How the Runner´s Delight cover page took shape

I was wondering how I could get all the Cindy recovery sketches I had made on the Metro together in one series. It might be a good idea inventing a magazine to publish them.

There was the option of taking the Glamour for a glamourous girl like Cindy. But then I decided, that the sports aspect was the more convincing one. I started an intense internet research on running magazines and their headlines. Oh my, I didn´t know, what the world seems to be interested in. I put down some ideas and started on the layout.

putting down some headlines

first ideas

I knew, that Cindy would be the Covergirl for this issue. I didn´t want to copy the original name of one of the magazines, so I opted for the Runner´s Delight. I don´t know, if this option makes any sense for native speakers, but it sounds nice to me.

I had made some restrictions on my series. One was, that there shouldn´t be any computer work involved, because I didn´t want to spend my art time on the computer.

That meant that I was back to writing, cutting, arranging and rearranging like in the years before the Computer. I copied the running Cindy on my light table to have her handy while playing around.

What to do with the background? The colored one was working more like an eye-catcher. But then I had to find an answer for the headlines layout. So I tested many different styles in Handlettering and coloring.

Just before I started with the final step of copying the draft I had made, I thought about checking the English phrases I had used. And how good that I did. Not all the English words we use in German are proper English words, I had to find out. So I changed the 70 + best ager into the Senior Marathoner. I wonder how many other words might sound strange to the native speaker.

The last step was just a routine piece of work, using my selfmade light table to copy my ideas. I like the outcome. Even if the shadows are not perfect yet. That is definitely a topic I can work on in the future. And one single S got missing, which I found out after scanning.

Read in the next  BEHIND THE SCENES post: How the Recovery Stage 1 evolved