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 Workshops /

w1 A Bit of a Workshop

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For the Hands on Tools day, our working group developed a workshop on grids and bitmap. The work of designer April Greiman inspired us to explore these design tools in more depth, to understand how to use them and how to incorporate them into our design processes.

The aim of the one-day workshop was to teach the tool to a group of four participants. In the theoretical part of the workshop, we explained the historical and technical aspects, showed examples, and presented the application in Photoshop. In the practical part of the workshop, we gave the participants the freedom to work creatively with the tool. Based on April Greiman's work Does it make sense?, they were asked to rasterize different images in Adobe Photoshop, print them out, and then collage them into a large analog poster. The workshop participants each drew a piece of paper from three different categories and rasterized the images using the given parameters—image, image size, bitmap, and grid settings.