Play the System
Information Close

/

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.

DE
EN

Press F to search

Play the System Projects /

p282 Phono

DE
EN

Typography relates to the written word in the same way that the voice relates to the spoken word. Based on this assumption, the sound-reactive variable font Phono examines how the image of type can correspond to the sound of speech. The appearance of Phono changes through the interplay of high, medium, and low frequencies. Three equivalent variable axes enable the font to transfer sound details to the typeface. The idea is heavily inspired by the sonagram—a graphical representation of acoustic structures that is often used to analyze speech signals. The fourth axis, “Tone of Voice,” offers the additional option of giving the font a sharp, clear, or soft tone of voice. Phono is the practical result of Paul Eslage’s theoretical exploration in his master’s thesis Type Follows Identity.