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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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p397 Uprooted. Decolonization of Furniture Design

Colonization has shaped many aspects of our lives, including furniture design. With their Uprooted project, Valeria Schriber and Niklas Wolf aim to highlight the cultural background of traditional manufacturing and cultural practices that are often forgotten. Their compendium places furniture in its historical, cultural, and ecological context. The book is divided into the focal points "form" and "material." It sheds light on the culturally specific design and materials that found their way into Western furniture craftsmanship through colonization. They explain the ecological, economic, social, and political consequences and connections in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the cultural effects of colonization and globalization in furniture design.