Brief:
This capstone project is a self-directed investigation developed within the Communications Design program at Parsons School of Design. The project explores a chosen research question through critical inquiry, visual experimentation, and iterative prototyping across multiple media formats. Drawing on methods and concepts developed throughout the curriculum, the work integrates research, conceptual thinking, and technical execution to develop a cohesive design outcome that communicates a clear point of view. The project synthesizes academic study, prior professional experience, and design practice to produce a final body of work that demonstrates the role of communication design as both a research-driven and expressive discipline.
Solution:
As part of the compilation of this record, a wide range of sources were reviewed and incorporated: research articles that focus on the current generational divide and Gen Z’s skepticism toward capitalism and corporate culture, workforce surveys from Deloitte and Gallup, publications such as Forbes and Psychology Today, film and television including Office Space, Succession, and Severance, YouTube video essays, and user generated content from platforms such as Glassdoor, Reddit, Instagram, and TikTok. This moment is distinct because media has been democratized in ways that shift how workplace culture is interpreted, contested, and satirized.
Outcome:
Built as a visual and cultural record of workplace disillusionment, Corporate Dreams is an accumulation of film stills, memes, screenshots, quotes, timelines, and research fragments that map how the corporate dream eroded into irony, burnout, and cynicism. It brings together images, jokes, tensions, and cultural debris that persist even as workplace culture keeps trying to rebrand itself.
depicting the disillusionment and cynicism around corporate America.
and the context of the times from which they emerged.
satirical critique of consumerist corporate culture. The visual highlights
how corporate jargon functions as a form of gatekeeping, creating boundaries
between those who understand the language and those who do not.
highlighting Kendall Roy and his isolation within an
ambitious corporate climb.
presenting a satirical guide to success that outlines how to dress,
what art to display, and which businessman accessories to own in
order to appear powerful and accomplished. Satirizing status culture
and performative ambition.