What makes this composite image work so well? The answer is the almost identical angle of the shadows in both background and foreground. I cut the kids on the rocks out from that photo's original background—the Willamette Valley in Eugene, Oregon as seen from the top of Spencer's Butte—then dropped them onto a view of Manhattan as seen from the Empire State Building. Both photos were originally in color and the effect just wasn't ringing true for me until I converted the entire image into a greyscale composite, at which point I had that "aha" moment.

For the main title type treatment I chose a condensed face that would represent the tall and imposing skyline of New York City, and this also solved the problem of how to fit such a long word as Manhattan on one line. Both the subhead and the author byline are the same family as the title, and the playful treatment of the word "of" is a nod to the kids on the rocks.

Software: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator