Reimagine Design Tools
What if graphic design tools could be reimagined, not just used as ready-made solutions? Most of today’s digital applications remain locked into standardized workflows shaped by software companies. While these tools were originally developed to democratize design, they have become more standardized, sometimes limiting the creative freedom and interaction possibilities for designers. Why have their core functions changed so little? And why do alternative modes of interaction, beyond the click, the dropdown, and the default, remain so rare?
This workshop invites participants to engage experimentally and creatively with the exploration of different methods for building their own tools. Using p5.js, ml5.js, Hydra, CSS, and other open-source libraries, we will explore experiments where code becomes a space of speculation, play, and community-driven authorship. We will look at methods such as using game controllers, camera tracking, or gestures of the body as alternatives to the standard mouse-and-click workflow, and analyze how programming can open new relationships between ideas, materials, and tools.
Instead of reinforcing the image of the designer as a user of fixed systems, the workshop introduces ways of becoming co-authors of the systems themselves. What we need today is not more authorship but more companionship, partnership, and shared processes of relationship.
The workshop is open to anyone interested in exploring how programming with JavaScript and a web browser can be used to experiment with code and create your own graphic tools.
