MFA Graduate Research Project | Tracy Kretz, Future Nostalgia

Tracy Kretz is a transformational design leader whose career spans the agency, corporate, and higher education sectors. She has led creative strategy, brand development, and design execution for a diverse portfolio of global brands and mission-driven organizations. Her work includes shaping consumer experiences and product innovation pipelines for Huggies, U by Kotex, Depend, Kleenex, Cottonelle, Graco, Baby Jogger, Sharpie, Rubbermaid, and Yankee Candle during her leadership roles at Kimberly-Clark and Newell Brands. Earlier in her career, she served as lead graphic designer and art director for high-impact public initiatives and regional campaigns, including the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC), Pennsylvania Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Pennsylvania Insurance Fraud Prevention Authority, and New Jersey’s tourism bureau, NJ Nets, and the teaching hospital of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. Tracy currently serves as Director of Design and Creative Services at Juniata College, leading institutional storytelling, visual identity, and brand stewardship across campus. Her leadership philosophy is rooted in human-centered design, both as a mindset and behavior, fostering environments where people can thrive, contribute meaningfully, and grow through collaboration and curiosity. She is widely recognized for her mastery in communication design, strategic foresight, design thinking facilitation, and building inclusive creative cultures grounded in clarity, empathy, and purpose.

Future Nostalgia is a speculative design exhibit that blurs the line between memory and imagination, asking: What if the past we remember isn’t the only version that existed? Set in an alternate 1996, the exhibit reconstructs a high school yearbook through the lens of retro-futurism—merging analog artifacts with digital anomalies. Visitors will encounter looping timelines, glitched memories, and fragments of a world where wearable tech, AI jalopies, and HUD overlays were the norm.

The experience is fully multisensory, designed to engage all five senses. Guests can turn the pages of a real paper yearbook, listen to voiceovers and soundtracks from a looping DVD, taste iconic 1990s snacks, catch the unmistakable scent of bubble tape gum, and visually explore creative designs that blend nostalgia with speculative fiction. Every detail invites the viewer deeper into the alternate timeline—both familiar and strange.

The project explores themes of identity, memory loss, and technological dependence through mixed media—AI-assisted imagery, tactile print, interactive installations, and a fictional diary encrypted in cursive. At the heart of Future Nostalgia is Tracy Kretz, a photography editor who suspects she’s caught in the wrong timeline and uses analog tools to reconnect with a version of herself that may no longer exist.

Kretz developed the exhibit as the creative extension of her Graduate Research Project in Communication Design. It builds upon her research paper, Pioneering Pixels: The Digital Transformation of Generation X Designers. It examines how analog-trained creatives adapted to the sudden rise of digital tools in the 1980s and 1990s.

Tracy generated visuals using AI tools, applying her mastery of art direction cues and narrative structure to craft cohesive story arcs that guide the viewer through a layered, immersive experience. The result is a deeply personal and visually rich exploration of memory, authorship, and what it means to design across timelines.