Treering Blog

Color is more than decoration: it’s a communication tool. In a yearbook, color helps reinforce the mood of each section, creates visual hierarchy, and supports your theme. Understanding the basics of color theory enables you to make design choices that are intentional and effective, not just trendy. (If trendy design is your thing, head over to this blog.)

The Color Wheel

I can’t emphasize this enough: color is a complement to content. The right combination can make your theme feel energetic, calm, serious, or playful. Understanding how color affects emotions will affect your readers’ experiences.

Primary Colors

Red, yellow, and blue are the OG trio. As you learned in elementary school, you can’t make them by mixing other colors, and they can be combined to create every other hue. A section opener with a bold red or yellow background can instantly grab attention—just keep your type simple so it’s still readable.

Secondary Colors

Orange, green, and purple come from mixing two primaries. Secondary colors are a safe way to add contrast to pages without them looking too loud. 

Tertiary Colors

Mix a primary with a neighboring secondary and you’ll get shades like yellow-orange or blue-violet. These in-between shades are perfect for customizing your theme. For example, swap standard blue for blue-green to make a traditional palette feel more modern.

Color Harmony

Color harmony is about choosing combinations that are pleasing to the eye, and useful to you, the designer. Whether you’re creating a visual flow across a spread or building a full-book palette, these harmonies keep your pages cohesive.

Complementary Colors

These are opposites on the color wheel, like blue and orange or red and green. They create strong contrast. Use complementary color accents for headlines, callouts, or graphic elements. 

Split Complementary

Choose one color (yellow) and pair it with the two colors next to its opposite (blue). This gives you contrast without tension. For example, if your school color is yellow, balance it with pops of magenta and violet.

Analogous Colors

These sit next to each other on the wheel and are generally harmonious and soothing. If you’re getting started with color, use an analogous palette to determine your dominant, supporting, and accent colors. 

It’s easy to look at these and think you’re limited to three. Using varying tints and shades for value contrast will expand your palette. 

Triadic Colors

Triadic schemes use three evenly spaced colors on the wheel. We see this with the primary colors. Now shift over, you have the ultimate retro palette.

Monochromatic and Grayscale

One color, many values: Monochromatic palettes have so much potential. Purple can have varying degrees of school spirit, while black is sleek and modern. They create contrast, demonstrate intensity, and serve as a base to add accents for emphasis. 

Warm vs. Cool Colors

Warm and cool colors affect how your pages feel emotionally. Look at the two athletic examples above. You can feel the difference. In one, you're sweating with the team and on your feet. In the other, you're maintaining what's left of your voice, sipping cocoa under a blanket with your best friend.

Likewise, use color to determine how the student body will experience your verbal theme.

Putting It All Together

Here’s how to apply color theory to your yearbook:

• Pick a palette early. Choose up to five colors that support your theme and stick with them. Put them in your style guide.
• Use color to organize. You could assign colors to sections, use colors as the backgrounds to modules or pull quotes, or with your headline font to show points of entry.
• Make color intentional. “Don’t decorate… design” is every design teacher’s go-to for a reason. Be intentional and ask, “What mood am I trying to create?” “What color harmony supports that?” “Why isn’t this working?”
• Check accessibility. Make sure the text has enough contrast from its background.
• Balance bold and neutral. Too much color can overwhelm. Whitespace will always be your friend.

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Brandon Sumner, President of Sumner Photography, wrote this month's "Picture Perfect Partnership" article. Sumner Photography is a California-based school photography company dedicated to capturing and preserving memories for educational communities. Through partnerships with platforms like Treering, Sumner Photography supports schools in creating exceptional yearbooks that serve as historical records and creative expressions of their unique identities.

In the world of school photography, few moments feel as good as seeing your partner schools get recognized on a national level. Recently, three schools that Sumner Photography works with, Coronado Middle School, Reilly Elementary, and Ladera Ranch Elementary, became finalists in a nationwide yearbook cover contest. This achievement shows not only their creative vision but also what happens when photographers and yearbook teams work well together.

How the Partnership Started

When I first partnered with Treering ten years ago, I was drawn to their excellent customer care. This fits perfectly with Sumner Photography's commitment to serving West Coast schools. What started as a shared goal to preserve memories has grown bigger than I first imagined.

School photography and yearbooks share the same basic mission: capturing and preserving memories for a lifetime. But our collaboration has grown beyond just taking pictures. Today, we're actively helping yearbook teams with their creative process, knowing that all the logistics and details involved in making a yearbook can overwhelm the very people trying to create those lasting memories.

The more we can make these processes easier—or remove roadblocks entirely—the more time yearbook teams have to focus on what really matters: telling stories, being creative, and making memories. This idea has become the heart of our partnership with Treering and the schools we serve.

Three Great Covers, Three Great Stories

Each of the three finalist covers from our partner schools tells a different story about their community and creative approach:

Coronado Middle School had a fantastic color scheme that immediately captures the unique vibe of their coastal community. Having spent time in Coronado, I can tell you, this city has a special feel. Their yearbook cover captures that perfectly. The design choices show not just good taste but a real understanding of their school's identity and place in the community.

Reilly Elementary showed amazing attention to detail in their "Dive Into Learning" theme. Every element, from the biggest design pieces to the smallest details, works together beautifully to bring their concept to life. This kind of thoughtful design is what makes the difference between good yearbooks and truly memorable ones.

Ladera Ranch Elementary impressed me with student-created artwork that shows the incredible talent within their school community. The expressive eyes in their lion mascot design—created by student artist Fiona—show the real creativity that comes out when young people get the platform and tools to express themselves.

What This Means for the Future

These three covers represent something bigger than individual school wins; they show the range of creative possibilities available in yearbook design today. What gets me most excited about yearbooks' future is how they're evolving beyond simple documentation into true creative outlets.

Yearbooks do two things: they store memories and give people a platform for artistic expression. The finalists' covers from our partner schools show how art and design can bring up feelings that readers connect with the memories captured in photos. This emotional connection turns a yearbook from a simple record into something people treasure.

The Treering platform plays a huge role in this creative evolution by making sophisticated design tools available to yearbook teams without extensive publishing backgrounds. 

Something You Can Hold

In our increasingly digital world, there's something special about holding a yearbook or photograph in your hands. This physical interaction requires intention—you have to choose to engage with it, to turn the pages, to pause and remember. This hands-on experience creates a different connection than scrolling through digital images.

I'm excited to see how yearbook teams and students continue to capture our ever-digitizing world in physical form. The challenge and opportunity are in translating the richness of digital experiences into formats that can be held, shared, and treasured for decades to come.

Looking Ahead

The success of Coronado Middle, Reilly Elementary, and Ladera Ranch Elementary in this national competition shows the incredible potential that comes when photographers, yearbook teams, and technology platforms work together smoothly. At Sumner Photography, we're committed to supporting the creative process while handling the technical stuff that can distract from the artistic vision.

These three finalist covers are just the beginning. As we continue to partner with schools and support their creative work through our collaboration with Treering, I look forward to seeing how the next generation of yearbook creators will push the boundaries of what's possible in preserving and presenting their school memories.

The combination of photography, design, and storytelling in yearbooks creates unique opportunities to capture not just what happened, but how it felt. That's a mission worth pursuing with passion and excellence.

In Treering’s inaugural Cover Design Contest, which—if we’re being real—was three concurrent contests, schools submitted their covers to one of three categories:

1. School Spirit – mascots, school colors, and anything else that shows off your community
2. Theme Development – an introduction to your visual and verbal theme
3. Elementary Student Art – original art by K-6 students

Our team explored over 300 submissions, and the ones that stood out introduced their theme on the front and back cover, then expanded it inside throughout the book. Each of the themes below are specific to the time and place in which they exist. While the concept may work for the school across town, the execution would not.

Grand Prize Winner: Easterbrook Discovery School, San Jose, CA

Theme: Once Upon a Time

This year was extra special. It’s EDS’ 20th anniversary and the tenth year in its building. These once in a lifetime moments became an obvious connection for the yearbook theme.

Pre-pandemic, a middle school yearbook club produced the book. The PTO wanted to continue to showcase student perspectives with a cover contest. “It celebrates creativity, individuality, and the shared ownership that makes our yearbook and our school so special,” said Bai-Lim.

This year, they gave little guidance: “Your design should relate to the ‘Once Upon a Time’ theme (e.g. fairy tales, dragons, fairies, wizards, enchanted creatures, etc.).” The faculty and staff chose the winning cover in an anonymous vote.

Winner Helena Kao created a design rich in symbolism:

• Castle: community, teachers, and parents that made our school a story worth telling
• Bricks: depicted fundraisers, music concerts, and field trips that were the building blocks to a safe and welcoming space for students to learn and grow
• Flags: the husky spirit that defines EDS
• Closed door: an end of a chapter for the graduating class of 2025
• Howling Husky: singing and celebrating the school it proudly represents

The cover art contest led to another “once” moment: ninety pieces of student art throughout the yearbook. “Each piece felt like part of the story of the school year,” said Bai-Lim, “and we didn’t want to leave that out.”

Bai-Lim’s team used a Treering vintage blue background, various story-inspired borders, and the lunchbox font for titles. She said, “Treering made it so easy to bring our ideas to life.”

The Final Five Six

Blue Grass Elementary School, Knoxville, TN

Theme: A School of Pure Imagination

The sweet cover made us melt. (It’s a contest for a back to school ice cream bash with cool puns, how could we not go there?) What’s more, is the yearbook theme and the school’s theme were one.

The team at Blue Grass used “a school of pure imagination” to guide their year. It was a “perfect match for capturing the magic, curiosity, and creativity that define our school community,” yearbook chair Becky O’Hatnick said.

She and her team of parent volunteers sprinkled each page with “candy-colored hues” and created titles on candy wrappers and golden tickets.

“From cover to cover, our yearbook is a vibrant celebration of childhood wonder and the boundless possibilities of imagination,” O’Hatnick said.

Coronado Middle School, Coronado, CA

Theme: Golden Hour

This coastal school embraced their SoCal vibe by using the colors of the golden hour to progress through the book. The students studied the sun, and used it for theme copy: “At the end of each day, and each Golden Hour, the sun must set. This is an opportunity to begin anew, never forgetting the last chapter, but anticipating the beauty of the next.”

“The edges of the book had a gradient,” adviser Heidi Frampton said, “so that as you flipped through the book you would see the sunset colors.”

Maywood Center for Enriched Studies, Maywood, CA

Theme: A Piece of Us

Every single one of us has a mosaic of experiences that makes us who we are,” adviser Nora Torres said. Her team built on that concept by piecing together textures and colors to create the layered cover. The more you look at it, the more details emerge.

They brought their theme into the book by using graphic pieces, such as scrap paper, tape, and cut-out letters to accent the content. Divider pages, especially, looked as if they were hand-designed. To make it even more personal, the yearbook staff added “yerd* doodles” throughout the book.

*Yerd = yearbook nerd

Mt. Everett Regional School, Sheffield, MA

Theme: Ripping Through Tradition

Students chose to blend nostalgia and tech by using newspaper graphics at an angle to chronicle their year. It’s a “blend of past, present, and future,” said adviser Kari Giordano.

“This theme visually represented the senior class ‘shredding expectations,’” said Giordano, “and boldly stepping into the next phase of their lives.”

Philip Reilly Elementary, Mission Viejo, CA

Theme: Dive Into Learning

Yearbook chair Kristin Keller said she “created an underwater world where our theme could truly swim.”

From using circular photos as bubbles to adding sea-sational puns, her designs were focused. Keller used design hierarchy and contrast to keep each afloat in a sea of color.

Wilson Creek Elementary School, Duluth, GA

Theme: Wildcats Stick Together

At first glance, this cover was familiar. Then, we looked closer.

“This hybrid theme enhances the Treering-designed theme ‘Stick Together’ with totally unique Wilson Creek graphics and vibes that show off how Wilson Creek Wildcats learn, live, and laugh,” said yearbook co-chair Holly McCallum.

She designed the sticker pack to include interactions of the wildcat, WCES, and their anniversary crest. The brown paper background takes us back to the first day of school, when you’d cover your textbooks with grocery sacks. Considering this is Wilson Creek’s 20th anniversary, it’s an emotive design decision.

McCallum also added frames to photos to make them look like stickers and she added positive messages “to emphasize the creative spirit and collaborative dynamic” of her school community.

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In Treering’s inaugural Cover Design Contest, which—if we’re being real—was three concurrent contests, schools submitted their covers to one of three categories:

1. School Spirit – mascots, school colors, and anything else that shows off your community
2. Theme Development – an introduction to your visual and verbal theme
3. Elementary Student Art – original art by K-6 students

Students created original yearbook covers using paint, AI, colored pencils, crayons, mixed media, digital media, and pen and ink. Yearbook committees gave prompts that were open-ended, fixed, and everything in between. While many submissions were the result of a yearbook cover art contest, others were collaborative projects. All were steeped in the tradition of promoting student perspectives and community. 

Grand Prize Winner: Peace Valley Charter School, Boise, ID

“Waldorf schools instill a deep respect for the natural world, fellow human beings, and the spiritual elements in all beings,” said 6th-grade teacher Nichole Murray, whose students compete annually in the yearbook cover contest.

Murray, PCVS dad Jason Ropp, and yearbook coordinator Gigi Murfitt display the entries in the hallways so all students can see them and begin to dream ahead for their chance in the cover contest. PCVS teachers choose the winners, and first and second place go on the outside cover. All cover contest submissions appear inside the book.

“The elements of nature are expressed, and our mascot, the otter, symbolizes intelligence, playfulness, resilience, and adaptability,” they said.

Both art pieces caught the judges' attention because they used similar colors and exceptional lighting–one judge kept exclaiming, “The shadows!” 

The. Shadows.

The cover art introduces outsiders to the Waldorf philosophy, especially how the art curriculum helps nurture imagination, emotional intelligence, and a well-rounded intellect.

“Our mascot, the otter, symbolizes intelligence, playfulness, resilience, and adaptability,” Murray said.

The Final Five

Ladera Ranch Elementary School, Ladera Ranch, CA

Fifth grader Fiona Martin captivated us with the color explosion and detail on her cover design. PTA president Joya Celik said the yearbook team at LRES asked the students to create a design incorporating their mascot “that reflected courage, perseverance, and attaining [their] goals.”

Their 2024-2025 school theme was “Go for the Gold.” Martin surely did just that.

Normandale Elementary School, Edina, MN

Yearbook team leads Lauren Dickerson and Becky Sertich created a collaborative project for 5th-grade students. Taking their inspiration from water bottles, Chromebooks, and everything else tweens touch, they asked students to create their own “sticker” design.

They “scanned and edited [each submission] to add a white border (like a sticker) and to make the background transparent so the ‘stickers’ could be arranged on the cover like clip-art.”

The result? An on-trend, completely original yearbook cover that shows the personalities and priorities of promoting students.

Strawberry Elementary, Santa Rosa, CA

This one is also collaborative: the front and back covers are creations from 6th graders and the local high school (shout out Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa) helped put it all together. The latter used AI design tools to expand the front cover art to wrap around to the back. On the back, they also created a composite of art.

“The high school students had originally envisioned a variety of student strawberries in the grass and eagles in the sky for this cover design,” yearbook coordinator Pamela Vincent said. “But [a] 6th grade student convinced them that one of the eagles could be arranged to carry a strawberry-filled basket.”

“In total, seven high school students and 11 elementary school students collaborated to make this cover a reality,” Vincent said.

Watchung Elementary School, Middlesex, NJ

Wrap-around cover, check. Multiple students’ art, check. This cover ticked all the boxes, and once we learned about the five-week process to create each self-portrait, we were even more in awe of what a PK-3 school produced.

“Students are placed in Polaroid frames to remind the third graders that no matter how much time goes by, their 3rd grade memories will remain the same,” Librarian Anne Erchicks said.

West Side Elementary School, Marietta, GA

The team at WSES made their 75th anniversary book an homage to late Principal Reid Brown's first yearbook theme. To convey “Shine Bright like a Diamond and Be the Best Bee You Can Be,” each student from kindergarten through 5th grade created their own bee and drew a diamond.

“Our yearbook team voted on using student art as the cover,” said yearbook coordinator Shelley Strack. “We also used the additional bees and diamonds throughout the yearbook as graphics.”

Strack and her team created contemporary art to celebrate Brown’s message. “I loved the use of new and old as a part of our yearbook,” she said.

In Treering’s inaugural Cover Design Contest, which—if we’re being real—was three concurrent contests, schools submitted their covers to one of three categories:

1. School Spirit – mascots, school colors, and anything else that shows off your community
2. Theme Development – an introduction to your visual and verbal theme
3. Elementary Student Art – original art by K-6 students

We said, “School,” you said, “Spirit.” Pride in your community shone through on every cover. 

Grand Prize Winner: Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, San Francisco, CA

Mascot: Rainbow dragon
School colors: 15 colors representing 15 art departments

“Each of the dragon's colors represents one of the school's 15 arts departments. Those colors are carried through the rest of the design, appearing in the colorful garden that spans the bottom of the front and back cover, and in the text on the back cover where each department's name is written in its unique color,” said adviser Jeff Castleman, who also teaches drawing, painting, photography, and computer art.

This cover illustrates the adage, “Know the [design] rules, and break them.” Generally, we’d encourage a yearbook creator to avoid using 15 colors. Not Asawa Arts. 

They grouped warm colors for the sunset-inspired swirls, sandwiched between greens as grasses and blues in the skies. Each piece of flora has the base of the blues or pinks with pops of contrasting colors. Black lines hem it in.

A group of eight yearbook club students collaborated on the original illustration. The lead designers, both seniors, at Asawa Arts’ yearbook club developed the visual identity of the yearbook. They went from pencil sketches to creating their own computer-based line art. Six supporting designers (all juniors) filled it in with flowers, leaves, mushrooms, and butterflies. 

On the spine and in the dragon’s hands are roses. “The rainbow dragon symbolizes our school spirit,” Castleman said, “and the rose it holds represents our guiding principles.”

The acronym representing Respect, Openness, Safety, and Engagement is part of the campus as much as it is part of the culture.

Castleman appreciated the flexibility of working with his students to create the vision and fully customize the yearbook cover. He said each year, the yearbook team re-imagines the dragon, giving it a different feel, from East Asian and Medieval to this year’s psychedelic interpretation.

“We think of [the cover] as the crowning jewel on a bespoke book,” Castleman said.

Castleman's team earned a Treering-sponsored back-to-school ice cream bash for their campus.

The Final Five

Brooklyn International School, Brooklyn, NY

Mascot: none

“Our school is a very tight community as our students come from many backgrounds trying to achieve the American Dream, but not forgetting their roots,” Norma Gaytan said.

Gaytan’s students represented their classmates with flags and artifacts from their home countries.

Gloria Deo Academy, Springfield, MO

Mascot: Lion

This is the cover we expected: school colors and a mascot boldly proclaiming school spirit. The texture in the mane and near-watermark incarnations of the lion on the back adds texture.

Mid-Pacific Institute Preschool and Elementary, Honolulu, HI

Mascot: Pueo (Hawaiian Owl)

The drone photo in honor of Mid-Pacific’s 20th anniversary is impressive enough. We loved the before and after images.

Adviser Abbey said, “The students learned about how to use a grid to scale an image, practicing in art. We then applied the math to create a giant grid on our courtyard and replicated our school mascot with field paint.”

Montera Middle School, Oakland, CA

Mascot: Toro

Student art always holds a special place in our hearts. Montera’s cover art extended from the front to the back cover, making a bold statement of school spirit.

Olympia Regional Learning Academy, Olympia, WA

Mascot: Orca

The symbolism in the student art evokes powerful sentiments of school spirit. Both contest winners captured the essence of the K-12 campus’ mentoring ethos. On the front, a mother and baby orca represent the cooperative role ORLA provides. 

“We take our cooperative role with the families very seriously and we could not have the kind of school or kind of students we have without the role the caregivers provide, both at home and at our school,” adviser Rachel McKaughan said.

“The back cover also represents the playful spirit we have at the school with our many hands-on electives, she said, “where students are able to discover and express many different talents.”

From each submission, we learned school spirit is more than a sports team or school song steeped in tradition. It is comprised of community features: shared values and overarching identity. Thank you to the 300+ schools that shared their story with us.

We always say we will get started on yearbook planning over the summer. Raise your hand if you follow through. (My hand is down too.) Camp Yearbook, Treering's two-day virtual yearbook planning course, is back. It's part large-group training, part small-group mentoring and idea sharing. And it's 100% live.

The goal: have the first six weeks of yearbooking planned.

What to Expect

Treering's Camp Yearbook is a cameras-on, all-in yearbook planning experience.

Event Structure

Both days are three hours of large-group training and smaller breakouts designed for you to get all your questions answered.

We'll provide the goal-setting worksheets, ladders, idea decks, and resources because we want you to finish Camp Yearbook with your first six weeks of yearbooking planned.

Based on your feedback, Camp Yearbook’s sessions are even more specialized:

• Getting Rooted: designed for yearbook creators with fewer than three years with Treering, this session is focused on time-saving tips, design basics, what to do in class, and all the must-know info to create and market your yearbook.
• Branching Out: for experienced advisers looking to level up their yearbook design or classroom pedagogy, this session is all about intermediate and advanced features such as creating styles, adding content to portrait pages, yearbook staff structure, and problem-solving.

Register via the Yearbook Club webinars page.

Treering Mentors

All attendees will be in a small group led by a Treering staff member who served—or currently serves—as a yearbook adviser. In groups specific to school style and yearbook team structure, you can ask questions about grading, crowdsourcing, club structure, page count, and whatever else you need answered. (Your camp counselors aren't Treering life coaches, but close.)

Grow Together

Breakout groups for parent volunteers, solo yearbook coordinators, educators, and club leaders mean you get meaningful support and specific-to-you resources.

Camp Yearbook 2025 FAQs

Your questions deserve answers!

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.

Yearbook Hero Amy Windsheimer transformed a yearbook program on the chopping block into a thriving journalism class. After a year of co-creating Brush Middle School's book with a colleague, they opened it up for students. Windsheimer wanted the class to focus on both visual and oral communication skills. And she nailed it.

You truly collaborated with your whole community. Tell us what you did.

We used some of our yearbook fundraising money to purchase two cameras, and a local photographer came in and showed the kids how to use them. The kids really got into it.

At the end of the school year, I reached out to news and media outlets because I wanted to take them to a newspaper printing place. We toured Townsquare Media, which has three different radio stations in Windsor, CO. The kids recorded a radio intro and outro. They played with the green screen.

A couple of the DJs taught us how the morning show works and shared their career path. We learned about their college experiences and about radio advertising, which was a cool 360 because that’s how we started the year: Our secondary school sells ads together. For a field trip, I took my yearbook class out into the community to do in-person sales.

How did you make selling ads in-person less scary for middle school students?

One unit of my yearbook class focused on public speaking. We talked about professionalism and public relations. The kids spent a week crafting and practicing an ad pitch for local businesses. 

First, they went around and told any adult in the building who was interested in listening and sold them yearbook ads. Then, we had some simulations to prepare them to get turned down. I actually had one of the principals tell them, "Nope, I'm not interested," or “Well, I don't want to go as high as that route. What about this route?" 

When we went out, they had matching T-shirts. There was a process for receiving and depositing funds in the activities account. The kids also worked with the business to create the ad.

We have a restaurant in town that purchased an ad from a pair of girls and said, "Well, do you guys want a cinnamon roll?" They had cinnamon rolls the size of a small plate. A family-owned bowling alley gave the middle and high school staff an hour of bowling to close out the day.

How many pages of ads did you end up with?

We filled nine pages. Our town has many awesome businesses, and they are so supportive. 

How else do your students create the book?

It took us a while to decide on our the theme of our yearbook. They came up with five options, and they had to limit it to three, and then they finally decided on one. I told them to choose whatever style they wanted to make. Make it fun, make it creative, make it their book. And they really took off. 

We broke the ladder down into fall sports and activities. I assigned two kids per page. One kid would sit there dictating, and the other kid would be working. 

I rolled out a big touchscreen TV on a cart daily. Somebody would use it to work on their page. The best part about that TV was that it was big enough to see the layout easier, and it was more kid-friendly. 

We’d also use it at the end of our deadline: I would make them all go through and proofread and edit and make sure that there weren't any pictures with inappropriate signs or anything that could not be school-appropriate. Then, I would see if there were any other pictures that we could add to it.

We had four mini deadlines: October 31, another one at Christmas, at the end of the third quarter, and then, of course, our yearbook had to be in by the end of April. It was a mad rush in April to get everything done.

I don’t see many middle school books with captions. How do you do it?

Creating captions is really hard, especially when the yearbook kids don't know all of the other kids. I'd encourage them to go speak to a specific teacher and see if they can help out. We used all our resources. 

You equipped your students with public speaking, design, and sales skills. What else?

We have these big screens around campus that play a slideshow. I shared the Google Drive folders our students use to compile pictures of each activity. It’s as much real-time as we can possibly get. I watched kids stop and watch the pictures, and it's huge. 

They're like, "Oh yeah, that was a fun picture to take." Or, "Oh, yeah, that was a fun activity that we did. Oh, that was funny." And there are these moments somebody posed and didn't know they were posing, and we got it on camera.

Adding marketing to the list.

When they go into high school, I feel like many of them who wanted to be in the yearbook class will take what we learned and take it to the next step of what the yearbook looks like.

1. No contracts, no commitment

We offer a $0 financial commitment to all of our school partners. There are no minimum orders, no commitments, and never any leftover books. Parents and students can purchase a copy of their yearbook directly from Treering's sales portal. We only print what’s ordered, which means there won’t be any additional cost to your school.

2. Easy, yet powerful software

We make things easier on you so you're not always the last one in the building this spring. The headaches from building your portrait pages and designing your book are magically cured with powerful automated tools and template-based, drag-and-drop pages.

Treering's easy, yet powerful yearbook design software

Making a yearbook is a lot of work, but it can be fun too.

3. Affordable prices

We believe that every student should have the right to celebrate their year through the culture of the yearbook. We’re democratizing the yearbook and making it affordable for everyone by investing in technology to improve efficiencies and keep costs down.

4. Personalized pages

Ever struggle to make sure each student feels included in your yearbook? With Treering every student gets two free, uniquely printed pages, so they can fill their yearbook with personal memories. Since parents and students use our template-based software to create their own pages, there is no extra work for you, the yearbook editor. But don't worry, unless you invite them, parents and students cannot work on the yearbook itself. That's still in the hands of you and your yearbook team.

5. School fundraiser

We're helping schools regain control of their budgets: Treering gives you the ability to add a fundraiser amount to the cost of each yearbook. We also make selling recognition ads (should you want to) super easy: just set the price per size and let parents decide if they'd like to purchase. Since we only print the books that are purchased, your fundraising efforts can fund new laptops or a STEM program rather than covering the cost of leftover books.

6. Premium quality

All Treering yearbooks are gorgeously printed in both softcover and hardcover with upgrade options such as gold or silver foil and embossing. We laminate hardcover books and UV coat our softcover books to provide extra durability. Moments are over in seconds, but memories—and your Treering yearbook—will last forever.

7. Three-week turnaround

Once you've finished designing your yearbook we'll get it to you within three weeks. Period. That means you can now include (nearly) the entire year's worth of activities in the yearbook. Treering Yearbooks are printed in the USA.

8. Collaborative

Everyone’s a photographer now, right? Treering makes it easy to source photos for your yearbook from parents and students by allowing your yearbook team to create shared folders. When parents and students create their free accounts to purchase a yearbook, they can also add photos to designated folders (i.e. Fun Run). You still get to pick and choose which ones you’ll use, but you’ll have a lot more to select from.

9. Online payments

Yearbook editors tell us how much they love to design, but how little they like to collect money for yearbook sales. Treering gives your community the ability to purchase their yearbook directly online. We’ll collect the money and keep track of sales, freeing you up to do more of what you love: making a beautiful yearbook.

10. CAT has your back

Having a great business model and product is one thing, and sometimes you need a little more. A little more help to make your yearbook experience a great one. Your Community Advocate Team (CAT) will have you covered with 100's of videos and how-to articles, along with phone and email support. No more waiting for someone to come back from vacation to help you: at Treering we have a team of passionate yearbook experts to help you whenever you might want a little extra.

POV is more than a social media trend, it's the call to reflect the diverse perspectives and students in our halls. So, how do you capture every student in the yearbook? Here's how we help you take control of crowdsourcing and collaboration with built-in collaboration tools.

Collaborate Using Shared Folders

After you decide what content you need, we help you organize the year with shared folders. There's no limit to how many you make.

We Love This Because You Can...

1. Create one folder per classroom teacher
2. Share email links to sports team folders for coaches and boosters
3. Use #photodropFriday social posts to direct submissions to an event folder

Pull photos from Social Media

After taking a pic of our loved ones, our first instinct is to post and share it on our social channels, not with the yearbook coordinator. Treering Yearbooks' Facebook and Instragram integrations make it easy for your yearbook to get social.

We Love This Because You Can...

• Add your chaperone snaps to a shared field trip folder
• Build custom pages using your feed

Multiple Permissions Allows for Collaboration

Collaboration tools are a major component of our yearbook software on the design side as well. Yearbook coordinators and advisers decide the size and access permissions for their teams on an individual basis (we know there's no one-size-fits-all here).

We Love This Because You Can...

• Limit folder permissions for student yearbook team
• Assign a page or two to parent volunteers
• Leave notes on spread and lock completed pages
• Partner with the school photographer for the portrait spreads

Stunning, Sturdy, Scuff-Resistant Covers

Hardcover? Check. Softcover? Yup. Soft-touch matte finish? Mais Oui! Glossy finish? For sure! Want to give your cover something a bit extra? We've got silver and gold foil to add a little more sparkle, and embossing options to add a little more lift. Whatever you and your students can dream up, we create using a superior quality laminate to protect your cover.

And they are all printed in the USA.

Completely Customizable Covers

Your cover can be as unique as your students. With the option of an 8.5x11 and 9x12 size book, you can have the flexibility to get your yearbook to look precisely how you want.

Though we have hundreds of professionally designed themes at your disposal, including our Heritage Collection, we won't limit your creativity. Hold a yearbook cover contest with your community; let your students decide what it should be. Ask your art class to come up with something representative of your year.

Sustainable Memories

In today's digital age, where everything happens on screens, it's amazing how a high-quality yearbook can seem so... special. We print better than HD quality photos on our 100 lb, sustainably sourced paper stock. Because we care about both the quality and global impact of the yearbooks we create.

Bound to Hold Your Memories Together for Lifetimes

All our yearbooks are bound with PUR Perfect adhesive to hold each page safely in place for a lifetime. Both hardcover and softcover books will stand the test of time. What's more, our softcover binding doesn't crack when you open it, meaning you can add your school name to the spine to make it look great on the shelf.

Moments are over in seconds, but memories—and your Treering yearbook—will last forever.

Making a yearbook is a lot of work, but it can be fun too. We built our yearbook software to take away as much of the hard work as possible, so you and your yearbook staff can focus on the fun stuff. No more fighting with changes in portraits or keeping track of yearbook purchases; whether it's making your yearbook, managing your yearbook staff, or collaborating with your community, we eliminate the pain so you can focus on capturing your school's year in a beautiful yearbook.

Manage your yearbook program like a pro

Call it your very own mission control. Right from your dashboard, you can see who has purchased and who hasn't. See a running total of how much money you have raised for your school throughout the year.

Work from anywhere

For the parents in your community who are on the go, they can do everything from their mobile devices. They can add photos to your community's shared folders, design their student's custom pages, and purchase their student's yearbook while waiting in the pickup line.

Assign roles and permissions to your yearbook staff

Grant some users an all-access pass to your yearbook by making them the Chief Editor, or limit their responsibilities by making them a Staff Editor or Restricted Staff Editor. Some people on your yearbook team may only need to add photos or edit text, while others need more responsibility. The choice is yours!

Your entire yearbook staff will be able to edit only those pages you have assigned them, making it clear for the editors to understand their responsibilities and easy for you to manage in one place.

Make suggestions and share ideas on each page within the book. Get notified each time you go in to edit the book if there are new notes, comments, or questions to read.

Once a page is finished, the editors of that page can mark it complete. Now you know their progress (and the big picture). Your finished pages are safe from unintended edits.

Keep track of all your students

Treering's yearbook software will automatically build an index for your yearbook. Never again worry about making sure each student gets equal coverage in the yearbook, or trying to make the index yourself.

Never again worry if a photo has been used on a previous page. Or how many times each student is in the yearbook. With Treering you can tag students in each of your photos, and easily see which photos have and have not already been used.

Easy layout creation

Save time and easily create your yearbook with theme-driven, drag-and-drop templates. Powerful tools and an intuitive interface give you the easiest yearbook software you'll ever use.

Auto layout

Organizing photos perfectly on a page can be tedious, but it shouldn't be. With Treering, just select the photos you want on a page and our yearbook software will automatically drop them into a beautifully designed layou

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If InDesign is more your thing, no problem, you can upload all the designs you'd like.

Portrait auto flow

Point, click, grab some coffee. Yearbook portrait pages are no longer painful. Automatically arrange yearbook portraits. Customize the page layout. Make changes easily. Boom. Between 40-60% of your book is complete, and if you want to add more content to your portrait pages, you can.

Perfectly aligned photos in a snap

It is nearly impossible to manually ensure each photo is centered and aligned on a page perfectly. We've made it possible by adding gridlines that don't get printed, but make book-building a breeze. If you'd like to make it even easier, you can have all your photos snap to the grid. Oh snap! With this kind of precision, you'll feel confident knowing your book will look perfect.

E-commerce

Raise Money with recognition ads

Set your price per size, and let our yearbook software do the rest. When parents log in to buy the book, they will be given the opportunity to purchase one or donate one. Parents get to celebrate their children, and you get to provide your school some extra money to cover the cost of new cameras, field trips, or whatever you might need.

Online marketing and photo-sourcing

School community involvement in the yearbook is crucial, whether that's making them aware of how to buy the book, help contribute photos, or participate in the annual yearbook signing party, you need your community to be involved. We've got you covered from yearbook sales and online purchases to digital signature capabilities.
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Crowdsource yearbook photos

Get more photos for your yearbook by sourcing them from your parents, students, and teachers. With Treering's yearbook software you can create shared photo folders to which your entire community can add photos.

Build your own shared folders for your yearbook staff to use for everything from retakes and doubles to sports and clubs. You can also create a private spot for just you and your yearbook editors rather than the entire community.

Upload photos from anywhere

We understand that all communities store school photos in different places, so we've made sure that our yearbook software will easily allow you to upload from anywhere. Facebook, Instagram? Yup. Google Drive, Google Photos? Got it. Or if you've got photos on your mobile phone or desktop, we can upload them from there too, whatever is best for you.

Yearbook sales made simple

Treering doesn't make your school commit to minimum orders meaning no financial pressure, but it's still something you'll want to do, so we wanted to make it easy. You can add links to your community's Facebook page. You can send emails directly to just those parents who haven't yet purchased. On top of all this, we have a bunch of professionally designed flyers for you to use. If you'd like to have some printed, no problem, we'll do that for free, cause fees just aren't our thing.

Keep your yearbook community accurate

Sometimes students change schools, or a parent accidentally creates two accounts. Our yearbook software helps you keep your community organized. You can quickly merge or separate student accounts, and add or remove students throughout the year as things change.

Even more to love

E-signatures

Technology has changed the way students socialize. With Treering's software, students can e-sign their friends' yearbooks with photos and stickers which can be printed on their free custom pages just in their yearbook. 

Ensure consistent design throughout the yearbook

Set the theme, photo styles, text styles, and more in one place for your entire yearbook. Define all of it, none of it, or just some of it—whatever fits your yearbook style.

Favorites

With so many professionally designed templates, it could be easy to forget where you and your yearbook staffs' favorite ones are. Simply click the stars on the ones you like and they will all be in one spot moving forward.

Scroll through your yearbook ladder and try not to panic at page after page of emptiness. To help with planning, we compiled this list with the understanding that you would have the meat and potatoes of a yearbook:

• School portraits
• Candid photos
• Headlines

New at this? Pick one or two to include in this year’s yearbook. As your tenure as an adviser grows, so can your repertoire of things to include.

1. Autograph Space

This is why we throw yearbook distribution parties. It’s why we wait until the last vote is counted in the ASB election and last ribbon is awarded at field day. Three weeks after clicking “I’m Ready to Print,” boxes of books magically show up.

Autograph pages are easy to include in your yearbook: you use a pre-made template or design your own. It doesn’t have to be fancy.

2. Table of Contents

This is the most underrated spread in the book, a table of contents is the must-have launch pad for the reference book that is your school annual. It’s also something that can take a few clicks to create, if you’re using a Treering theme.

3. Collage Layouts

Many times, we see upwards of 60 photos slapped on a spread with no layout structure. The number of students covered is overshadowed by a chaotic layout.

PSA: Just because Treering offers layouts with up to 65 photos, doesn’t mean you should use them. Every student should be recognizable. Aim for their faces to be the size of a dime.

4. Superlatives

Superlatives—is Greg Heffley the only one who calls them “class favorites?”—are yearbook awards based on student surveys. These “Most Likely to…” awards highlight standouts. 

Check out our list of 100 superlatives focused on creativity, character, and community contributions.

5. Year-in-Review Spread

Unless your yearbook is chronological, including a year-in-review spread is a way to increase storytelling. It gives a holistic overview of the year, both in and out of school.

School-Level

A designated school year-in-review spread can feature images from events throughout the year, giving an overview of the activities and achievements across campus. Many yearbook creators love to use them for photos that may not have “fit” anywhere else or as a way to cover different students from saturated events pages.

We adapted it. Search "calendar" under "all page templates" to include this in your yearbook.

World-Level

Some schools include what happens beyond school walls on a year-in-review spread. To do this quickly, use Treering’s pre-designed one.

Yearbook classes and clubs that want to create their own should

• Meet and list the significant events at the end of each month; focus on moments students will remember, from sports championships to viral challenges.
• Use royalty-free websites to safely and ethically source images.
• Give credit where it is due: place a photo attribution in small text under the photo, in a sidebar, or on the colophon page.

Keep in mind: if your year-in-review pages include celebrities, logos, photos someone on your staff did not capture, even in educational yearbooks, you may run the risk of copyright. The Student Press Law Center has a digestible guide on fair use for student media.

6. Storytelling Photos

Both classroom moments and hallway hangouts show student life on campus. It’s important to include candids, academic photos, and even lunchtime snaps to balance posed portraits.

7. Content on Portrait Pages

Another way to break up posed portraits is to include content on portrait pages.

Shrinking your portraits to free up space for storytelling photos or even feature coverage, deepens your coverage and adds value to class pages.

8. Stories and Captions

This is last on the list, not least on the list. Regulars to the blog have seen this charge before: If there is no writing in your yearbook, add captions. 

Master them. Then, include expanded captions. Then, body copy. 

No matter your team size, you can include extras in the yearbook that elevate it beyond a photo album and make the difference between a book that gets browsed and one that’s cherished.