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 /

p377 The Song of GPG

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This interactive animation aims to draw attention to the Gender Pay Gap. The abstract differences in the shapes of round and sharp forms illustrate the pay gap between women and men in Germany. While the sharp shapes can expand outwards, the sphere has no room to unfold. Every movement reacts to a tone. The higher the tone, the higher the pay gap. For example, women earn 31% less than men in professional, scientific, and technical services and in arts, entertainment, and recreation. In banking and insurance, it is 28% and in information and communication 25%. These figures create a sequence of tones that sounds strangely discordant. While the shapes react to the individual sounds, the viewer can move the animation with the mouse and get involved in the action.