The Yearbook Blog

We all have one–although some of us have”American Idol” voices, and some of us have only-for-the-shower voices, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Each yearbook, each theme, each body of copy has a voice/personality, too. And each year, the voice of your yearbook should be different from the year before. It should reflect the individual voices of students, teachers and administrators on campus as well as the voice of the yearbook staff. How do you do that? Follow these tips:

• Get more individual voices in the book by including more quotes
• Include profiles of people who have stories to tell, and let them tell their story in their own words
• Create secondary packages that are quote-based. For example, ask a question (What’s your best friend’s most annoying habit?) and print the 5 -7 best answers
• Run quotes along the bottom of your class pages to incorporate as many voices as possible

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “V” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

You know how sometimes you just don’t get it, and someone says, “Do I have to draw you a picture?” Well, sometimes a visual is a much more powerful form of communication. How does that translate in yearbook language? Easy! Try graphics to enhance your story.

• Create graphs to show comparisons (Number of students who use iPhone, Blackberry, flip phone, slider phone, etc.)
• Use large graphic numbers to show participation (Fall Play/Musical spread–number of actors, stage hands, set designers/builders, choreographers, musicians, lighting technicians, sound technicians, etc.)
• Make tables or grids for scoreboards instead of just lists

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “V” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Isn’t it funny how you can talk to your friends, text, IM, pass notes, and generally blab for days non-stop but then when you sit in front of a computer screen to write, you get brain freeze? Relax! Writing is just talking, um, written down. So have fun with your words and let the creativity flow during a class brainstorming session. Or have small group competitions for story ideas, headlines, and extended coverage that relate to your book’s theme. So, if the book is “Here’s Looking at You” try:

• Seeing is believing
• See what we mean?
• Worth a second glance
• A view from the top
• Looking good
• Now see this
• A sight to remember
• Visions of victory
• Stare down

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “V” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

It’s the single page following the front endsheet, and it needs to convey some important information, both visually and verbally. Your theme graphics from the cover and front endsheets need to appear in some form on this page, and all of the following:

• Theme title

• Year of publication

• Yearbook name

• Volume number

• School name

• Complete address (street, city, state, zip)

• School telephone number

• School fax number

• E-mail and/or website address

• Enrollment

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “T” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Woohoo! It’s April and your book is done! Time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of the year. But wait? What about all the stuff that happens after April? If only there was a way to include that in your book, too. Well, you can… with a Spring Supplement! You can include…

• Spring Sports scoreboards or even Spring Sports!
• Senior Trips
• Spring field trips
• PROM! (That’s right, I said, “PROM!”)

And since it only takes 2 weeks to get your supplement back from Herff Jones, you can pretty much include everything!

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “S” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

A quick read is a trendy way to include additional coverage packages in your yearbook. The quick read is something the reader can quickly scan and get another piece of the story that makes up an event or season. Some schools are putting two, three or even four quick reads into a spread.

They can be anything from a pull quote to a scoreboard, Q & A boxes to polls, profiles to graphs–anything that gives your readers little bits of information in a very concise way. They are also fun and one more way to record the unique history of your school’s year, not to mention another way to get people covered and into your yearbook!

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “Q” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Not the kind tied up in pretty paper and bows, but the kind that tie elements of your layout together. Every spread should have at least a picture package and a copy-headline package. Here are some ideas for additional packages to help layer your coverage:

• Polls - Ask a random sample of students a few questions about your spread topic and present the results as a colorful bar graph, pie chart, or a Top 5 list

• Quotes - Get several students to share their reactions to and event. These can be random, or have some fun and make it a “He said/She said” or a “Point/Counter Point” quote story.

• Profiles - Present a different angle by interviewing someone behind the scenes of the event, like the team trainer, the play’s lighting or set designer, the teacher’s aid, etc.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “P” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Producing a yearbook is a lot of fun, but it also carries a great responsibility. A yearbook lasts forever and cannot be reproduced once the year is over. Because of this, every picture, every caption, every quote in every story, and even every graphic has to be true and accurate. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind as you record the year’s memories for your school community:

• Check and double check names. No one wants their name misspelled forever.

• Captions and Senior Superlatives are a part of the coverage. They are not a place for inside jokes.

• It’s our place to record history, not make it up. Make sure your scores, quotes and sources are verified.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “R” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

We know you’ve got ‘em: “When’s the next deadline?”, “What happened to my pictures?”, “Does anyone know this person?”, etc. But here are a few questions that good designers and copy writers should continually ask themselves and each other as they work. Keep these in mind as you look over your spread/copy before you call it “done”:

• Is it fresh? Current? Original?

• Does it relate to the theme? the year? the school?

• Is it specific to the theme? the year? the school?

• Is it my best work?

If you can answer “yes” with confidence, then your work is complete. When the book arrives, you’ll be glad you took the time to ask these critical questions, because “good enough” never is.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “Q” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Herff Jones releases their new iPhone App for Yearbook. That’s right, an iPhone App for Yearbook! No, this doesn’t mean you have to start working on your spreads while you’re in line at the Supermarket. But it does mean that parents, students, and basically, anyone you want can upload photos right from their iPhone to your eDesign photo library. How cool is that!

Advertise this app to your entire school community to increase your coverage. Send out theme requests (i.e. “This week, we’re looking for pictures of your car/pets/bff…”). Have an iPhone photography contest and publish the winners. Run a strip along the bottom of each spread with iPhone submitted photos. The ideas are endless, but either way, you’re going to increase your coverage. And increased coverage = more book sales!

Best of all, it’s all free to Herff Jones schools. For more info, go to www.yearbooks.biz or search “Herff Jones” on your iPhone “App Store.”

The opening of your yearbook is like a good pick-up line. It should grab their attention and make them want more. Below is a quick list of what your opening should or could have:

• Opening Copy - This should explain the theme and why you chose it for this year. It should be compelling and set the tone or voice of your copy for the WHOLE book.
• Design Elements - Design elements from the cover that you plan to use throughout the book need to appear on your opening pages.
• Photography - The pictures should reflect your theme through their content.
• Table of Contents - If you can’t do this on your endsheets, then the opening is the place to do it. (Try to avoid putting it on your title page!)

For ideas on how to design your Opening Spread, go to Yearbooks.biz and click on “Showcase.”

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “O” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Yearbook is all about numbers: How many people have been photographed?, How many pages are in my next deadline?, How many yearbooks have been ordered?, How many ads have been sold?…Well, you get the idea. Here some strategies to help you keep track:

• 3 - The number of students who should be quoted on each spread.
• 2 - Make sure you are designing in 2-page spreads, even if you have separate subjects on either page.
• 1 - Get students in the book at least 1 more time then their portrait picture.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “N” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Deadline just around the corner? Feeling a bit overwhelmed? Here are some tips to help you keep it simple:

“JUMP!” is a great late-night deadline song by Van Halen, but also a commonly used technique in magazines and newspapers. Jump coverage makes your readers turn the page (or multiple pages)

• From Organizations, a story on Key Club jumps to the Senior section, highlighting graduates at the Key Club banquet
• A student life story about the school’s first dance could send readers to the 6^th Grade spread with poll results on how many attended the dance
• Cover individual sports that students play outside of school hours and then link those captions to the same students on their mug page

Jump coverage, while commonly used in magazines and newspapers, is showing up more often in yearbooks. This is when a story continues on a second page, forcing the reader to jump to another location—either the very next page or sometimes an entirely different section of the book. Jump coverage works best when the book’s theme sets up the situation, like “There’s More to the Story” and “From Here to There.”

We see this used a lot with an extended opening, but don’t just stop with the obvious. Using jump coverage, a story on Key Club can jump to the Senior section, highlighting graduates at the Key Club banquet. A student life story about the school’s first dance, could send readers to the 6^th Grade spread with poll results on how many attended the dance.

Of course jump coverage requires good planning because it’s only successful when you give the page number for the follow-up story. Also, don’t pass up opportunities to link your main story to a sidebar on a different location—anything that keeps your students turning those pages!

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “J” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Ladder (rhymes with ladder) is your organizational road map. Make sure yours is complete, accurate, and where everyone can see it.

• Don’t just use the same ladder year to year. Recreate it every fall with a new staff and fresh ideas
• Ask yourself if your particular theme needs a different approach to organization (e.g. chronological approach? Three sections instead of five?)
• Include all pertinent information on the ladder: topic, due date, student(s) assigned, etc.
• Cool tip: laminate a fresh wall ladder and use overhead projector pens to write on it. It is much easier to make changes/corrections that way

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “L” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

[jur-nl-iz-uh m]: “the occupation of reporting, writing, editing, photographing, or broadcasting news or of conducting any news organization as a business” (and used in all good yearbooks). Most of your copy is made up of feature writing, but it’s still journalistically sound if you . . .

It may be the most boring and tedious section in your book, but it’s definitely the most popular! It’s the first place students look to see how many times they’re in the book!

• Generate your index throughout the year to make sure you’re including everyone in your book at least twice. Highlight your target list in one color (students that are only in it once) and your blacklist in another color (students in it too many times)
• If you are including everyone, why not advertise it? Post your index in a window with the headline, “Buy a Yearbook. Look how many times you’re in it!”
• Make your index more interesting by interspersing club photos and other group photos to break up the monotony of names
• Be creative with the letters: have students spell out the letters on the floor, include world news that begins with that letter, take photos of areas around the school that “create” the letter,…

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “I” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

Don’t forget to add a colophon to one of your final pages. It lists all the technical details that went into the printing of your book: the location of the plant, the weight of the paper, how the cover was made, the types of computers used, how much books sold for, etc. Books include these for reference purposes only. (Want to see a real world example? Check the back of any Harry Potter book.)

To download a colophon template, go to the Adviser Resources section of at www.theyearbookladies.com.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “C” card, go to the “Adviser
Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…

• Favorite classes when your teachers were in school (extra points for getting a picture of them from their own yearbook)
• Cover all classes like AVID, wood shop, drama
• Timely events like how budget cuts impacted the classroom and some of the items teachers are paying for
• New classes in the master schedule
• Take pictures of teachers and students in action (raising their hands, giving a presentation, mixing chemicals, etc.)

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook” project. If you’d like to download the “A” card, go to the “Adviser Resources” section of www.theyearbookladies.com

We’d love to hear from you! Share your questions, comments, and ideas below…