Play the System
Information Close

/

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.

DE
EN

Press F to search

Play the System Workshops /

w6 Collage as Commentary

DE
EN

Inspired by the work of photographer Jan Banning, this workshop focuses on collage as commentary. Banning documents authoritarian power structures and the consequences of war. With his striking formal language and his courage to expose the darker sides of society, he creates a powerful commentary on our times.
In preparation for his presentation as part of the lecture series Stilvorlagen #5 Comments on Our Time, the students collect their own texts and images, which are discussed, exchanged, or collaboratively developed—depending on the dynamics within each group. The hands-on part then begins: cutting, tearing, gluing, copying, discarding, and reassembling. From these various fragments emerge expressive compositions—some so immediate and compelling that they work as finished posters, others more raw drafts that are later refined and further developed.