Treering Blog

To mark Treering's 15th birthday, we are thrilled to announce a special promotion that offers 15 lucky individuals the chance to win unlimited* custom yearbook pages!

Promotion Period

The promotion will run from January 8-31, 2024. To be eligible, participants must purchase their yearbook before January 31, 2024. Winners will be announced via Instagram by February 7, 2024.

Official Participation Rules and Steps to Enter

1. You must be at least 18 and a parent, teacher, or student who has purchased your 2023-2024 Treering school yearbook by January 31, 2024. 
2. To participate, follow @Treeringcorp on Instagram.
3. Comment on our Instagram post with an idea on how you will fill unlimited custom pages in your Treering yearbook. 
4. For a bonus entry: Post a memory on your page with the hashtag #treeringturns15pages. Make sure this post is shared publicly so we can see it.
5. Submissions are due by 8 PM PT on January 31, 2024. 

Fifteen winners will be notified via direct message on Instagram. Custom pages will max out at 150 pages.

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FAQs

Ownership

By tagging #treeringturns15pages, you have verified the approval of others pictured, and you approve Treering to use your name, caption, and school name for any marketing purposes, including but not limited to showcasing on www.treering.com, sharing on social media, and sharing with media. 

Thanks for celebrating with us! If you have any questions, contact us at marketing@treering.com.

Prize Details: Unlimited Custom Pages

Fifteen winners will be randomly selected, each receiving the incredible prize of unlimited custom yearbook pages*. This means they can create a truly unique and personalized yearbook experience for their student.

Please note, not all schools utilize the Treering Custom Page feature. Your school must have Custom Pages enabled to participate.

*Unlimited custom pages caps out at 150.

As we continue to celebrate Treering’s 15th birthday, join the party by following Treering's social channels and subscribing to the blog for more giveaways.

Adding a spot of gold is a growing yearbook trend. And we love it! While gold is a go-to accent for a 50th-anniversary book, use it to capture the spirit of 2024. See how easy it is to build a gold-themed yearbook with these design ideas and headlines.

Free Whole-Book Looks and Yearbook Templates

You don’t have to begin with a blank book. Opting for a theme package is a time-saving alternative if crafting one from scratch seems overwhelming. These four golden packages by Treering Yearbooks below streamline the design process and are fully editable.

Gold Foil Yearbooks

Adding optional gold foil to the cover draws attention to specific elements like the school name or key theme graphics. 

These two resources will help you begin:

1. Adding foil to Treering’s art
2. Adding foil to your original design

Advice as Good as Gold

“A [Treering] theme does a lot of the graphic design work for you: it’s like giving your students fill-in-the-blank notes as opposed to having them copy them by hand,” said Yearbook Hero Lauren Casteen.

She and her team select one or two of Treering’s graphics packages and adapt them to tell the story of the year. They design layouts from scratch using the backgrounds, overlays, and other included visuals to build their style guide. Read more on Casteen’s approach to teaching design alongside using Treering here.

https://blog.treering.com/teaching-graphic-design/

More Than Just a Look

A visual theme becomes stronger when headlines connect content to create a story. Your gilded yearbook theme is more than a color scheme; it’s a clever play on the year (‘24) or a way to highlight a milestone (e.g., 50th anniversary). Here are some headlines to align your verbal and visual theme.

Headline Ideas

A gold yearbook theme needs some golden headlines. We love browsing an idiom dictionary to create a list of headlines and spinoffs. Pro tip: an idiom dictionary is a great place to start with any theme.

• Worth its Weight in Gold
• Gold Mine of Information
• Heart of Gold
• Gold Standard
• Silence is Golden
• Golden Girls
• Gold Star(s)

Punny Gold Headlines

Puns, while a particular favorite of this adviser, are best used when peppered in. Using too many becomes like white noise and runs the risk of being unfunny. (The horror!) Remember, if one person doesn’t get it, chances are, many of your readers won’t–case in point: the Ponyboy Curtis reference above.

• Au-some
• Glitter of Speech
• Gold Feet - soccer or step team
• Golden Age of the [mascot]
• Goal Diggers - volleyball
• If I Gold You That
• Thanks a Bullion

Headlines Using Synonyms

As with puns, too many Gold This and Gold That headlines diminish the luster. Brainstorm a list of synonyms to use, and then search your idiom dictionary for new nuggets.

• All that Glitters
• Rain or Shine
• Rise and Shine
• Sea to Shining Sea
• Shine On
• Shining Example
• Take a Shine to

Writing Your Own Headlines

If a curated list is too much of an easy button, and you want to teach the process, here are five steps to craft a headline.

1. Review the spread and sum up the coverage in a single sentence.
2. List five keywords from the coverage. 
3. Look up idioms and/or puns incorporating those keywords and their synomyns. Compile a list of five to ten before moving on.
4. Evaluate which headline idea achieves the goal of accuracy, clarity, and interest.
5. Revise and rewrite until the answer is “yes” for all three.

https://blog.treering.com/how-to-improve-yearbook-headlines/

To dig more into a goldmine of theme development, check out

• Treering’s Free Curriculum
• 3 (but really 7) Design Elements to up your Yearbook's Visual Appeal
• Creating a Yearbook Style Guide: Advice to Follow

Since 2009, you’ve trusted us to capture and print your priceless memories, and we reflect on this honor every holiday season. 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 2024. Happy holidays!

Some quick 2023 stats:

• School communities donated over 7000 yearbooks
• Through yearbook sales, schools raised over $2 Million
• Families customized nearly 500,000 custom pages

15 Years of Treering: It is our Birthday

Here’s what you can expect in 2024: from January through December, we will celebrate our 15th birthday with goodies for you. You are the reason Treering Yearbooks continues to grow and innovate.

Giveaways Galore in 2024

Since we can't hand out plastic goodie bags with sticky hands and noisemakers to every member of the Treering community, coffee, gift cards, custom pages, and other freebies will have to do.

Spoiler alert: Treering’s annual design contests are not going anywhere.

“Treering in the Wild”

Last year, at the PTO Today conference in Chicago, IL, an editor said she loved seeing “Treering in the wild,” and it stuck with us. In 2024, we’re leaving our home offices and Google Meets for more IRL conversations and celebrations.

New Ways to Capture and Share Memories

Personalized memories are here to stay. How families and yearbook coordinators collect and share them once again will get a shake-up at our hands. 

2024 Growth Opportunities

From new Yearbook Club webinars for yearbook coordinators and advisers to multi-day virtual events and mini-tutorials, we pledge to continue supporting you by answering your questions and simplifying the design-to-print process.

To learn more about how you can be involved in Treering’s 15th birthday celebrations,

• Engage with Treering Yearbooks on Facebook, Instagram, X, formerly known as Twitter, and TikTok
• Read the monthly editor newsletter
• Subscribe to the blog

Staff pictured

Top: Sara C. (Sales), Jordan O. (Community Advocate Team), Ali J. (Sales), Gia W. (Sales), Ed G. (Product Evangelist), Liz T. (Customer Success Manager), Dara A. (Sales), Kate H. (Sales)

Bottom: Dustin A. (Community Advocate Team), Katie P. (Customer Success Manager), Shannon H. (Sales/Social), Sandra V. (Engagement and Onboarding), Louise Kate L. (Community Advocate Team), Aisa A. (Community Advocate Team)

We're spreading some coffee cheer with a chance to win one of three "caffeine breaks" from Starbucks on Facebook and Instagram (a total of six). This giveaway is not affiliated with Meta and is limited to US followers.

Official Participation Rules and Steps to Enter

• You must be at least 18 years old to participate.  
• To participate, like the Treering giveaway posts on Facebook and Instagram and comment "coffee" between December 18-22. Incomplete entries will not be accepted.

Winner Selection

Three winners from each platform (Facebook and Instagram) will be chosen randomly from Dec 18-22. No purchase necessary. 

FAQs

Ownership

By entering, you approve Treering to use your name and/or school name for any marketing purposes, including but not limited to showcasing on www.treering.com, sharing on social media, and sharing with media. 

If you have any questions, contact the social team at marketing@treering.com.

As we look forward to Treering’s 15th birthday, join the party and follow Treering's social channels for more giveaways.

Editor requests are at the top of Treering’s to-do list, from introducing a yearbook donation option to click-and-go Heritage Covers. Last year’s Glow Up kicked off this design enhancement. Bottom line: your story evolves, so why shouldn’t your yearbook software?

Two Words: Grouping and Locking

Yearbook editors requested these design tools because they facilitate editing ease, consistency in design, and layer management. 

Grouping Feature

By grouping related elements on your spread, it’s easier to edit or modify them collectively. This helps when working on modules or spreads with numerous design elements or layers. A click simplifies the design process and enhances overall efficiency.

Lock Feature

Locking page elements prevents unnecessary edits, especially when working with layers. This feature locks and unlocks theme art, photographs, and text boxes.

When collaborating with others on yearbook design, these features are valuable because they help maintain consistency while giving you increased control over the editing process.

More Space to Create

The most noticeable change is in the yearbook builder: new menus “provide more horizontal space” (that’s user interface speak for Chromebook-friendly).

This includes:

• Moving the navigation and most common editing tools to the top toolbars
• Using the left panel for less-used design features (think glow and drop-shadows)
• Introducing “fit to screen” as a zoom option
• Placing the page switcher, help buttons, notes, and editors in the bottom toolbar

And unless you change the settings, the page builder automatically adjusts so your canvas is always visible.

“How Do I Get Rid of the Red Lines?”

Use the new page warning tray to manage duplicate images, low-resolution images, margin warnings, and spelling errors. If it's irrelevant ("Why, yes, I do want that bleed"), hit ignore and move on.

Your Account

The dashboard continues to be your control center: edit deadlines, cover finishes, and page count with a click. Two updates give you more power.

Dashboard

Your Editor Checklist is now a Quick Links bar: stay on track and get help ITM by watching videos or using our editor guides. Yearbook pro? Minimize the list and get to work.

Switching Between Roles

The top navigation bar also gives parents who double as editors a centralized access point for all their school associations.

• Profile switcher allows an easy switch between editor and parent account
• School switcher helps editors move between multiple campuses or organizations

New Look, Same Treering

By changing out our green, your book will dominate the look of the new interface. This school-first design reminds us that Treering is in the memory-making business because of you. 

Happy yearbooking!

In honor of the season of giving, Treering will match up to five yearbook donations per school account. From Tuesday, November 28 through Sunday, 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

1. Enable the Book Donation option on the dashboard
2. Let your campus community know 'tis the season to share the (yearbook) love
3. 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, 2023. Matched yearbooks will automatically be added to your account by January 30, 2024.

The Fine Print

• Promotion ends at 11:59 pm PST on December 31, 2023.
• Matched yearbooks will automatically be added to your account by January 30, 2024.
• 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.

‘Tis the season to show appreciation. A quick internet search nails myriad resources outlining how regularly expressing thanks can positively impact one's mental health and overall well-being. That’s why we created the yearbook thank you shortlist. 

Below are ten people to thank who may have made a significant impact on the yearbook students' productivity:

1. Custodial and maintenance team: Appreciate the custodial and maintenance team for their hard work maintaining a clean and functional school space, which creates a conducive environment for creativity and collaboration. 

2. Administrative staff: Extend thanks to the administrative staff for their behind-the-scenes efforts in answering all the, “Did I buy a yearbook?” calls while serving as a veritable who’s who for campus activities. Seriously, every campus has that one seasoned staff member who knows all the kids' names and helps you proof the yearbook, and chances are she’s running point in the front office.

3. Teachers: Thank teachers and instructors who opened their doors for yearbook interviews and shared photos of their classroom happenings. They’re the yearbook heroes who pitch their upcoming projects and presentations as photo opportunities, and they use the Treering App to upload great pictures from their field trips.

4. School librarians and media specialists: Thank the school librarian for their assistance in research, providing valuable resources, and supporting the yearbook team in gathering information and materials, including tech tools.

5. Principal and assistant principals: Express gratitude to the admin team for their leadership, support, and commitment to fostering an environment where creative projects like the yearbook can thrive. (Bonus points if the principal and/or AP also ensure the yearbook photographers get good angles for snapping action shots during fun school events.)

6. Cafeteria staff: Thank the cafeteria staff for their role in keeping students well-nourished and providing energy and sustenance during busy yearbook project periods.

7. Parents and guardians: Extend thanks to those who bought their book by the deadline for supporting history-in-the-making with the yearbook, that mom with the nice DSLR camera who is at all the events taking great pictures, and the parents who added 30 extra custom pages making their childrens’ books double the size!

8. Anyone who responded to a crowdsourcing request: Express thanks to the contributors for their valuable insights, diverse perspectives, and the depth they brought to the yearbook.

9. Student body: Express thanks to the entire student body for their active participation, cooperation, and enthusiasm, making the yearbook a true representation of the collective experiences and memories of the school year. (We’re talking to you, middle schooler, who think it so "cringy" when your mom is on campus taking pictures for the yearbook that you won’t even wave at her. You’ll thank us later.)

10. Yearbook publisher: Acknowledge the service, printing, and production teams for their hard work in bringing digital designs to life, ensuring your school’s yearbooks are of the highest quality.

To demonstrate gratitude, your yearbook team can write a card, decorate a gratitude wall in the hallway, or sponsor a lunch or coffee hour.

Raise your hand if you've made a mistake in the yearbook. Yup. The editing process for our small (read: five members) yearbook team transformed when we goofed up the spring sports section. Who noticed page numbers missing from the softball page? Softball players. Do you know who didn’t notice? Everyone else on campus. Regardless, that was the proverbial wake-up call this adviser needed to create a spread checklist to accompany the editing process. The flexible framework and quality assurance that came with its implementation simplified spread creation and elevated the theme elements.

List of Things to Include

If your goal is cohesive design and layout, include a copy of your style guide in your checklist.

Yearbook Style Guide Ideas

• Font size and weight: heading, subheading, caption, body copy, portraits, rosters, pull quotes, group photos, folio/page numbers
• Text alignment rules
• Color palette
• Theme graphics: size, use case
• Photographs: borders, size, shape, alignment, spacing, rules on hand gestures and photobombs
• Banned words: favorite, family, this year, come together (these aren’t industry standard, rather my list of campus-specific cliches I’d rather not see again)

Pro tip: Set up photo and text styles in your yearbook editing program.

When Do You Need a Yearbook Spread Checklist?

The quick answer: any time a spread is in progress.

Yearbook checklists provide a foundation, ensuring that students cover all essential elements of a spread—from images and captions to layout and design. There are no surprises. The checklist can alleviate surprises and questions such as, "What size are headlines again?"

At a minimum, spread checklists should accompany PDF proofs because we all do our best proofing after the book goes to print. 

Using Yearbook Checklists in Peer Editing

The checklist becomes an educational resource in itself. It is a tool for quality control, enabling students to cross-check their work against established criteria. This fosters a culture of accountability and attention to detail.

As students engage with it, they absorb design principles and begin to internalize design standards as they learn what works aesthetically. This learning opportunity extends beyond the checklist and contributes to the overall growth of emerging designers. (According to the folks at Cornell, peer editing increases student output.)

A Checklist is not a Rubric

In the educational realm, checklists and rubrics are like the Rocket Raccoon and Groot of assessment. Think of a checklist as your friendly to-do list; it's straightforward and lists criteria that need to be met. Using the cycle above, it’s a coaching tool that moves yearbook spread designers from blank page (scary) to complete and tells the story of the year (goal). On the flip side, rubrics break down criteria into levels, providing a nuanced understanding of performance.

In yearbook class, the spread checklist emerges as a non-negotiable tool for success. From providing structural guidance to serving as a quality control mechanism, its benefits extend to both students and advisers. For new advisers, it acts as a compass, while returning advisers find it a means to ensure consistency and embrace innovation.

Official Participation Rules and Steps to Enter

1. You must be a current yearbook editor (23-24 school year) at a Treering school to participate. 
2. To participate, fill out the submission form and include an image/screenshot of your favorite 23-24 yearbook (the current school year) memory so far. Be sure to include your school name and address (city and state only are fine). Incomplete entries will not be accepted.
3. Submissions are due by Wednesday, November 15th, 2023 by 8 PM PT. 

One winner will be announced at 11 AM PT on Thursday, November 16th, 11 AM PT on Friday, November 18th, and 11 AM PT on Monday, November 20th on the Treering Facebook page. Each of the three winners will be chosen at random. 

Prizes

The three winners will receive a gift card to Honey Baked Ham for the amount of $200. 

Ownership

By submitting your photo/image, you have verified the approval of others pictured,  and you approve Treering to use your name and school name for any marketing purposes, including but not limited to showcasing on www.treering.com, sharing on social media, and sharing with media. 

Thanks for being you.  If you have any questions, contact us at marketing@treering.com.

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

Financial constraints in college led Yearbook Hero Justin Warren to a warehouse job where he unexpectedly began a career pathway in a print shop, eventually becoming the operations manager. Rooted in his love of learning, his passion for innovation, and challenging industry standards, he moved from the print floor to directing Treering Yearbooks’ domestic, coast-to-coast print network. Early this year, Justin worked with cross-functional teams to introduce tactile elements through the Treering Heritage Collection. 

How do you respond when people tell you print is obsolete?

I’ve been told that my whole career. Something physical in someone’s hand is so valuable, even though it may sit on a shelf for a bit. It’s so much easier to pull it off the shelf to relive the memories in a beautiful, full-color book than it is to dig through your phone and find a photo you think you took seven years ago.

It’s morphed, definitely, and that’s the great thing about Treering: we’re innovators. We anticipate what the future brings while maintaining that physical connection to our memories.

Speaking of physical connection, what inspired the development of studio-designed, textured yearbook covers?

Touch is a huge component of child development. You remember something you can touch. 

One of my biggest “brings” to the company was to bring a more tactile element to our printed yearbooks. It really does bring a new dynamic. Texture has always done super well in print and is difficult to implement. I said, "We're doing this," and collaborated with our print network to create a thick, glossy polymer that extends to the end of the cover and the spine, of which we are proud. The Heritage Collection showcases the possibilities that we have in front of us. All it takes is great development and some research before we execute.

People ask all the time how we manage to have a three-week turnaround. What makes it possible?

It takes a lot of strategy. It takes a lot of preparation. It takes a lot of commitment in order to turn a digital file into a printed file, and it really comes down efficiencies. Being digital, we reduce waste and errors. If there is a problem, we can catch it immediately. We don’t have to remake or rehang plates to do a full run.

We're not going to store any inventory or print extras. Print on demand allows us to personalize and print your custom yearbook as the order comes in. That takes time. Real people look at the yearbooks (it’s not all automated) to check for quality.

Our printing network is coast-to-coast, so we are geographically positioned to service our schools with shorter transit times and increased flexibility. We are striving to be both eco-friendly and economically friendly to pass on savings to schools.

What other innovations set Treering apart?

Personalization, it’s what our thing is. Personalizations changed the world. When I first heard about it, frankly wasn't sure how, on the production side, I was going to produce it. It brought challenges and through discussions and brainstorming, we came up with a product that we can then continue to enhance. 

Portrait autoflow is another. Treering utilizes technology to solve an old school problem and be able to bring our little twist to it. Without revealing too much, this is just the beginning.

Rumor has it, that you’re also a master brewer.

My dad and I own it together. We both have full-time careers, but after work, we do sales calls and on the weekends we brew beer. No advertising. It's just literally dad and I all the way from ops to janitor. We have 30 recipes that we rotate we keep five or six going year-round. Living in the Pacific Northwest, IPAs really are the huge driver: really bitter, really floral. Those are the king of beers over here. So we have quite a few of those. We just pick and choose what we're feeling and what our customers want. I mean it's a wonderful experience and it's taught me a lot about smaller companies because I've lived in the corporate world for so long that I get to see the smaller craft of a business. It keeps me out of trouble.

Yearbook captions provide the context and information to help tell the story behind each photo. They explain what's happening, who is in the picture, and why it's significant. Without captions, many images may lose their meaning or context. Conversely, it is not a storytelling photo if you cannot write about it.

Try this: open your middle school yearbook and try to name all the people on page 24. Can you do it without looking at the captions?

Three Types of Yearbook Captions

Ident Captions

Also, called ID captions, they do just that: identify who is in the photograph. Often used in photo collages, ident captions preserve the names of individuals for posterity and historical record. At a basic level, knowing the names of the individuals can make the yearbook content more personal and relatable, and, from a student’s point of view, their name equates to their mark on your campus community.

Summary Captions

These captions tell a brief story or narrative related to the photo. They engage the reader by presenting the photo as part of a larger, unfolding story by answering who, what, when, why, where, and how in a sentence. Summary captions are always written in the present tense.

Start by being Captain Obvious and use the why and how to give readers more information.

Expanded Captions

Writing an expanded caption for a yearbook involves providing more context and detail about the photo. It’s journalism. It requires practice. It’s a skill. Each expanded caption is a three-sentence story that adds depth to your spread and supports the whole year’s narrative.

Expanded captions have three parts, four if your yearbook has a lede.

1. Answer the 5Ws and H (present tense)
2. Add context you cannot readily see (past tense)
3. Include a direct quote from the subject (attributed by said)

How Do I Write Expanded Captions?

Because writing is a process, each of the following steps takes time and attention to be effective.

Step 1: Observe and Analyze the Photograph

Identify key elements, people, objects, and actions using who, what, when, why, where, and how. Be sure to consider the emotions, expressions, and details within the foreground and background of the image. 

Verify names and activities before moving to the second step.

Step 2: Prepare Interview Questions

Use open-ended questions to gather more information, opinions, and insights from individuals. Find out what happened before and after the photograph and the relationships between the people in the image. Remember, it’s better to have to cut down content than scramble to fill space.

The goal of your interview is to provide additional context and meaning. Showing up and saying, “Give me a quote for the yearbook,” isn’t going to achieve that.

Step 3: Put it all Together

1. Write a detailed summary caption in present tense. 
2. Using your interview notes, create a second sentence that goes beyond the obvious. Write this in past tense.
3. Add a quote that further details the story or expresses emotion. Keep your strong verbs relegated to your caption: attributed your quote with x said.
4. Tie it back to your theme or the spread topic with your lede.

What Not to Do

Avoid editorializing and jokes. It’s not your job to critique what is happening (Romero’s awesome painting) or change the narrative (Is that Bob Ross? No, it’s Ezekiel Romero). Your job is to report. Quotes should be used to convey the feelings or reactions of the people involved.

https://blog.treering.com/free-yearbook-curriculum/

By adding captions—ident, summary, or expanded—you not only describe the photo, but also provide a deeper understanding of the moment and its significance, making your yearbook more engaging and informative.

Modular design for yearbooks is an approach to layout and design that emphasizes flexibility (just like your favorite yearbook company) and ease of content organization. Small, self-contained modules include photos, copy, and other theme content. With multiple reader entry points, a modular layout contains three or more, each telling a different story.

Learn the difference between traditional and modular design.

Four Modular Layout Ideas

Because modular design has many interpretations and applications, we pulled together four different looks.

Idea 1: Let Your Story Be Your Guide

This spread covers the middle school schedule, media program, study habits, and electives in six modules. There is a large amount of copy beyond the feature story and a quote "sidebar" running down the middle of the spread.

Idea 2: Give the Whole Picture

This varied collection of mods includes a quote package, personality profile, election results, and event coverage. In a chronological yearbook, such as this, modular layouts help organize myriad stories on a single spread.

Idea 3: Start Small

Not only did the six polls reveal more about the faculty, but the yearbook editors added quotes and cutouts to teach us more. Adding a mod to the people or reference section is one way to add voices to an otherwise flat section.

Idea 4: Drag and Drop

Low on copy, high on images, this sample spread with four modules provides ample space to detail aspects of art creation. As-is, this layout is available with the others in the Maximalist theme under layout and design for Treering Yearbooks editors. Other modular themes include Tropical Chronicles and Tied Together.

Layout Tools and Tips

Treering Yearbooks' built-in tools to help you create your own layouts and modify ours in a few clicks.

Treering design school in under 18 minutes.

Pros and Cons of Mods

While modular design increases coverage opportunities, it takes more planning from your editorial team. 

Pro: Coverage

Devoting a spread to one topic limits the coverage to one group. Opening up a sidebar or two increases your possibilities to tell more of the year. 

https://blog.treering.com/evergreen-content-yearbook/

Pro: Collaboration

On larger teams, modular design facilitates collaboration among a team of yearbook contributors. Section editors can distribute interview and photography assignments by topic.

A quick note for advisers: assigning module topics is also a way to combat the “I have nothing to do” line that tends to get tossed around the newsroom. 

Pro: Consistency

Recurring modules maintain a consistent look and feel throughout the yearbook, which strengthens the theme and overall design.

Con: Planning

Frankly, some content may not neatly fit into modular structures. It’s fetch. And if not managed carefully, modular design may lead to overusing the same design elements. There’s a fine line between consistency and monotony.

Yearbook Module Ideas

The most popular yearbook mods tend to be sidebars with a question-and-answer format. If you want to add something new to your yearbook layouts this year, this is one way to increase coverage and develop open-ended questions. 

Consider building in these additional modules:

• This or that: fashion, fandoms
• Matching: teachers with their first jobs, the shoe to the sport
• How-tos/step-by-step: prep for an inside and outside pirouette, outline a DBQ essay
• Flat lays: teachers’ desks, backpacks
• Essential gear: art kit, robotics team
• Timelines: getting ready for a school dance, fundraiser from start to finish
• Lists: five ways to welcome new students, 10 reasons people auditioned for the spring musical

This blog is adapted from Liz Thompson’s Design 201 session from TRL 23: Start Here. Thompson, a former high school yearbook adviser, serves as a customer success manager with Treering Yearbooks.