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…

How do you make this year’s yearbook unique from all the books of previous years? Use the following 5 brainstorming questions when developing your theme:

• What will be different about the year? (i.e. construction, new clothing requirements, new administration, etc.)
• What outside influences have affected the school? (economics, new boundaries, changing demographics, etc.)
• Describe your school using one adjective.
• Describe the people who attend your school in one word.
• What is the first thing you notice when coming on to campus?

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “U” 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…

We’re not talking about sandwich condiments, but yearbook spreads and how important it is to design in spreads. Even if you’ve only allotted one page per topic, you can improve the design of your book by combining both topics into one double-page spread. You can do this by

• one headline and copy package that covers both topics

• graphic elements that cross over both pages

• consistent color scheme

• picture packages that contain photos from both topics

*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…

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…

“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…

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…

“Hip” isn’t just another 1960s word for cool—it also reminds you of good coverage. Ask if your stories are . . .

• Happening? Your coverage and design are happening, meaning you are dealing with content from 2009/10, not 1993
• Interactive? Watch TV, pick up a magazine, observe the world around you. The information superhighway is making this an interactive world. Your coverage should reflect this
• Progressive? Absorb the world around you and translate that into your yearbook coverage. Strive for original, progressive ideas. So, rather than ask students about their DMV tests, go with them, getting quotes from the DMV instructors and photos of a nervous student standing in line

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “H” 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…

Creating cohesion throughout your book requires both a verbal and a visual theme. Here are some tips on using graphics to help with keep your book visually unified:

• After choosing your verbal theme, choose a visual theme that illustrates or matches your concept. For example, if your verbal theme is “Traffic”, your visual theme could be a blurred effect in photoshop which illustrates constant movement, or it could be dotted lines mimicking street dividers. There are many ways to visually illustrate a theme concept. The key is pick only one, or your book will look too messy.
• Have students keep a graphics notebook of ideas they find in magazines, ads, newspaper, menus, websites, etc… which use your graphic element. For example, if your element is “paint splatters,” there are so many ways this could be executed, it would help to narrow it down with an example from a professional publication.
• Once you decide on your graphic element, find a variety of ways to use it throughout the book. Change it for every section, but keep it consistent within the section. For example, if your visual theme is interlocking circles, you could have them go across the entire spread horizontally within Student Life, but for academics, they go vertically and only through 3/4 of the page behind the headline…
• If you haven’t used Photoshop Brushes yet, experiment with these to create your ideal graphic. There are plenty of free brushes available for download online.
• Check out theyearbookblog.com for the 8 most popular graphic elements in design today.

*This entry is part of “The Yearbook Ladies’ A to Zs of Yearbook”
project. If you’d like to download the “G” 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…

Good coverage is hard to achieve when staff members sit in the room and hope that the stories will come to them. Sure, you can try to light some incense and pray to the gods of feature writing, but with your luck, you’ll probably just set off the smoke alarms.

Well if your school has a homeroom or advisory class, how about assigning each staff member to a teacher. That way the staffers “adopt” a particular homeroom class. It is the goal of each staff member to get “THEIR” advisory students into the book at least two times.

To accomplish this, your staff members should get to know their adopted class. Start with a school-wide survey to find out about the students there and then send the staffers in to dig a little deeper to find the hidden gems. Once they get to know their group, class conferences should be full of people suggestions. For example:

Editor: We’re doing a story on sports that students play outside of school. Who do we know out there?

Staffer #1: A kid in my homeroom is a competitive gymnast.
Staffer #2: Yeah, one in my homeroom has a black belt in Judo.
Staffer #3: I’ve got an Irish dancer in my homeroom.

(etc.)

Hyde Middle School has been doing this since the beginning of the school year. They have three giant binders full of surveys and the students look through them for ideas. Recently I challenged them to a contest: find THE MOST UNUSUAL story or person in your advisory class. Three winners would be selected to win In-And-Out gift cards. Imagine their excitement when they found a student who . . .

–has collected over 400 Tech Decks (little skateboards)
–is a competitive rock climber
–volunteers at the Red Cross and an animal shelter 15 hours a week
–can walk on stilts
–has collected Legos since he was 6 years old
–collects sand from around the world
–is a synchronized swimmer
–competes in Brazilian martial arts

So find those stories and people hiding on your campus. Your readers will LOVE the book and learning about their fellow students.