{"id":5251,"date":"2025-11-13T16:26:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T16:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acmgd.info\/cms\/?p=5251"},"modified":"2025-11-26T19:37:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T19:37:34","slug":"capstone-2026-tracework","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acmgd.info\/cms\/capstone-2026-tracework\/","title":{"rendered":"Capstone 2026: TRACEWORK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

EXHIBITION DESCRIPTION:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2026 Capstone, TRACEWORK<\/strong>, invites graduating designers to explore the theme of legacy \u2014 the cultural, social, environmental, and personal imprints that shape our present and inform our future. These legacies can be inherited, celebrated or contested, visible or invisible. They live in traditions, stories, artifacts, and systems \u2014 and in the ways we choose to remember, challenge, or transform them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through research, storytelling, and design, you will investigate legacies that matter to you, asking: What have we been given? What must we change? And what will we leave behind?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each project will create a transmedia experience that honors, critiques, or reimagines legacy, forging connections between past, present, and future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.  .  .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

QUESTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whose stories, marks, or ideas have shaped your life?
What traces of the past influence your present?
Which legacies do you choose to honor, challenge, or transform?
How do stories and traditions evolve across generations?
How does design preserve, distort, or reinvent what remains?
How will your work contribute to cultural, social, or environmental memory?
How can design make intangible traces visible?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.  .  .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CHALLENGE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students are tasked with exploring and investigating the theme of legacy through the design of a three-part transmedia experience which frames or reframes an inherited story or system. The work should preserve, disrupt, or reinvent to shift meaning and invite new ways of seeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will require rigorous research, a deep understanding of the chosen perspective, and a clear design strategy for how to frame or reframe it. Each medium should bring a distinct perspective, and together they should create a cohesive, layered narrative experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This theme challenges students to see design as both archive and invention \u2014 as a means of preserving what matters and as a tool for shaping what comes next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.  .  .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

POSSIBLE TOPICS (For Consideration)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

~ Cultural Heritage & Storytelling<\/strong> \u2013 Oral histories, endangered languages, folk art, culinary traditions, generational wisdom
~ Land, Place & Displacement<\/strong> \u2013 Indigenous stewardship, redlining, borders, gentrification, sacred geography, urban renewal
~ Language & Loss<\/strong> \u2013 Extinct alphabets, code-switching, linguistic erasure, translation as cultural transmission
~ Activism & Movements<\/strong> \u2013 Civil rights, environmental justice, feminist legacies, queer liberation, diasporic resistance
~ Design History & Visual Culture<\/strong> \u2013 Graphic design movements, overlooked designers, evolving visual languages
~ Architectural & Urban Legacies<\/strong> \u2013 Historic preservation, adaptive reuse, housing policy, contested monuments
~ Family & Personal Archives<\/strong> \u2013 Photo albums, heirlooms, migration stories, memory rituals, names passed down
~ Digital Memory & Virtual Loss<\/strong> \u2013 Internet archives, memes as cultural record, obsolete platforms, digital death
~ Ecological Legacy<\/strong> \u2013 Climate change impact, biodiversity loss, regenerative design, intergenerational stewardship
~ Media & Representation<\/strong> \u2013 How film, TV, and social media shape cultural memory, stereotype vs. legacy
~ Education & Knowledge Transmission<\/strong> \u2013 Mentorship, apprenticeship, pedagogy, oral vs. institutional knowledge
~ Rewriting History<\/strong> \u2013 Counter-narratives, decolonizing design, reparative storytelling, re-mapping the archive
~ Spiritual & Ancestral Practices<\/strong> \u2013 Rituals, altars, sacred objects, intergenerational care
~ Labor & Lineage<\/strong> \u2013 Trades passed down, domestic work, garment industry, labor histories and class mobility
~ Others you come up with<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

.\u00a0 .\u00a0 .

NEW<\/strong> RESOURCE<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

See the link below for a list of topic examples with additional details you can use as a model for how to approach your concept direction ideation.<\/strong> We will include two examples below approaching the theme of “legacy” from different points of view. See the link below for many others:

1.<\/strong> The Legacy of a Vanishing Language<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audience:<\/strong> Younger speakers and diaspora communities.
Goal:<\/strong> Preserve and re-activate interest in a language or dialect on the brink of disappearing.
Research:<\/strong>
\u2013 Interview elders or cultural experts
\u2013 Collect oral histories, vocabulary lists, idioms, proverbs
\u2013 Study revitalization models (M\u0101ori, Yiddish, Hawaiian)
\u2013 Analyze sound, script, or writing systems as visual structure
Media Examples:<\/strong> Interactive archive + printed storybook; motion piece about pronunciation and memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

**Examples that focus on building something that will outlast the project itself<\/em>:**<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Creating a Legacy of Visibility for an Underrepresented Community<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audience:<\/strong> Future students, community members, cultural organizations.
Goal:<\/strong> Build a platform that gives voice, recognition, and permanence to a marginalized group whose stories are often overlooked.
Research:<\/strong>
\u2013 Interviews with community members across generations
\u2013 Cultural anthropology readings
\u2013 Documentation of lived experiences (photo, text, participatory workshops)
\u2013 Analysis of past attempts at visibility and gaps
Possible mediums:<\/strong> Interactive portrait archive + physical installation.

Examples that focus on building something that will outlast the project itsel<\/em>f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples of Capstone Topics<\/strong><\/a> w\/ audience, goals, research approaches, and possible mediums,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.\u00a0 .\u00a0 .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CURRICULUM FOREWORD: Concepts for Understanding<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trace \/ Tracing \/ Traces<\/strong> \u2013 A mark, sign, or residue that signals something that came before \u2014 physical, digital, cultural, or emotional. Also the act of following, mapping, or re\u2011creating a path, which can lead to both preservation and transformation.

Legacy<\/strong> \u2013 The influence, traditions, or material inheritances passed down through generations, intentionally or unintentionally.

Memory & Forgetting<\/strong> \u2013 How individuals and societies remember, commemorate, or erase aspects of the past.

Interpretation<\/strong> \u2013 The act of making meaning from what remains; how traces are read differently depending on cultural, historical, or personal perspective.

Transformation<\/strong> \u2013 The process of altering, reframing, or recontextualizing existing materials, ideas, or narratives.

Continuity & Change<\/strong> \u2013 The tension between preserving what is valued and adapting to evolving needs or contexts.

Imprint<\/strong> \u2013 The lasting effect of actions, ideas, or designs \u2014 visible or invisible \u2014 on people, places, and systems.

Authorship & Agency<\/strong> \u2013 Who has the right, responsibility, and ability to shape or transmit a legacy.

Materiality<\/strong> \u2013 The role that physical or digital form plays in how traces are preserved, experienced, and interpreted.

Time & Temporality<\/strong> \u2013 Understanding legacy as existing across multiple temporalities \u2014 past, present, and possible futures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Structural Meaning Units (SMUs) \u2013 SMUs are the smallest building blocks of meaning in design \u2014 like design \u201catoms.\u201d <\/strong>SMUs are elements significant to shaping meaning or guiding interpretation, whether they are visual, spatial, temporal, or interactive in nature. SMUs gain power by interacting with other SMUs in the same medium and across media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.  .  .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FRAMEWORK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTransmedia, used by itself, simply means \u2018across media.\u2019 \u2026Transmedia refers to a set of choices made about the best approach to tell a particular story to a particular audience in a particular context\u2026 Transmedia immerses an audience in a story\u2019s universe through a number of dispersed entry points, providing a comprehensive and coordinated experience of a complex story.\u201d
\u2014 Henry Jenkins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senior Capstone Exhibition TRACEWORK,<\/strong> will open in mid-April , 2026. The exhibition will showcase a rigorous research-driven design process and an exciting and unique visual rendition of your research. The purpose of this exhibition is to present your value as a professional designer by demonstrating what graphic design can do to communicate messages through compelling experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of you will formulate the conceptual framework, develop, design and deploy an integrated \u201ctransmedia narrative\u201d or campaign composed of three (2-3) distinct stories or narratives which together create a \u201ccomprehensive and coordinated experience of a complex story.\u201d (Henry Jenkins).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each student (or pair of collaborating students) will establish a direction or micro-theme that can be explored through a 2\/or\/3-part narrative lens. Each narrative will have its own focus within the larger \u201cstory\u201d and take a different point of view on the topic. The narratives should be able to stand on their own, but taken together they broadly address a single issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students will develop a long-term working plan and execute the technical and technological implementation, whereby the narratives are arrayed and experienced across multiple media platforms to culminate in a unified exhibition installation set, with interrelated narrative content, where \u201cthe whole is greater than the sum of its parts.\u201d The goal is: form\/medium and content inextricably working together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.  .  .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NARRATIVE
<\/strong>
Narrative is one of the principal ways we organize our experiences of the world. Narrative helps us communicate with one another, chart our way through new experiences, and make order out of the complexity\/disarray of events, characters, actions, and time periods that make up our lives. Narratives come in many forms \u2014 written, image-based, diagrammatic, static, time-based, or any combination. While narrative is often bound to a sequential structure, shifts in place or time add depth and complexity to what might seem at first to be a straight \u201clinear\u201d story. Shifts in narrator or point of view from which the story is told can expand how a narrative functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.  .  .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAPSTONE COMPONENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

+ Abstract:<\/strong> the name, working title, and a 100-200 word description of your capstone \u2014 subject and point of view, research interests, background history\/research, target audience, use of media, exhibition considerations, strategy for design approach, and description of your solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

+ Narrative\/s:<\/strong> a larger \u201cstory\u201d made up of three distinct narratives, utilizing 2-3 different media<\/p>\n\n\n\n

+ Exhibition:<\/strong> design of exhibition installation of your narrative\/s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

+ Documentation: <\/strong> presentation of your research and design process<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.  .  .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PROCESS OVERVIEW<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phase 1: Ideation & Research<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideation & Research will consist of the formulation of the conceptual framework for your project, identification of larger narrative \u201ctheme\u201d or story, and the development\/collection\/creation of content and other raw materials. Write an approx. 100-200 word abstract that describes your topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phase 2: Design Development<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design Development, will encompass the creation of multiple narrative content (your \u201cStory World\u201d), the planning of a systems-oriented functional framework of three (3) distinct narratives that work independently and as a \u201cwhole:\u201d the goal being: form\/medium and content inextricably working together. An extensive research and sketch process will be an essential aspect of your work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phase 3: Design Implementation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design Implementation will involve the refinement of your narrative\/s, the build-out of all technological requirements (i.e bookbinding, interactive prototyping\/simulation, etc), and the design and planning of your individual exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phase 4: Design Validation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design Validation will focus on the completion of your Capstone, and the coordination and presentation of a cohesive transmedia narrative experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.  .  .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONSIDERATIONS<\/strong>

\/ What point of view will you take on the capstone theme?
\/ What is the goal of your communication? (inspire, educate, prompt action, etc.)
\/ What strategies can you use to gather and document data\/raw materials about your topic?
\/ What different strategies can you use to structure these raw materials to create a compelling visual narrative?
\/ Explore\/create the user journey\/map that represent the \u201ctouch points\u201d of the experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.  .  .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT TO RESEARCH & COLLECT
<\/strong>+ Imagery (photographs, drawings, diagrams, charts, maps, textures, colors, etc)
+ Verbal language\/copy (audio transcripts, contextual copy or other language i.e.
in artifacts such as signs, conversations, letters, menu\u2019s, instructions, etc.
+ Sound\/audio
+ Newspaper articles, etc.
+ Take notes, etc.
+ Anything else that you can think of! Be creative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.  .  .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

HOMEWORK OVER THANKSGIVING: <\/strong>Due Monday, December 1st
Research topics of interest for your Capstone, using multiple research methods, including:
\u2013 Brainstorming, image and language gathering, mind mapping, sorting, etc.
\u2013 Utilize the RU-N Dialogue Platform ><\/strong><\/a> and \u201cpin\u201d posts of interest.
Develop three (3) distinctly different concepts for your Capstone and present these for feedback after Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*See Post with Capstone Ideation Presentation guidelines and instructions here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


RESOURCES & INSPIRATION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Research Website for Capstone 2026<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the link to the Research Website<\/a> <\/strong>prepared for you for TRACEWORK. Use this as the starting-point for your Capstone research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can reach out to Natalie Borisovitz, Research Librarian, if you would like guidance on how to research your areas of interest \/ topic(s). You can meet with her virtually, or in-person, or correspond by email. Her email is: natalieb@rutgers.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

See Capstone *Final Exam Didactic Presentation* examples from Last Year\u2019s Cohort here <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

See Capstone 2026 Resources & Inspiration here<\/strong><\/a>
(We will continue to update this.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.  .  .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAPSTONE IDEATION DUE AT CROSS-MEDIA EXAM<\/strong>: Wednesday, December 17th, 3-6pm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capstone Presentation Components<\/strong>
Ideation & Research will consist of the formulation of the conceptual framework for your project, identification of larger narrative \u201ctheme\u201d or story, and the development\/collection\/creation of content and other raw materials. Write an approx. 100-200 word abstract that describes your topic.

Capstone Project Ideation which should include:
1. Refined Capstone Abstract
\u2013 Identification of larger narrative \u201ctheme\u201d or story
\u2013 Preliminary Topic Research
2. Discussion of Potential Mediums (3) for your capstone
3. Preliminary Visual Research (including inspiration, visual language research and\/or studies; imagery exploration, typography exploration\/type studies, color palette exploration, etc.)
4. Plan for Next Steps of Capstone Research & Exploration, and design exploration to be undertaken over Winter Break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EXHIBITION DESCRIPTION: The 2026 Capstone, TRACEWORK, invites graduating designers to explore the theme of legacy \u2014 the cultural, social, environmental, and personal imprints that shape our present and inform our future. These legacies can be inherited, celebrated or contested, visible or invisible. They live in traditions, stories, artifacts, and systems \u2014 and in the ways […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assignments","category-this-week"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7RXPP-1mH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acmgd.info\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acmgd.info\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acmgd.info\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acmgd.info\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acmgd.info\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5251"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/acmgd.info\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5300,"href":"https:\/\/acmgd.info\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions\/5300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acmgd.info\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acmgd.info\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acmgd.info\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}