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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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p280 Paths and Threads

Typeface is a central element of visual communication, but its design often follows rigid rules. The rhizomatic concept Paths and Threads breaks with this understanding and favors an open approach. Based on the rhizome theory of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, writing is understood as a living, evolving network.
Like a botanical rhizome, the model connects forms and enables flowing transitions. Axes and ligatures organically create new variants and dynamic adaptations without clear boundaries. With an open-source approach, the infinite font Rhizome can grow collaboratively.