal lines. The font consists of four geometrically constructed basic forms and is based on a design grid.