What does book design mean when layouts are no longer created page by page using manual or static layout tools? What happens when content updates automatically, systems make decisions, and design operates through rules, structures, and algorithms?And what role does print play when web, code, and analog techniques intersect?
This project explores the tension between automated work processes and contemporary book design. Instead of traditional layout software, the focus lies on systemic thinking, fixed rules, and networked content. Automation enables new forms of production: content can be updated live, publications emerge from dynamic sources, and print often becomes a by-product of a larger, hybrid system.Drawing on historical and current forms of automation—from lead typesetting to digital standards and web-to-print—the project examines both visible and invisible design rules.
Topics such as hybrid publishing, print on demand, system design, Paged.js, open source, and AI form the basis for experimental and systematic approaches. The resulting works highlight interfaces and symbioses between web-based design and analog techniques. Print is not replaced, but recontextualized. The publications consciously work with processes, formats, and limitations. Automation is understood not only as a tool for efficiency, but also as a creative and artistic method to reveal, question, and rethink existing systems.
