Playing with Order

Have you ever looked at designs from foreign cultures and wondered, what exactly it is that makes them different from what you're used to? It may often feel hard to explain—the vibe and visual language can feel familiar yet foreign.

Playing with Order is a bachelor’s project by German design student Katrin Eder from Mediadesign Hochschule München, exploring the contrast between Japanese and German poster design. Inspired by a personal fascination with the visual language of foreign cultures—particularly Japan—she investigates how cultural philosophies shape graphic aesthetics.

After reviewing the history of poster design and examining the cultural philosophies shaping each country’s art and design, a fascinating contrast emerged: Japanese poster design often relies on a sense of ordered chaos and intuition. German posters, by contrast, tend to be minimalist, systematic, and purpose-driven. The tension between these design practices became the conceptual foundation for the practical part of the project. Playing with Order refers to the idea of mixing the German and the Japanese approaches to modern poster design. Setting up rules to guarantee perfect visual order—only to deliberately play with and digress from them—felt like cautiously balancing a scale. It opened endless opportunities and thereby gave a special charm to the creation process.

Both the research and the full concept for the poster series were documented, offering deeper insight into the project. Chaos and Order benefit from each other, just as two distinct design approaches can enrich one another when brought into dialogue!