What is Systems Thinking?

Data-Design Dictionary
A dictionary to illuminate data-driven generative design and creative coding.

Definition


Systems Thinking describes a holistic[1] approach to understand and address complex challenges by recognizing and analyzing the interconnectedness and interdependencies among elements and phenomena of the environment. It is a core creative strategy that enables data-driven generative design in a process of co-creation between designer and machine and can, among a multitude of expressions, be used to enable dynamic brand identites.

Systems Thinking is focused on identifying and understanding patterns, relationships, and dynamics that govern the behavior of a whole system, rather than just its individual components. It involves capturing, recognizing and anticipating how systemic ideas are expressed as either data or patterns and how they can be leveraged to create adaptive and efficient designs by expressing them as rules and programs. Used within the context of branding, it allows for the transformation of data into meaningful stories and autonomous design systems that surface systemic properties of different market segments and environmental contexts as symbols or form. Applying Systems Thinking to communications design and branding enables the development of solutions that are not only meaningful and innovative but also responsive to the complexities of the modern world, where technology, society, and the environment are deeply intertwined.

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Additional quotes about systems thinking

„A system isn’t just any old collection of things. A ‘system’ is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something. If you look at that definition closely for a minute, you can see that a system must consist of three kinds of things: elements, interconnections, and a function or purpose.“[1]

“The development of systems is about converting subjective decisions into objective rules so that they can be shared with other people or automated with machines.”[2]

[1] Donella H. Meadows, Diana Wright (Hrsg.): Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Lebanon 2008, p. 11.
[2] vgl. Dr. Martin Lorenz: Flexible Visual Systems, Karlsruhe 2021, p. 19.
The bigger picture of designing and branding with data: