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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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Inspired by Studio Moniker’s Conditional Design Workbook, we ask our fellow students questions, the answers to which are drawn as connecting lines on tracing paper. The concentration of the colored lines creates patterns with recognizable content intention: while precise information is not recognizable, the visual representation provides a good impression of the answers.


→ Each group receives a sheet of A3 tracing paper. Each member must use a different colored pen.


→ There is an A3 questionnaire at each station. Placing the tracing paper on the sheet at the first station, participants must make sure that the check marks are aligned. They find their names, and from there draw a line as neatly as possible to the statement that applies to them.


→ After two minutes they move on to the next station and repeat, continuing this until they return to their starting station.