Within graphic design, the concept of systems is profoundly rooted in form. Starting from a series of design research residencies in the context of the Porto Design Biennale, this volume proposes a variety of perspectives – social, cultural, political – to challenge this deeply engrained tradition.

Contents:
1. Graphic Design Systems, and the Systems of Graphic Design – Francisco Laranjo
2. Design Systems, Porto Design Biennale Research Residencies
Luiza Prado & Pedro Oliveira, ACED, Ruben Pater, Demystification Committee
3. One Size Fits All – Ruben Pater
4. Fluttering Code: A Cultural and Aesthetic History of the Split-flap Display  – Shannon Mattern
5. Anything with a Shape Cannot Be Broken  – Ian Lynam
6. Co-Creating Empowering Economic Systems: Strategies for Action  – Brave New Alps
7. Lining Out  – Georgina Voss

Luiza Prado’s work engages with material and visual culture through the lenses of decolonial and queer theories. She is part of the design education duo A Parede and a founding member of Decolonising Design. www.a-pare.de

Pedro Oliveira is a researcher, sound artist, and educator working in, with, and around decolonial and sonic thinking. He is one half of the design education duo A Parede and a founding member of Decolonising Design.

Belle Phromchanya’s work focuses on visual research, documentary film, installation, and public events; displaying personal explorations of shifting political and social realities. www.aced.site
Ruben Pater is a designer at a moment in time when more design is the last thing the world needs. In search for ethical alternatives he designs, writes, and teaches. He lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. www.untold-stories.net
The Demystification Committee studies the intensities of late capitalism. Established in 2016, the Demystification Committee is chaired from London and Berlin. www.demystification.co
Shannon Mattern is Professor at The New School for Social Research. Her writing and teaching focus on media architectures and infrastructures and spatial epistemologies. She has written books about libraries, maps, and the history of urban intelligence, and she contributes a column to Places Journal. wordsinspace.net
Ian Lynam is a graphic designer and design teacher based in Tokyo, Japan. He is faculty at the MFA Program in Graphic Design at Vermont College of Fine Arts and faculty at Temple University Japan, as well as 2019 Visiting Critic at CalArts.
Brave New Alps are a design practice based in the Italian Alps. They produce participatory design projects that engage people in reconfiguring the politics of social and environmental issues.
Georgina Voss is an artist, writer, and educator. She is a Reader in Systems and Deviance at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, where she is also co-founder and lead of Supra Systems Studio.
Francisco Laranjo is a graphic designer and researcher. He is co-director of the design research centre Shared Institute, Porto, Portugal.

Published in 2019, Softcover, 118 pages.