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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 /

w24 Line System

Each working group will implement the insights gained from the research in a workshop, providing fellow students with inspiration for their own design process:

Inspired by Studio Moniker's Conditional Workbook, questions are posed, the answers to which are drawn as connecting lines on tracing paper. The condensation 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 will receive a sheet of A3 tracing paper. Each member should use a different colored pen.

 → There is an A3 questionnaire at each station. Place the tracing paper on the sheet at your first station. Make sure that the check marks are aligned. Find your names. Starting from there, draw a line as neatly as possible to the statement that applies to you.

 → Go after two minutes to the next station and repeat. Continue doing this until you return to your starting station.