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 /

w47 Transformation

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By analyzing competitions and exhibitions such as 100 Best Posters, Postertown Lucerne, and Weltformat, we discover that the most striking posters are those that set type in motion—or create the illusion of movement.

In this session, we turn typography itself into an event, inspired by analog processes of motion. We experiment with light, distortion, deformation, and displacement, seeking to understand and visualize the forces that make type move. From these explorations, each student selects one study and translates it into a poster. In the following lab course, we bring these analog experiments into the digital realm, further developing and animating our typographic studies using HTML and CSS. Selected screenshots are also captured in a second poster. The result: two typographic posters—one “analog”, one “digital”. The 16:9 format is designed for screen presentation.

Shown here are poster pairs by Jana Rienhardt, Leo Hülsmann, Marie Nordhoff, and Neele Peters.