← Skills / RB-DSG-01

Visual Layout & Composition

Compose a poster from supplied elements. Then the brief changes, and you have to adapt rather than restart.

You are verifying
Composition under a changing brief
L2 · Shifting Artifact + defense

The brief changes after you have committed to a composition.

✓ What a pass certifies

Composition under a changing brief, at Level 2.

✕ What it does not

Visual design as a profession. This measures compositional judgement under a shifting constraint using supplied elements. It says nothing about typography, illustration, colour systems or originating a concept.

Where this sits in Visual Layout & Composition

1 of 8 competencies
Composition
Hierarchy Balance Alignment & Grid ◆ Composition under a changing brief
Craft
Typographic Setting Colour & Contrast
Judgement
Restraint Design Rationale

Critical Thinking is scored as a dimension inside every rubric, not as a separate competency. Competencies do not sum to a skill — orchestrating them under real conditions is its own competence, which is what the L3 capstone is for. Verifying one node narrows what a later skill-level assessment has to cover; it never replaces it.

The task

Arrange a fixed set of elements into a poster. Submit it. The brief then changes, and you adapt the composition you already have.

01 Position the supplied elements on the canvas to satisfy the brief.
02 Submit the first composition. You cannot revise it afterwards.
03 Read the changed brief and adapt what you built — the elements stay the same.
04 Explain, in a few sentences, what you changed and what you chose to protect.

What is being measured

  • —Whether the first composition has a real focal point and holds together structurally
  • —Whether you satisfy the new constraint once it appears
  • —Whether you adapt the existing composition or quietly start over
  • —Whether structural quality survives the change
  • —Whether your explanation matches what you actually did

We publish what we measure on purpose. The anchors are public; what stays private is the specific scenario you get. Knowing the criteria does not help you fake them — that is the test of whether the anchors are any good.

How evidence is produced
Computed geometry

Alignment, margins, overlap, balance, hierarchy, whitespace and grid adherence are measured from the coordinates you submit. Not a judgement — measurement.

Adaptation delta

What moved between the two submissions, and how far. This is what separates adapting from restarting, and it is arithmetic.

Rationale anchors

Your written explanation is scored against anchors — and checked against the measured delta, so describing a change you did not make counts against you.

Level ladder
L1 Structured Planned
L2 Shifting This assessment
L3 Integrative Planned
L4 Contested Planned
L5 Real-world Planned
Assurance tier
Self-serve · AI-assessed

Assessed by AI against published anchors, with every score linked to evidence from the session. No identity verification, no proctoring, no human review at this tier.

Ready?

Roughly 15 minutes, in one sitting. Scoring stays hidden until you finish — you will not be able to steer toward a number. Your name appears on your public profile and nowhere else.