Interaction Design · Project 1 of 3 · Weeks 1–5
GD 1 Project 3: Imagined Realities Poster
Photoshop compositing, image ethics, and visual narrative
FORMAT
Individual
WEEKS
6-10
METHODS
Physical collage studies · Photomontage · Image compositing · Masking · Typographic hierarchy · Adobe Photoshop · Image ethics · Analog-first process ·Visual narrative · Iterative critique
TAGS
Human Rights, Community, Design Education, Design Thinking
Why this project
Project 3 is the first GD1 project that requires students to craft an argument. The poster must adopt a position—it's not just about describing a topic but making a claim. This shift in expectations is important. While the first two projects focused on perceptual awareness and reductive thinking, the poster directs those skills toward persuasion.
Hierarchy remains the key design challenge. The viewer should immediately understand what to focus on first, what to read second, and where to look next—and every element of scale, placement, contrast, and typographic weight guides this sequence. Ellen Lupton's insights on image-text relationships influence this: text and image are not merely separate channels delivering the same message but distinct visual elements that generate meaning through their interaction. A photograph documents; combined photographs make an argument. This difference is the conceptual core of the project.
Photography is deliberately placed third in the sequence now. Early versions of this course started with a photographic project, assuming that taking images was easier. I found that this familiarity with photography became a crutch—students relied on subject matter instead of composition, and documentation instead of argument. By moving photography to third, after students have developed compositional discipline and reductive thinking, it shifts how they approach it.
The Brief
PROJECT PROMPT
Design an 11" × 17" conceptual poster that tells a story or conveys an emotion through photographic compositing and visual hierarchy addressed to college students on a subject that matters. The poster must make an argument — not describe a topic, but take a position on it. It communicates through the relationship between images, a headline, and a tagline.
The poster constructs an imagined reality: something that cannot be literally photographed. You will combine photographic images to build a visual world that makes your argument visible. Hierarchy is the central design problem. The viewer must know immediately what to look at first, what to read second, and where to go next.
Before touching Photoshop, build three physical collages using magazines (found or created images), scissors, and glue — testing composition, juxtaposition, and scale with your hands. The analog phase is not a warm-up; it is where you develop and resolve the composition
Choose one theme: Social Justice, Community, Environment, and Power
DELIVERABLE
Physical collage studies (minimum 3) — photographed and submitted
Thumbnail sketches (minimum 25) — photographed and submitted
Image source list (all images must be Creative Commons, public domain, or original)
Final poster: 11" × 17", portrait, 300 dpi, RGB — Adobe Photoshop file (.psd)
Print-ready PDF export, labeled Lastname_Firstname_Project3.pdf
Title block, lower right corner: name, course, semester — Helvetica Neue, 11pt
Printed at full size for critique
Self-assessment — see separate assignment sheet
What I've learned from running this
Over the years, I have taken on different roles with this poster in the course, and both my experiences in managing it and creating it have been valuable. Initially, I assigned a historical event poster task where students selected from a curated list and created two posters—one illustration-based and one photographic. The project required 200 thumbnails, making it research-intensive and challenging. However, it often fell short in fostering argument; students accurately presented events, but the posters only showed what happened, not their significance.
At Pacific, I initially designed the poster as the first project because photography seemed accessible and engaging for students starting the course. However, I discovered that familiarity with photography quickly became a crutch, with students mainly defaulting to documentation. Liberal arts students, lacking design training, were more open to experimentation because they had no preexisting habits to defend. In contrast, design students often found themselves more unwilling to explore possibilities.
Moving the poster to the third position changed what students contributed to it. They arrived with a vocabulary, allowing them to discuss hierarchy, tension, and visual weight even before starting image compositing. The four themes — Social Justice, Community, Environment, and Power — replaced the list of historical events for both pedagogical and ethical reasons. Unlike historical events, social justice issues are more immediate and personal, making the design process more complex and responsible. This ethical dimension is integral to the design challenge, not an afterthought.