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Teaching yearbook: design inspiration from anywhere
Treering’s click, drag, drop, and done tools aren’t for every design team. In an age of visual search, Pinterest, and AI, we advisers are refining strategies for guiding students in visual theme development. For those who take a more hands-on approach, there are generally two blockers:
Where Do I Find Fresh Design Inspiration?
Look at the graphic design on visual media as a springboard for ideas, not as a rigid template to follow. These real-world examples can provide valuable insights into current trends, color palettes, typography, and overall composition.
Here’s how you do it with your yearbook class or club:
Two Real-World Examples and Applications
Look at the Mendocino Farms' website: its layout, color scheme, and font choices. In the video below, yearbook creator Liz Thompson shows how to recreate similar elements within the yearbook page in fewer than four minutes.
Through practical demonstration, Thompson translates real-world inspiration into tangible yearbook designs.
Our second example features a magazine layout. White space, typography, and image placement could easily be adapted for a yearbook page.
Notice how Thompson uses the design's overall flow and visual hierarchy to draw the viewer's eye to specific areas of the page.
Treering-Specific Tricks
Bringing outside inspiration into your yearbook doesn’t have to be a manual process. Treering engineers incorporated tools to simplify the DIY design process. Our top three include:
Using the Color Picker Eyedropper
Extract colors from an image and apply them to the yearbook design. This technique allows for a more cohesive and visually appealing color palette.
Create and Apply Text Styles
Adjust font sizes, line spacing, and text alignment, then save it as a headline, subheadline, accent—wherever you want to name it—a style you can apply with a click.
Add Editable Shapes
Incorporating various graphic elements—lines, boxes, and illustrations—can serve as an accent for emphasis or visual separation if you’re using modular design.
How to Use This at Your Next Yearbook Class or Club Meeting
As a group, watch the two instructional videos above. Follow Thompson's instructions to create a similar look.
Then, have students bring in an object with a design they enjoy. Discuss which principles of design are used. Pick one element you can re-create and add it to a yearbook spread. This can be a group or individual activity. The goal is to embrace a spirit of inspiration and collaboration as you breathe new life into your yearbook design.
This blog is adapted from Liz Thompson’s Design 201 session from TRL 24 POV: I’m on the Yearbook Team. Thompson, a former classroom teacher and yearbook adviser, serves on the Customer Success Team at Treering Yearbooks.
Why are yearbooks so expensive?
Yearbooks can be a costly investment for schools. Some publishers typically require schools to commit to a specific number of yearbooks at the start of the year, even before they’re sold to parents. If the school cannot sell all the books, it is left with the financial responsibility for the unsold copies.
Not Treering.
Yearbook creators, like John Vogel from Whitesville Elementary School in KY, turned their yearbook bill into a yearbook check when they switched to Treering.
Treering prints what you need using print-on-demand technology, and we make it personal. When yearbook creators enable custom pages, each family has the option to personalize two pages that only print in their yearbook, making every book unique. (More on us later.)
Yearbook Pricing Explained
Yearbooks are historical. Since Yale published the first one, improvements such as automated presses, desktop publishing software, and digital cameras have made mass-producing yearbooks and collaborating on design easier. Unfortunately, not all of these have translated into the bottom line.
Traditional yearbooks are expensive because the majority of yearbook charges happen in these five main areas:
1. Printing and Production Costs: Usually rolled into the base price, these are the plant charges for producing your core book, including paper, cover stock, and color vs. black-and-white pages.
2. Design and Publishing Software: Big-name design software charges per user, even when integrated into the yearbook publisher’s design application. Publishers sometimes add on charges for professional design support; this is most common when schools want a custom cover.
3. Shipping and Distribution: Since yearbooks are heavy, the cost of delivering large boxes to the school adds up. Some schools must also factor in storage costs or extra distribution efforts, especially if books arrive after the school year ends.
4. Spring Supplements or Inserts: With deadlines as early as February, many schools create and print supplements for spring sports, graduation, or prom. These stick-in pages result in additional printing and shipping costs.
5. Fees: Financial penalties such as art set-up fees, minimums, late fees, proofs, marketing materials, cloud storage, and training and support can add up. Sometimes, advisers don’t see them until the final invoice.
No Cost Yearbooks?
We’re going to toot our own horn for a sec: Treering operates at no cost to schools, with no minimum orders, commitments, or leftover books to manage. Using digital printing, our platform streamlines production, allows for a three-week turnaround, and even accommodates after-deadline orders.
There are no late fees, and you control your deadline.
This flexible approach eliminates inventory management, avoids extra costs, and makes yearbooks more affordable—especially for smaller schools.
Additionally, your per-book price is our only price. It covers everything you may be used to paying for separately, like printing, bulk shipping, e-commerce, marketing, support, custom covers, software, and top quality. It’s based on the number of pages in your yearbook and the cover finish.
Remember School A and School B from above? Here's what happened when they switched to Treering.
When we entered the yearbook space in 2009 touting a print-on-demand, no-contract yearbook solution, schools were wary of this too-good-to-be-true proposition. To learn how other schools gained control over their yearbook finances by partnering with Treering Yearbooks, check out these additional yearbook creator case studies:
Adviser advice: 10 tips for candid photos
There’s something profoundly satisfying about capturing that one perfect image—when the light and laughter align so magically, freezing time in a way that feels effortless. According to Yearbook Hero Emily Wilson, those moments are rare, fleeting, and almost impossible to predict. To help, she shared her top tips for capturing authentic moments in candid photos.
Get to know Wilson and her developing passion for photography in her own words. (See what we did there?)
After my second child was born, my husband gifted me my first “real” camera. It was a Nikon D5000, and it felt cumbersome and clumsy in my hands at first. I’ve never thought of myself as particularly "techie"—just the word exposure makes me break out in a mild panic. But what I do know is how to tell a story, and that’s always been my default. Photography, for me, has never been about mastering every setting and toggle on a camera. It’s been about capturing moments that matter.
“Life isn’t about how many breaths you take, but about the moments that take your breath away.” Few movie quotes have stuck with me over the years, but this one has (thank you, Will Smith in Hitch). I think of it often, especially when I’m scanning the world through my camera lens, searching for those breathtaking moments.
Over time, I’ve learned that no amount of technical knowledge can replace an innate understanding of people—their emotions, connections, and desires.
Emily Wilson
10 Tips for Authentic Yearbook Photography
For the past five years, I’ve served as the yearbook advisor for a high school. It wasn’t something I ever planned—I had envisioned teaching only English, not journalism. I’d never written formal journalist pieces or worked on a yearbook before. The closest I’d come to anything remotely similar was scrapbooking and journaling. But armed with limited technical knowledge and an abundance of creative confidence, I decided to embrace the challenge.
While my student staff and I still have plenty of room to grow and refine our journalistic techniques, we’ve made significant strides. Here are ten tips that have propelled our yearbook forward, helping us create something we’re genuinely proud of.
1. Capture Candid Moments
Yearbooks are about documenting real life, not just posed portraits. Be a quiet observer during events, in classrooms, and on the sidelines. Look for laughter, concentration, or spontaneous gestures that tell a story.
2. Get to Know Your Subjects
Whether you’re photographing a pep rally or the chess club, take a moment to connect with your subjects. A quick chat can help them feel more comfortable and natural, translating to more authentic images.
3. Tell the Story of the Year
Think of each photo as part of a larger narrative. The yearbook isn’t just a collection of faces; it’s a snapshot of a school’s unique culture, achievements, and challenges. Seek out moments that capture the spirit of the year.
4. Vary Your Perspectives
Avoid taking all your photos from eye level. Get low for a dramatic shot of the basketball team huddled on the court, or climb up for a wide-angle view of a school assembly. Changing your perspective can make ordinary scenes more dynamic.
5. Be Mindful of Backgrounds
A messy or distracting background can take the focus away from your subject. Frame your shots intentionally, and if needed, move slightly to avoid clutter like trash cans, backpacks, or bright exit signs that draw attention away from the action.
6. Use Natural Light When Possible
School settings can have harsh or dim artificial lighting, so position your subjects near windows or use outdoor spaces when you can. If shooting indoors, experiment with angles and settings to avoid heavy shadows or overexposed areas.
7. Focus on Emotion and Interaction
The best yearbook photos highlight relationships and emotions. Capture the high-fives after a touchdown, the quiet focus during a test, or the joyous chaos of a classroom celebration. Emotion adds depth and meaning to your images.
8. Photograph the Unexpected
Some of the most memorable yearbook images come from overlooked moments—like a student tying a friend’s shoe, a teacher’s reaction during a surprise assembly, or a band member backstage adjusting their uniform. Look for the stories others might miss.
9. Keep It Balanced: Action and Detail
Yearbooks benefit from a mix of sweeping action shots and small, intimate details. Pair a mid-game photo of the soccer team with a close-up of their muddy cleats or a teammate’s hands clapping after a goal. These contrasts add richness to the narrative.
10. Involve the Whole School Community
Yearbooks celebrate everyone in the school. Don’t just focus on the obvious highlights, like sports and performances. Include the quiet moments in the library, the budding friendships in the lunchroom, and even the behind-the-scenes work of staff and volunteers.
Beyond the Lens
Photography is about more than just pointing a lens at a subject. It’s about anticipation. You have to almost feel what’s coming before it happens, predicting not just the movements of your subject but also the reactions of those on the fringes of the frame. Sometimes, the most compelling images come not from the people you’re focused on but from those nearby—the onlookers. These unexpected participants bring depth and richness to the story unfolding in your viewfinder.
Take, for example, a family portrait session. You might be working to capture the perfect posed shot, but suddenly, one of the kids is overtaken by a fit of giggles. Naturally, you’ll want to pivot and catch those big, toothy grins and wild, waving arms. But as a parent and a storyteller, I’ll instinctively glance at Mom, too—her expression in response to her child’s laughter. Those are the authentic moments.
Those are the moments that matter. They’re the ones that, years from now, will make you pause, smile, and maybe even tear up as you reflect on how quickly life moves. It’s these moments that take your breath away.
Learn more about Wilson’s yearbook journey here.
Yearbook Hero James Costa masters middle school
Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.
Yearbook Hero James Costa moved from the Boston newsroom to the middle school classroom. Taking his skillset in graphic design and desktop publishing to yearbook production, Costa started as the yearbook adviser in November of 2023. Already months behind, he worked to collect photos, design pages, and create a visual look by himself. (Wait until you see the cover below.)
Now in his second year as a yearbook creator, he has moved from the campus’ Digital Learning Specialist to teaching five preps as a Tech Ed instructor. Combining his ten years of scaffolding instruction plus the experience of creating the book solo, Costa developed a team structure and workflow so students could help. Under Costa’s leadership, the members of Merrimack Middle School’s first-ever yearbook club are learning design, marketing, and the business of yearbooking.
There are no grades when you do a club. How do you keep students on task?
I understand certain students' strengths and try to encourage and empower them for that. They all have specific jobs. For example, I have a student editor who is detail-oriented. After a big photo dump in our Google Drive, she’ll organize all the photos into folders and delete duplicates. She has an assistant editor to help.
There’s also a yearbook club secretary, treasurer, and communications and outreach director.
Starting in January, Costa and the street team released a monthly yearbook spotlight. They tease the theme, provide ordering info, and hype custom pages.
My superlatives coordinator is in charge of all things superlatives: making the voting form, taking pictures of the winners, and designing the spread. This is the first time we’ve done superlatives.
Some students are more into design and are on the design team creating spreads. We also have a street team that checks out cameras and photographs events.
I instruct them as much as I can in a whole-group setting, and they also need a lot of one-on-one attention. We have about eight consistent kids.
That sounds incredibly organized. What tasks are currently on your team’s to-do list?
This year is inspired by music. We’re using “Wrapped” and working out how to incorporate elements such as “This or That?” (Olivia Rodrigo vs. Sabrina Carpenter, pop vs. rap). Right now, we're in the stages of just kind of building the ladder and collecting a ton of pictures.
We're just seeing how it evolves and seeing what the layouts give us. I think it's going to be much different from last year's from a design perspective, hopefully, a little cleaner. I had a lot of collages that were kind of just pictures thrown together, but I know the kids like the layouts a little bit more.
Many of us on staff are in love with the “8-Bit” book you created last year. How did you carry it out?
The funny thing about 8-Bit is that I'll show teachers, and they respond, “It's like Mario,” and the kids see it and say, “It's like Minecraft.” So you see that big division in the generations.
I started with the Treering theme backgrounds as inspiration. On each spread, you see an 8-bit avatar of a teacher. I made those with AI; it was a lot of work word-smithing the prompts to get them to look exactly like the teachers, but that was a lot of fun.
It sounds like fun is a core value of the Merrimack team.
I'm going to give the kids a big shout-out. If I have a tough week, and our yearbook meetings are Friday afternoons, I leave feeling like I had a great day.
3 questions about school anniversary yearbooks
How to capture a milestone year in your campus’ history frequently pops up in adviser chats. Yearbook Hero Beth Stacy said her team “linked the past to the present” with their 75th anniversary yearbook. That’s the goal.
1. What’s the Best Way to Show School History in an Anniversary Book?
Anniversary books don’t have to deviate from your normal yearbooking protocol. It can be minimal, such as in a 40th anniversary book, asking students where they want to be in the next 40 years. Or devoting a spread to a list of 100 things to love about your school in its 100th year (remember to include alumni). Or even showing photos of teachers on the staff page from the year the school was founded.
The ideas below take up a spread or two, so your focus can be the history currently written in the year at hand.
School Timeline
Schools commonly create a timeline outlining specific milestones and achievements. For Rock Academy in CA’s 15th anniversary, yearbook creators featured two pages of school history with old photos of current students.
The timeline included when faculty members joined, the expansion of course offerings, and photos of the first-ever graduate. Old photos had the year on the bottom right corner to denote the past from the present. They continued this trend on divider pages.
Cover the Years
When Wayne High School in OH published its 75th yearbook, the editorial team created two spreads showing the school's history through their yearbook covers. The team at Wayne worked with the alumni association, the local historical society, and the school archives to find most of the yearbooks.
Then and Now
(Side note: this would make a great anniversary yearbook theme.)
The team at H.O.P.E. in TX also took a trip to the yearbook archives. They scanned old photos from previous books to do side-by-sides with their present counterparts. They also researched the cost of goods from 30 years ago to show life off campus.
Adviser Rita Johson's team also interviewed alumni from the first graduating class and pictured previous advisers in the colophon. She said this was the first year they created a style guide; the yearbook design process evolved from more of a scrapbook to using mods. The team enjoyed exploring the school archives and found 19 yearbooks for the school's 30 years.
Pro tip: Save yourself the scanning. If you’ve been with Treering for multiple years, your yearbook covers and photos are in your yearbook account.
2. What’s a “Good” Theme?
Well-executed themes cover the school year both verbally and visually. It shows and tells. In a milestone year, like your school’s 50th anniversary, it may be tempting to try and carry this concept through the entire book. Full stop. Unless the winning point guard from the 6th grade basketball team is currently coaching his great-grandson, resist the urge to make your anniversary the yearbook theme. This year (the buyers!) will always be the primary focus.
Verbal Theme Ideas
Because yearbook creators love the look, we’re starting with the “sound” of the theme. Headlines, theme copy, and spin-offs should reflect your yearbook’s theme.
Evergreen Anniversary Theme Ideas
- Construction-focused: “Built to Last” or “Foundation for Tomorrow”
- Timeline focused: “Our Journey Here,” “Milestones Marked,” and “Then and Now”
- Younger school: “The Wonder Years”
- Older school: “Timeless”
Year-Specific Theme Ideas
- 10-20-30, etc.: “Decades of Excellence”
- 15: “Time to Shine”
- 50: “Golden Moments”
- 100: “A Century Strong”
Visual Theme Considerations
Align your theme’s aesthetic with the verbal tone. Taking a page from my junior year, the theme “Reflections” should have some mirroring in the graphics, if not some shine on the cover.
Traditional anniversary gifts—a list that dates back to the 19th century—prescribe the following:
- 10th anniversary - tin or aluminum
- 15th anniversary - crystal
- 25th anniversary - silver
- 50th anniversary - gold
You can easily add such elements to your cover finish. Bringing your “golden anniversary” to life can be as simple as adding gold foil. Treering also offers silver foil and clear UV embossing.
Inside your yearbook, you could (choose one!)
- Denote old photos by making them black and white or using a Polaroid-style frame (like HOPE did)
- Hide 20 pictures of your mascot (if it’s your 20th)
- Use blueprints or construction photos for a significant building project
3. When Should I Do an Anniversary Yearbook?
We see anniversary books for 10-100 years, and everything in between. The caveat here is that if your school is doing nothing, why would the yearbook? Align with your school community to get the final answer on this one.
Getting Personal: Treering’s 15th Anniversary Book
As Treering’s 15th year closes, we created our first-ever anniversary yearbook. Our staff took yearbook photos on the conventional blue background. As a cross-functional team, yearbook creators interviewed staff members and collected photos of people in the home office as well as remote teammates’ home offices.
Unlike a school where students promote and graduate, many staff members are in their second decade with the company, and two of the founders are involved in the day-to-day. The history section features photos of the early offices and staff, the original 44 schools, and a history of Treering-produced theme art. It is heavy on nostalgia.
We look forward to celebrating many more milestones with you.
How to build a yearbook staff manual
If I could return to year one of advising, I’d draft a staff manual. Yearbooking (yes, it’s a verb) would have been much simpler. I’m not talking about contract negotiation so much as how to deal with sports editors who cannot get a ride to a game or reporters who only interview their friends. Or the “finished” spread with “Lorem ispum dolor” still filling the caption boxes. Or how to tell a senior parent you cannot legally publish a screenshot from a mall photographer’s online proof system. Phew.
Tenets of Your Program
A tenet is a doctrine you hold to be true. The first section of your staff manual should define your non-negotiables. These could be class culture and coverage goals. They could also include specific ways your yearbook program aligns with your school’s mission. Or, you could take a different approach and schedule workdays to create your book in chunks.
It’s your call. You determine what is valuable to your community. Here's what's in mine.
Coverage is a non-negotiable because our school claims to be a “People-first” learning community. If a student is excluded from the historical record of our campus, the yearbook team undermines the mission. That said, we’ve never had 3x coverage for 100% of the 423-person student body; on average, it’s 94-96%. And because Treering’s three-week turnaround allows us to add the students who transferred in through mid-April, hardly anyone is ever a zero.
Considerations for Elementary Schools
Middle and high schools use yearbook policies to govern student roles, responsibilities, procedures, and behavior; adult teams might need to establish guidelines for
If your group is parent-led, there may be turnover. These policies will help the next adviser.
Treering Yearbook Ideas
Yearbook Team Policies
By taking time to craft some policies for your staff manual, you will also codify what your program looks like. For example, if you have a large class (or two) completing the yearbook, you will want to have procedures for group and editorial board communication, chain of command, and the like. A team of five will not.
For a smaller yearbook team, it helps to establish boundaries to prevent burnout. Use your policies to protect one another such as how you will prioritize coverage when you can’t be everywhere.
Parent groups, yearbook classes, and clubs of any size also need job descriptions (see the next section).
Organizing Your Staff Manual
Try to keep this under five pages, including the rubrics and/or checklists. Admin needs to sign off on these. Physically. That signature will go a long way when a parent or student challenges you.
Here are ten policies to include in your yearbook staff manual:
1. Confidentiality
Use this section to outline what you keep quiet and what you share pre-distribution.
2. Photos
What guides the bulk of your content?
3. Obituary Policy
This is the toughest policy to craft while grieving. I learned the hard way. A group text from the vice principal requested an emergency staff meeting before school. Two students died in an automobile accident. One was racing without a license. The other was walking home.
Momentarily putting aside the denial, anger, and bargaining, we had to decide how to honor two lives. Thus, the following became our policy:
If within press time, Warrior Yearbook will provide a ¼ page space with the following:
No additional information will be included. All student ads will feature a family-submitted photo and will have parent approval. Next of kin will provide the photo and approval for staff memorials.
Here are more examples of obituary policies.
4. Superlatives and Senior Quotes
These are two of the most controversial areas between your yearbook covers. Add relevant dates, submission guidelines, crowdsourcing avenues, etc., to your policies.
Part of your yearbook superlative policy should include:
Personal opinion: Instead of senior quotes that focus on one group on your campus, why don’t you improve your journalism by building expanded captions into your designs? This way, you have quotes on every page from every grade. Now that’s people first.
If senior quotes are a golden calf, craft a policy that outlines
- Character or word limits
- Requirements for originality
- Vetting process (yes, we will look up that timestamp)
5. Journalistic Integrity
Use this section to define how you will legally license and attribute outside content, and the role of AI in your newsroom. (Chances are, your district already has a written policy you can cite.)
This is also a great spot to explain the characteristics of reporting: it’s free of editorializing, defamation, or discriminatory content. What safeguards will you include?
6. Grading
Yearbook is the hardest “easy A” my students ever earned. (Wait for it…) Because of that misconception, include spread checklists and grading rubrics in this section so there is no question come progress report time. This is also a great area to outline your workflow and deadline schedule.
7. Style Guide
This section provides clear instructions on theme elements to ensure consistency across the yearbook. With these decisions made early on, your team can focus on what truly matters: content.
Many advisers stop there. I would push you to expand your yearbook style policy to include writing.
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8. Content Approval Process
Who approves layouts, photos, and written content, and what is the order of approval? If you have mini-deadlines for reviews and revision, include them here. Treering advisers, allow yourself time to order and review your printed proof.
There may be some overlap with your grading section, and that’s OK.
9. Camera/Equipment Checkout Procedure
This section of your yearbook policy manual should clearly outline the rules and expectations for borrowing, using, and returning yearbook equipment. Here's what you might include:
Bottom line: this should complement your district policy on technology usage.
10. Complaint Policy and Refunds
Yearbook Staff Job Descriptions
After a disastrous first year where everyone created their own editor title, an experienced adviser sat me down and said, “You need to spell it out.”
That nugget provided the missing piece to my yearbook classroom management.
If you’re a teacher, yearbook is another class. It requires scaffolding and instructional time. It’s also a business: you’re creating a project that requires financial resources. Use the job descriptions below to organize your team, create a chain of command, and align your grading expectations.
If you’re a parent volunteer working with other volunteers, use these job descriptions to provide role clarity for your team. (And if all else fails, we have a blog for that too.)
Use these as a framework to structure your team and responsibilities.
Admin Approval
Close your staff manual with an acknowledgment page: your signature and your principal’s should appear on every printout. Students and their parents should also sign it. Keep an acknowledgment page for your records.
Happy New Year from Treering
For fifteen years, you’ve trusted us to capture and print your priceless memories, and we reflect on this honor every holiday season. In addition to helping schools raise over @2.2M in the 2024 school year, we printed over 500,000 custom pages in 2022—that’s a lot of joy. Thank you for trusting us with this invaluable task. We wish you all the best this holiday season and we can’t wait to get to work in 2025.
As the Treering community surpasses 1.6M members, together we continue to grow and innovate. Because of your feedback, we added
- An onboarding team for first-year yearbook coordinators
- Bigger prizes for our annual editor and parent contests plus pop-up giveaways on Facebook and Instagram
- In-person adviser events in Florida, Illinois, and Texas
- Camp Yearbook, our first-ever two-day summer conference
- Two new webinars to the Yearbook Club lineup: custom cover design and yearbook photography
- More IRL examples of what members of the Treering Community create on our socials
- New ways to capture student memories with photo gifts
Happy holidays!
What to Expect in 2025
- Superior support as you design, market, and distribute your best book yet
- Semi-monthly training through Yearbook Club webinars
- Design contests for editors and parents
- Your memories arriving within three weeks of clicking Print Ready
- New predesigned “About Me,” “Year in Review,” and “Best of…” pages
- Weekly blog articles to provide inspiration and resources – subscribe and have them sent to your email
The one layout template you need
Yearbook coverage ideas might be our favorite topic: brainstorming ways to represent more students, resulting in a more authentic narrative of the school year. It could also mean more photos, interviews, and work for you. After a colleague shared Kingsbury Country Day School’s yearbook, a lightbulb went off. Yearbook coordinator Kara-Jane LaVoisne created the perfect layout that includes over 60 students, highlighting their impact and participation in school events.
Why We Love This Template
This spread packs a punch because it covers a large span of time in little space. It covers 24% of the school across two pages. It showcases events that would not be covered elsewhere. This template is also well-designed: it’s clean and has multiple reader entry points.
Home For Smaller Events
Oftentimes, we have several photos that don’t fit on a larger spread. This is especially common in books that do not take advantage of modular design. LaVoisne took advantage of those moments to create a means to include them.
Versatility
While LaVoisne used this template for a school-specific year-in-review, you can use it once per section or season. For example:
- Fall, winter, and spring PTA or ASB events
- An overview of the sports seasons
- Semester rundown of student life
If you’re feeling ambitious and have the content, an hour-by-hour review of a major school event such as the talent show or homecoming weekend could be a showstopper spread for your yearbook.
What’s most important: your yearbook team celebrates the people in your campus community. This layout is just one way to cover more students in your yearbook. For more creative yearbook coverage inspiration, check out:
Organic design: yearbook themes with a natural vibe
Thanks to Pantone, earth tones are at the forefront of trending colors. Organic design is being toted as the “new minimalism”—even Martha’s in on the craze. We’ve broken down how to bring the outside in… your yearbook. Using Treering’s pre-designed themes gives you a curated collection of nature-inspired graphics for your elementary or middle school yearbook.
The Power of Nature in Design
Beyond trend appeal, using natural elements in design can be a metaphor for our school communities. It’s why we see so many motivational posters featuring grandiose sights.
Additionally, nature is powerful. It positively affects our physical and mental health. It's timeless. Harnessing the power of nature in your yearbook theme requires creativity to evoke the natural world in print.
Ideas for Visual Yearbook Design
Your whole yearbook doesn’t have to be a path through the woods with milestone markers along the way. (But if it is, would you send us a copy?) Of Treering’s 200+ cover-to-cover yearbook themes, these five have the call of the wild.
Here’s why they work and how you, if you’re a DIY-er, can create a yearbook design that feels as alive as the real thing:
- Use color to capture nature’s energy (they're called plum, grass green, and seafoam for a reason)
- Add dimension by layering objects
- Emphasize elements using organic shapes and natural patterns
- Create movement with flowy or circular patterns
How to Build a Narrative Around Nature
Illustrate personal and academic growth with graphics such as the life cycle of plants or the changing seasons. Other visuals such as roots, rivers, or the stars show our interconnectedness.
Elementary Nature Theme Ideas
- In Full Bloom
- Grounded in Greatness
- Pathways of Promise
- Rooted in Growth
- Sky’s the Limit
Middle School Theme Ideas with an Organic Vibe
- Branching Out
- Forest of Dreams
- Move Mountains
- Seasons of Change
- Trailblazers
We love seeing student interpretations of these verbal themes with cover art contests. You can also involve the school community by using students’ photos of nature on dividers and theme pages.
Double your donations 2024
In honor of the season of giving, Treering will match up to five yearbook donations per school account. From Tuesday, December 3 through Tuesday, December 31, one community book donation equals one Treering book donation. Editors can reassign these books to teachers, promoting students, the principal, or students in need.
How the Donation Match Works
- Enable the Book Donation option on the dashboard
- Let your campus community know 'tis the season to share the (yearbook) love
- Re-assign the yearbooks so recipients can customize or order non-custom books to hand out
This promotion ends at 11:59 pm PST on December 31, 2024. Matched yearbooks will automatically be added to your account by January 30, 2025.
The Fine Print
- Promotion ends at 11:59 pm PST on December 31, 2024.
- Matched yearbooks will automatically be added to your account by January 30, 2025.
- Donations may not be combined with any other promotions.
- Donated yearbooks cannot exist on ship-to-home, invoiced, or PO orders. Credit card or PayPal orders only.
- Ordering donation books will not be available for After Deadline Orders.
Yearbook Hero Emily Wilson’s lessons learned and achievements earned
Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.
Uncertainty. That was the word of the year in 2020. Just two weeks before the school year began, Emily Wilson unexpectedly stepped into the role of yearbook advisor.
At the time, Charyl Stockwell Preparatory Academy (CSPA) was one of the few in the area offering both in-person and virtual classes. Like many, they faced challenges: masked students and staff, strict social distancing, limited outside visitors, and restricted volunteer involvement. These constraints forced a complete reevaluation of traditional yearbook creation methods.
To meet these challenges, the school switched to Treering, drawn by its intuitive software, online support, and the ability to crowdsource photography—a feature that became essential with reduced staff and student participation. Now, five years later, the school is producing its fifth yearbook using Treering.
How did you become the Yearbook Adviser?
Before becoming the yearbook advisor, my career focused primarily on teaching English, literature, and creative writing. Journalism and yearbook production were never areas where I expected to excel, but I always admired our previous advisor for the award-winning program she built. Her accolades still hang in our hallway, a constant reminder that there is always room to grow. Over the years, I’ve gained confidence as an advisor, building relationships with our student staff, and producing yearbooks we’re proud of. The experience has been transformative for both me and my students.
How has your involvement with your state’s journalism association impacted your skills and opportunities in the field?
In 2022, I was honored when the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) invited me to serve as a judge for their yearbook competition. It was a valuable opportunity to see what award-winning yearbooks looked like up close and personal, and it gave me insights into how our own yearbook could evolve. To my surprise, we were much closer to hitting the mark than I had anticipated. That experience gave me the courage to submit our book for critique, and we anxiously awaited feedback from MIPA.
After three long months, the results came in: we had earned a Bronze award for our 2024 yearbook, with a commendation for excellence in photography. The recognition was a testament to my students' hard work and dedication. But what stood out most to me was their reaction. Rather than getting too comfortable with their achievement, students immediately started thinking about ways to improve for next year.
One of my editors-in-chief said, “We were only 47 points away from earning a Silver Medal,” and immediately began brainstorming ways to improve. That mindset—that focus on what we can achieve next—is what makes this journey so rewarding.
Let’s talk about that critique. How did it benefit your team?
One of the most valuable aspects of submitting our yearbook for critique is the detailed feedback we receive, which helps us grow. We are focusing on a unifying concept and improving coverage.
To be more competitive, we need to create more original graphics and artwork for the yearbook rather than relying on pre-made designs. Fortunately, Treering’s platform makes this process straightforward. For instance, last year, one of our International Baccalaureate Art students designed the cover art, which we seamlessly integrated as the background for the cover.
Additionally, we learned that carrying the theme throughout the book is essential—right down to the headlines and titles. Last year’s theme was “Our Stories,” but we could have done more to tie the theme together by using idioms or expressions related to storytelling across different sections of the book.
Design consistency is one of the easiest ways to make a bigger impact. MIPA suggested that we choose one unifying style for the entire book—colors, patterns, and layouts should be consistent throughout. This allows us to maintain a cohesive aesthetic while allowing for flexibility in layout design.
While we did a solid job covering our school’s 11 non-athletic clubs and 17 athletic teams, we need to focus more on individual stories—highlighting specific student achievements and weaving in features that reflect the times, like the cost of living. We’re also working on improving our balance of academic content; as MIPA pointed out, “Not every student is in a club or plays a sport, but every student sits in a desk in class.”
What is your area of strength?
We were thrilled to receive commendations for our photography, an area where we truly excel. Our focus on candid photos and capturing moments of excitement paid off. Moving forward, we’ll continue to refine our photography skills, paying more attention to cropping, editing, and ensuring that photo credits are included on every image.
What will be your focus this year?
Writing is where we have the most room for improvement. Every photo needs a caption, and those captions should follow journalistic writing standards—using active voice, varied sentence structures, and avoiding overly descriptive language like “is running” or “is playing.”
We also need to use secondary headlines to draw readers in and provide additional context. The critique also reminded me that, as an English teacher, I’ve been teaching students to write like English students, not like journalists. This is an area where I plan to invest more time, learning more about journalism standards so we can elevate our writing to meet those expectations.
What is the role of a yearbook adviser at CSPA?
Our yearbook, “The Sentinel,” is a labor of love produced by a small but dedicated team. I advise a staff of four students. We serve a high school with approximately 320 students. Every year, we produce a 150-page yearbook that covers everything from the start of school through prom, delivering it to students during the last week of school.
Additionally, we create a 28-30 page supplemental softcover book for the senior class, which includes coverage of senior-specific events like Senior Sunrise, Senior Awards, and Graduation. This supplement also features graduation speeches and letters from teachers to the graduating class. Design-wise, it complements the theme of the main yearbook. We print the student commencement speech in this supplement.
To bring our yearbook to life, we rely on a combination of Treering’s software, Canva, and Adobe Lightroom. Our resources are modest—one laptop, one large monitor, and two Rebel cameras—but we make the most of what we have. Fundraising through Treering has helped us pay for essentials like new camera lenses, a journalism camp for our editors, and lighting equipment for portrait photography. This year, our goal is to raise enough money for a new camera and upgraded lenses to continue improving the quality of our work.
What’s next for “The Sentinel?”
As we look ahead, we’re excited to continue improving. We’re going to hang our Bronze Medal plaque on the wall as a reminder of how far we’ve come, but our eyes are already set on the next challenge. We’ll keep pushing ourselves to tell more meaningful stories, refine our writing, and produce a yearbook that our school can be proud of. Ultimately, it’s not just about winning awards but about creating something our students, staff, and community will cherish for years.
Using the "five common topics" for yearbook copy
The inverted pyramid is the go-to launch point for budding journalists. (Anyone else hear a journalism teacher’s voice: “Don’t bury the lede!”) For these emerging writers, filling each level equates to squeezing the five Ws into its ranks. This could lead to repetitive or restricted writing. The “easy” fix: asking better questions.
Integrating the five common topics with the inverted pyramid structure helps students create engaging yearbook copy because it models inquiry. They move beyond “What was your favorite…?” They create questions with analytical depth. They craft stories worth reading.
What Are the Five Common Topics?
How would the ancient Greek and Roman orators write a yearbook story? (That might as well be under “Adviser questions I’ll never ask for 1000, Alex.”) The five common topics are definition, comparison, relationship, circumstance, and testimony. The early scholars used this method of inquiry to discuss, persuade, and analyze. Developing yearbook interview questions based on the five common topics can be a structured way to gather information and insights.
Definition
The five Ws fall here: the topic of definition breaks down your subject into key components. What it is and who does it. Where it takes place. Why it’s important. When it occurs.
What is a clear definition of [the subject]?
This is extremely helpful for students when they craft copy on an unfamiliar topic. For example, most people use “bump, set, spike” somewhere on a volleyball spread. We don’t bump. We pass.
How would you characterize the key features that distinguish [the subject] from other similar concepts?
Each game, dance, movie night, and fun run is unique. So are labs, presentations, debates, and study sessions. Find out what sets this event or activity apart. By defining what it is holistically, you are also defining what it is not: just another day. (Remember, there is a reason for this story beyond an opening in your page template.)
What are the essential elements that makeup [the subject]?
Sports and arts copy can always be improved by understanding the technique. Start with your photos and ask the stakeholders to explain what they are doing step by step. Define tools, from cleat spikes to microscopes, and their use.
Back to our volleyball example: She’s aligning her feet to the setter and positioning her body so her belly button is behind the ball. Straight arms and little-to-no movement are key for her to give a high pass the setter can push to the outside hitters or run a quick hit from the middle. She starts each practice by passing 50 free balls as an offense-defense transition drill.
No bumping is involved.
Comparison
The next step is to expand upon the basics by drawing parallels or highlighting differences. Using analogies, journalism students can make complex ideas understandable. Sometimes, it helps to take the opposite approach and point out key differences.
In what ways is [the subject] similar to [another relevant entity], and how are they different?
Familiarity is comfortable. By relating new topics to known ones, you can ease your reader in.
Are there instances where lessons from [a related concept] can be applied to [the subject]?
Again, even though chemistry class repeats the gummy bear lab annually, it is not the same year after year. The same can be said about an AP class preparing their art portfolios or a Link Crew orientation.
Using the topic of comparison, student reporters have a reason to cover recurring events–they are digging into the differences.
How does the comparison to [another relevant entity] enhance our understanding of [the subject]?
Keyword: enhance. Comparison is valuable if it adds value. And before you flinch at the intended redundancy, remember new writers need to evaluate their notes as part of their process. Listing related and opposing concepts will also strengthen the topic of definition.
Relationship and Circumstance (This is a Twofer)
I’m combining topics three and four. Event sequences, cause-and-effect relationships, and the outcome of the event all have a place at the proverbial table. Understanding circumstance helps in tailoring yearbook copy to be more relevant and effective because we use it to examine the context of each story. It’s the here and now. These details help readers understand why the event is significant at this moment.
What current events or trends are influencing [the subject]?
More than the water bottle du jour, the timeliness of a yearbook story gives its place in your school’s historical record. You give campus events context by relating them to the community or even the world.
Are there specific challenges or opportunities related to [the subject] that are particularly relevant now?
In the example above, a student gave a speech. This is a daily occurrence around the globe. The author used the subject’s reported challenges and testimony (spoiler alert: that’s topic #5) to illustrate what led to the moment.
Chances are, this story wouldn’t have been printed in your mom’s yearbook. The circumstance was different.
Can you identify any cause-and-effect relationships associated with [the subject]?
Part of contextualizing your yearbook stories is adding what resulted from the story. Did the fundraiser set a new record? Athlete return for her final game of the season? AP Language class win the literary food festival? Wrap up your story.
Testimony
“Give me a quote for the yearbook.” Next to definition, testimony is the most commonly used of the five common topics. It’s the human element. Including testimonies from different sources helps balance the story, gives authority to student writing, and showcases varied perspectives.
While it’s the fifth topic, when students write, they should incorporate the questions below.
What diverse perspectives contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of [the subject]?
Scores, stats, fundraising figures, and meaningful quotes enhance credibility and give voice to yearbook copy.
How do you navigate conflicting testimony or opinions from authoritative sources regarding [the subject]?
The short answer: ask more questions. How do you find out what is true and who do you ask? (This could be more common with sporting events over bio labs.)
Testimony: Add relevant quotes from participants or spectators to illustrate.
Relationship and Circumstance: Explain what factors led to the event and how it impacted the school community.
Testimony: End the story by adding additional quotes or data to add depth and credibility.
Example Structure for the Inverted Pyramid and Five Common Topics
Let’s start with this photograph of four students on the green.
To come up with the copy, students identified:
- Names of students and their grades
- Location of photo
- What is going on
- Background on Xilam
- What aspect of Xilam is shown in the image
- Relationships between Mexican martial arts and Spanish for native speakers class
- How many languages–and which ones–are spoken on campus
This structure delivers both the essential information layered with insights. It moves beyond a listing of the 5Ws because it begins with inquiry.