Finlay’s desk, “with a photo we did for an article on the rock paper scissors world championship hanging above it,” says Voorhes. “It’s a serious competitive sport these days. We shot a rock, paper, and scissors, but made them look as though they’d been in a fight. Our idea-generating process starts with the publication itself — if their aesthetic is fun and playful, we go that direction; if it’s a tech or scientific magazine, we have to take it more seriously and make it visually exciting but more literal. A more journalistic story will have a cleaner look and a more neutral emotional tone. This was a silly, lighthearted story, so we approached it in a lighthearted way.”