Treering Blog

For sixteen years, you’ve trusted Treering to capture and print your school’s memories, and every December, we pause to reflect on what a privilege that truly is. What started as a simple idea (that yearbooks should be easier, more affordable, and more personal) has now grown into a movement powered by editors, teachers, parents, and students who care deeply about preserving their school stories.

This year, that movement reached new heights.

‍

In 2025, Treering helped schools raise $2.9 million, printed our 10 millionth yearbook, and earned a place on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies. But behind every milestone is a more meaningful truth: editors and advisers across the country continue to create smarter, stronger, more student-centered yearbooks. We’re honored to support them every step of the way.

Below is a look back at the innovations, stories, and community moments that shaped Treering’s 16th year plus a peek into what’s coming next.

A creative community that keeps growing (and inspiring us) 

Each year, the Treering community grows not only in size but in creativity and confidence. In 2025, our community passed 12 million members, representing schools in Australia, Canada, and the US. Behind every login is someone with a vision: the first-year adviser walking into a new school year, the senior editor rallying a team of ninth graders, the parent volunteer learning design terms for the very first time.

Helping schools raise a remarkable $2.9 million

Fundraising continues to be one of the biggest stress points for schools, and Treering schools love receiving a yearbook check instead of a yearbook bill. By choosing their fundraising amount and adding it to the total cost of the book, schools raised $2.9 million in 2025.

Instead of paying a yearbook invoice, schools are putting real dollars back into their budgets, funding what matters most: field trips, clubs, student journalism programs, arts initiatives, athletic equipment, spirit events, classroom resources, and yearbooks for students in need.

A major milestone: Treering’s 10 millionth book

Some milestones call for a moment of awe — and this was one of them.

This winter, we printed Treering’s 10 millionth yearbook. That number represents millions of stories, academic achievements, halftime huddles, first days of school, senior dedications, hallway friendships, and portraits of students who will one day show the book to their own kids.

For us, it also represents innovation: we’re one of the only companies able to produce fully custom books, with custom pages for every student, in under three weeks. When every book is uniquely theirs, yearbooks celebrate students in a way that is meaningful for them.

How we supported editors this year

If we had to choose a theme for 2025, it would be editor empowerment. Every enhancement we built this year was designed to support the people who power the book, especially advisers and student editors who juggle deadlines, clubs, homework, coverage gaps, and the joyful yet chaotic reality of school life.

Your feedback, questions, wish lists, and creativity drive every improvement we make.

1. Faster, smoother, more confident onboarding

This year, we expanded the Treering onboarding experience. Whether you were learning the platform for the first time or returning after a few years away, Welcome Walkthrough calls with the Community Advocate Team and communications from L1FT helped create a clear roadmap for setting up the book, customizing pages, inviting editors, collecting photos, and aligning your timeline.

Many schools reported that this shifted their entire experience, turning what once felt intimidating into a confident first step.

2. A bigger, better year of contests

We heard your requests for contests that spotlight page design talent and also inspire creativity during key moments of the production cycle.

This year, Treering contests included:

• Inaugural cover contest
• Instagram photo contests
• Parent and editor design contests
• Seasonal challenges that aligned with design checkpoints via pop-up giveaways on Instagram and Facebook

3. Camp Yearbook: our annual two-day summer conference

Camp Yearbook launched in 2024 as a way to help advisers and editors start strong before school even started. Schools joined us for two days of themed workshops, live design sessions, team-building exercises, and planning challenges.

It quickly became one of our highest-rated programs of the year, and many schools left with their theme locked, their ladder built, and their editors trained before the first bell rang.

4. Updated yearbook curriculum

A team of former classroom teacher-slash-yearbook advisers and a group of current yearbook advisers completed a complete overhaul of Treering’s free yearbook curriculum. The updated curriculum is now grab-and-go. Instead of long, one-size-fits-all sessions that advisers have to divide and support, lessons are now broken into focused segments that can be taught in short class periods, advisory blocks, club meetings, or asynchronous settings.

Each module now includes five lessons with

• A clear objective based on Common Core and/or CTE Career Ready standards
• Bite-sized instruction that fits real bell schedules
• Bell ringers, student-facing slides, activities, and exit tickets
• Practical examples pulled directly from real Treering schools’ books
• Action steps students can apply immediately to their pages

This structure made it easier for advisers to meet students where they are, whether they’re first-time editors learning the basics or experienced leaders ready to push design and storytelling further.

5. More real-life examples shown across our socials

Editors asked for clearer examples of real pages created by real schools. This year, we overhauled our social strategy to prioritize:

• Regular showcases of elementary, middle, and high school spreads and cover ideas
• Behind-the-scenes process videos
• How to use Treering’s complete themes
• “Fix this spread” mini-tutorials on TikTok
• Real portraits and coverage examples to inspire editors
• Creating a private Facebook group for advisers to support and inspire one another

This shift helped new advisers see what’s possible. It also helped experienced teams level up their work.

Looking ahead: what to expect in 2026

As we enter year seventeen, we’re more committed than ever to supporting editors with tools, training, and community spaces that make yearbook creation easier:

Superior support as you design, market, and distribute your best yearbook yet

• Clear how-to guides for marketing your book
• Expanded training calendars
• New resources for student leadership teams and editing workflows

Yearbook Club workshops

Our virtual Yearbook Club is expanding to twice-monthly sessions, including:

• Design labs
• Editor leadership coaching
• Photo submission strategies
• Theme development deep dives
• Marketing walkthroughs
• Distribution planning in real time

Print ready to delivery: still three weeks or less

We remain committed to fast, predictable, high-quality printing. 

Templates editors have asked for

Yearbook advisers met with the design team for three focus groups to evaluate this year’s crop of themes and predict design trends for 25-26. Based on early feedback, to support schools that want clean, easy, plug-and-go options, we are releasing ten theme packages in fall.

Treering theme packages will continue to be complete, coordinated yearbook design systems with a customizable cover, matching interior layouts, 100+ coordinating graphics, and a curated color palette. They’re designed to make yearbooking easier and faster.

Thank you for an amazing year

Thank you for another year of creativity, passion, and partnership. Whether you built your first book this year or your eleventh, whether you’re a student editor, a parent volunteer, a journalism adviser, or a school leader, your work matters, and we’re honored to support it.

Sixteen years in, and every new year feels like the most meaningful one yet. The number of books we’ve printed, the awards we’ve received, the millions raised matter. What matters most is the trust you place in us to help you preserve the moments that shape your school communities.

We wish you joy, rest, and inspiration this holiday season. We cannot wait to create with you in 2026.

This is the time we often find ourselves reflecting on moments or trends that defined the year: countdowns dominate TV and radio, your Insta feed is filled with top nine collages, and influencers hype up-and-coming trends. Because the yearbook has the potential to be a campus influencer, below are just a couple of things to consider documenting in yours so students can look back and reminisce. It's easy to add trends and events that defined the year in the definitive archive of academia: your yearbook.

Current events

Add a trend timeline or spread so students can remember historic events, recall how most students chose to tuck in their t-shirts, or laugh at the social media craze during that time.

When it comes to including historic events to include in your school’s yearbook, it can be overwhelming about which ones to choose. When considering a year-defining moment, consider the impact it had on your local student body.

Natural disasters are also worth including in your year-end coverage. However, editors must do so while also keeping the sensitivity of the issue in mind. Did your school set up a donation drive to help victims of a tornado or hurricane that devastated another area of the country? Was your campus directly impacted?

Finding a local angle is a technique journalists often use when deciding how they plan to cover a specific event and it’s a tool yearbook editors can use as well. After all, you are a journalist who is documenting each school year!

Fashion trends

Historic moments aren’t the only element that defines a school year. Fashion is another key component that can help illustrate a certain time period as many students use this as an outlet to express themselves. To help determine the latest trends, a great first step is turning to Pinterest or Instagram. From there, have your yearbook staff find students who emulate some of those fads.

You could also assign an Outfit of the Day (#OOTD) photographer to capture students walking into school. Then, in your yearbook, you could feature seasonal styles. (Parents also love to submit these photos, so ask away!)

If you do a more traditional fashion spread, be sure to include:

• Mom jeans
• Chunky soled shoes, especially Dr. Martens
• White shoes
• Athletic gear
• Graphic Ts
• The return of the mullet
• Bucket hats (which we hear will be "out" come summer)
• Over-sized sweaters
• 90s style: neon, flannel, wide-legged pants
• Friendship bracelets

Social media trends

In addition to fashion, you can also consider incorporating social media trends that were popular over the past school year. Who knew TikTok would take off like it did? Remember when customizing your background and picking out songs for your MySpace page was all the rage? We do! Be sure to include some of the dances, trends, or popular songs students may be using on their own TikTok pages.

Students will love looking back at these memories 10 years from now, and their kids will love it even more!

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 Oopportunities

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)

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 Oopportunities

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)

Since 2009, 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 nearly $2 million in the 2022 school year, we printed over 600,000 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 2023. Happy holidays!

What to expect in 2023

• Semi-monthly training through Yearbook Club
• 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
• Superior support as you design, market, and distribute your best book yet
• Weekly blog articles to provide inspiration and resources – subscribe and have them sent to your email

Staff pictured

Top: Chrissy K. (Customer Success Manager), Jason S. (Customer Success Manager), Jen C. (Customer Success Manager), Niri B. (Customer Success Manager), Brian M. (Director of Engineering) with Titan

Bottom: Melizza T. (Community Advocate Team Supervisor), Codey V. (Community Advocate Team – Quality Assurance), Daneesha B. (Community Advocate Team), Ramona E. (Community Advocate Team), Robelyn O. (Community Advocate Team)

Since 2009, 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 nearly $2 million in the 2022 school year, we printed over 600,000 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 2023. Happy holidays!

What to expect in 2023

• Semi-monthly training through Yearbook Club
• 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
• Superior support as you design, market, and distribute your best book yet
• Weekly blog articles to provide inspiration and resources – subscribe and have them sent to your email

Staff pictured

Top: Chrissy K. (Customer Success Manager), Jason S. (Customer Success Manager), Jen C. (Customer Success Manager), Niri B. (Customer Success Manager), Brian M. (Director of Engineering) with Titan

Bottom: Melizza T. (Community Advocate Team Supervisor), Codey V. (Community Advocate Team – Quality Assurance), Daneesha B. (Community Advocate Team), Ramona E. (Community Advocate Team), Robelyn O. (Community Advocate Team)

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:

1. Fall, winter, and spring PTA or ASB events
2. An overview of the sports seasons
3. 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:

• Collage Page Ideas
• Six Ideas to Fill Pages
• 3 Content Ideas for Portrait Pages

Parents, your 2025 memories deserve the spotlight! Share your funniest, proudest, or sweetest moment and tag @TreeringCorp and use #Treering2025Memories for a chance to win something for you.

Three winners will take home a one spa day, treat box, or a week of coffee on us. Your memory might be featured on our page!

Eligibility

• U.S. parents or legal guardians, 18+
• No purchase necessary

Treering Memories contest entry period

• Starts Monday, December 15, 2025, at 8:00 AM PT
• Ends Thursday, December 18, 2025, at 11:59 PM PT

Steps to enter

1. Follow @TreeringCorp on Instagram
2. Share a funny, proud, or sweet memory from 2025 on your Feed or Story (must be a public profile to be visible)
3. Tag @TreeringCorp
4. Use #Treering2025Memories

Winner selection and notification

Treering's social team will select the winners based on creativity and originality. Winners will be announced on Instagram during contest week.

Prizes

Three winners total will receive one of the following:

• Spa / self-care gift card
• Delivered treat box
• Coffee for the week

Release

By sharing your photo, you have verified the approval of the original photographer and anyone pictured, and you approve Treering to use your name, write-up, and school name for any marketing purposes, including but not limited to treering.com, social media, and mass media.

Additional information

• Content must be appropriate for all audiences

Contest not sponsored by Instagram

One of the top questions we see in yearbook adviser and yearbook coordinator Facebook groups involves yearbook gear such as cameras and organizational supplies. Using a combination of funds from budget money, yearbook fundraiser proceeds, or a grant, you can build a media room that achieves your goals.

This list is not meant to be comprehensive, rather a smattering of options. Tailor your shopping list to match your program’s goals as well as your population. Do you really want your elementary yearbook club students passing around a $2000 camera? Conversely, should your competitive high school team aim for a Pacemaker with just point and shoot cameras?

Cameras

Camera bodies

The camera body, or box, is where half the magic happens: the shutter release, mirror, viewfinder, and controls live on the box on a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera; see mirrorless camera below if your head is going to explode. Your yearbook photographers will control the settings here.

Purchasing a camera kit from a big box store or online may seem like a great deal. The lenses that accompany those kits usually aren’t “fast” enough to take photographs in the gym or an auditorium when the light tends to be tricky.

A used camera kit from a resale website is always an option for schools looking to buy yearbook equipment with limited funds. Save the money for a fabulous lens that will help you get the sharp images you want. Most bodies built in the last 5-10 years will have the ISO, autofocus, and shutter speed capabilities you need, even for those frustrating low-light gym photographs.

Some great beginning boxes are:

• Canon Rebel
• Nikon D3500

Mirrorless cameras

Being lighter, and a potentially less expensive investment, mirrorless cameras are slowly replacing some DSLRs in yearbook classrooms. Mirrorless cameras will help emerging photographers because there isn’t as much gear to tote and they can look less intimidating.

Highly recommended mirrorless cameras:

• Canon R6
• Nikon Z6

Lenses

In many cases, investing in a lens aka glass will be more critical than a body. If all your school’s sports are outside, then the lenses that come in your kit will be perfect. If you photograph volleyball and basketball in a gym or musicals in a dark auditorium, then you are going to want a lens that can use the full ISO, aperture, and shutter speed range of your box. When buying any lens, make sure it marries your box. There are some off-brand lens brands such as Sigma and Tokina that are less expensive than their Canon and Nikon counterparts.

Two lenses to have

• 35-70mm f/2.8
• 50mm f/1.8 (more on the nifty fifty below)

Nifty fifty

If you add anything to your cart this year, make it a 50mm lens. The depth of field and low-light capabilities you have are what the young people deem clut

Lens cleaning essentials

Each camera bag in your yearbook program should contain a camel hair cleaning brush.

Pro tip: A pencil eraser is a great tool to keep in each camera bag to clean the battery connectors.

Photography essentials

Lens filter

These aren’t the photo-destroying filters your social apps provide, but screw-on glass filters for camera lenses. Use this circular filter for cutting glare and reducing light specifically with outdoor photos. Before setting out on a yearbook assignment with a polarized filter, take some time to play with it. Because it increases color saturation and cuts bright spots, it takes some time to learn.

Reflector

Reflectors, next to the nifty fifty, are one of the best, inexpensive photography items your yearbook program can use. They help you control light for outside portraits (think of fun ways you can take those pull quote pics up a notch) and also maximize limited lighting when doing studio shoots. A fun, and less traditional way to use a reflector is as a background.

Ring light

With mini ring lights being a cell phone staple in the early stages of influencers, pros have used the big ones for years. Ring lights surround your subject and eliminate most shadows over which three-point lighting enthusiasts geek out. (If you play around with your ring light and reflector, you can simulate the three-point look!) They make eyes pop. 

The best ring lights are at least 18”, and they come with both warm and cool light settings as well as a dimmer. Some tripods also have cell phone and tablet holders in addition to the traditional quick-release plate.

Studio kit

Studio kits look impressive, but are they essential yearbook gear? Here’s how we’ve seen Treering advisers use studio kits:

1. Class favorites, superlatives, or standouts
2. Photo illustrations
3. Pull quote portraits
4. Retakes when your pro photographer won’t come back for a third (or fourth) shoot
5. Setting up a photo booth at dances and school-wide events for a fundraiser

Many of the kits you can buy pre-packaged online will suffice for your yearbook program. Soft boxes vs. flashes are something to consider when looking at the rest of your gear.

Memory cards and card readers

Memory cards are temporary storage. They are temporary storage. Memory cards are not permanent storage. Phew! PSA over.

WiFi SD cards are game changers for busy yearbook staffs: they transfer files from your camera to the predetermined storage space without cables and card readers. Some cards even have an app so you can review photos on the spot. These make for effective teaching moments.

If you don’t have the budget or tech capacity, for something like wifi cards, it is nevertheless imperative to buy at least two memory cards per camera bag. Make sure you have a card reader in each bag as well as a card reader on each computer in the yearbook or media room.

Additional Yearbook Gear

• Rain Sleeves: keep your camera dry during outdoor events, such as soccer matches, in inclement weather
• Cell Phone Lenses: clip-on lenses run less than $30 and can add wide-angle, omnidirectional (aka 360), or fish eye capability to most smartphones. We love these for fun runs, homecoming rallies, and school carnivals.

Yearbook/media room

Yearbook gear is not limited to photography equipment. In fact, providing environmental tools is as essential as camera gear.

Cubbies and mailboxes

Magazine holders from the dollar store or cast-offs from the front office make great boxes for your students. Use them to send out important communications, such as emails from teachers regarding upcoming classroom events or new SD cards. Students can also use them for gift exchanges, camera check out, and peer edits.

Notepads

Doodling, brainstorming, and note-taking on paper are healthy parts of the creative process. In the early planning days, practice both digital and paper-based workflows so your team can decide which works best for them.

Mini fridge and snack subscription

An exclusive yearbook fridge in the corner of your classroom becomes a perk of the position. Waters, juices, and the occasional box of popsicles serve dual purposes: appreciation and fuel. Involve parents in keeping it stocked: at back-to-school night, start a signup sheet for yearbook parents to supply your students with snacks each month. Parents may even opt to share the cost of a snack subscription service.

Coffee maker

This is as much for you, Yearbook Adviser, as it is for your team. (And if you’re getting exasperated with us for suggesting you give children coffee, remember, cocoa pods and tea pods exist as well.) The point is to create a warm, hospitable environment for the hardest working people on campus.

Bulletin boards

This is where you brag on your students by sharing a photo of the week and any awards they may have earned. Pin thank you cards and any positive emails you receive regarding the yearbook for all to see.

When I say yearbook, you say theme. Yearbook! Theme! While that's not the actual rallying cry of yerds everywhere, it's pretty close. Yearbook themes dominate our club meetings and search history. Graphics, layouts, and backgrounds comprise the visual aspects of a yearbook theme package. Idiom dictionaries and pun generators comprise the verbal.

The value of a theme package

If you're not ready to create your own style guide from scratch, a theme package will help save you time and simplify the design process by

• Taking the guesswork out of creating a color scheme
• Organizing graphics and text in collections
• Modeling quality design
• Unifying your book with a consistent look

Fully editable layouts complete each yearbook theme package, like the portrait spread below. In addition, your chosen yearbook theme could also become the foundation for the yearbook marketing campaign. Create social posts or share PDF proofs in displays around campus.

Three ways to choose a yearbook theme package

The main purpose of a yearbook theme is to capture the uniqueness of the school year while setting the tone for the story the yearbook will tell.

Without a unifying theme, our yearbook contains only arbitrary events and students. Theme functions as the understated but essential ingredient to make this year’s story meaningful.

Theme 101: visual and verbal elements

When it comes to yearbook themes, many of us stop at the visual. When you have a great theme package, it's easy to do. Combining both visual and verbal theme elements take your design to the proverbial next level.

Visual

This is the easy part: making it pretty. When you have a codified collection of graphics plus a color palette, you can use your visual elements to do more than make your book pretty. Check out the example above: graphic elements are used to draw attention to the pull quotes. Stylized numbers (really an editable shape under a text box) match the photo to the caption.

Verbal

The vocabulary you use in your yearbook further communicates your yearbook theme. These verbal elements can be punny headlines or idiom derivates from your theme. While you don't want to overdo it (think the Coco Chanel rule), take time to add a lexicon to your theme brainstorm.

Here's what it looks like: the yearbook theme is Stay Gold. Students look up idioms for gold and compile lists of how they can be used. For example:

• Golden Age of the Bulldogs (opening)
• Heart of Gold (staff section)
• Gold Feet (soccer)

Whether you’re a Treering user or not, we hope your students' stories are told beautifully and authentically from cover to cover.

Some yearbook articles practically write themselves (looking at you, sports and activities), but a great yearbook will feature additional articles that give a holistic view of your high school’s student body. Coming up with ideas for these articles is as simple as considering what the students will want to remember. We’ve broken down some potential ideas into categories. Even if you don’t use any of these exact ideas, we’re sure they’ll get your brain kicking into high gear.

School life

Academics are important, but high school is also about socializing, gaining responsibility, and becoming an adult. Some of the most vivid memories are created outside of the classroom.

• Most embarrassing moments
• Hitting the snooze bar: do or don’t?
• Homework style: git ‘er done or procrastinate?
• Worst school-related nightmares
• Locker or backpack?
• Passing time during passing time
• This year I was proud of…
• Backpack must-haves
• Favorite class experience
• Lightbulb moments
• Making time for everything
• School uniforms: love or loathe
• What’s your commute: busing, driving, or walking?
• School rivalries: why we’re the best!
• Morning routines

Coming of age

Throughout high school, students are growing up. Each year brings unique challenges and changes. It’s fun to celebrate these milestones.

• First concert
• Getting your driver’s license
• Rock the vote: politics in school
• First jobs
• Taking the ACT/SATs
• What’s next?
• Summer job earnings: spend or save?
• Have you ever been grounded?
• AP classes or college in the schools
• Too old for toys?
• Childhood foods you’ll never let go
• Curfews
• Doing chores
• Naps: be a kid again

Leisure time

Sometimes school is more about the fun over the fundamentals. Reserve some space to tell the stories that are happening when the students are kicking back and listening to cassettes on their boomboxes (they still do that, right?).

• Gaming
• Fantasy football
• Favorite books
• Obsessions (Taylor Swift, TikTok, binge-worthy shows, etc.)
• Social media
• Hangouts
• Friday night social
• Garage bands
• Non-school sports (skateboarding, snowboarding, figure skating)
• How we shop: in-store or online?
• Constant communication: how many texts do you send in a day?

Current events

One of the most fun aspects of the yearbook is that it is essentially a time capsule. Up the ante by overtly including current events, music, and trends of the year.

• What’s in the news this year?
• Fashion trends
• Style inspiration
• All about hair, makeup, and beauty
• Favorite TV shows
• Music: best bands and favorite concert experiences
• Dance moves of the year (The Git Up)
• Knowing all the words to your favorite song
• Movies and blockbusters
• Seeing it first: midnight showings
• Your go-to memes/gifs
• New technology: wearable tech and hoverboards

Lunchtime

Whether it’s chatting with friends, playing games, or finishing up some late homework, a lot of stuff goes down in the cafeteria. With these ideas, you can focus on the food or the fun.

• Healthy or not?
• Best lunchtime traditions
• Droolworthy school lunches
• Who packs your lunch
• The best playground games
• Cafeteria workers tell all
• What school food will be missed the most?
• Who do you sit with during lunch and why?
• If you were cooking for the school, what would you make?

People

The most interesting part of anything (including high school) is the people. There are loads of fascinating dynamics, talents, and relationships to explore.

• Siblings
• Nicknames
• Unsung heroes: custodians, school nurses, and admin
• Friends since...
• Fresh faces: a spotlight on new teachers
• Who do you look up to?
• Hidden talents
• How did you become friends?
• Your biggest change in the last four years
• Legacies: kids who go to the same school as their parents

Places

Every story needs a setting, but these ideas turn the setting into the story.

• Rumors about the school: secret hallways, ghosts, hidden treasures
• If you could change one thing about the school, what would it be?
• The best restaurants in town
• Regional specialties (growing up near the beach, Texas football, big city living, etc.)
• Fun facts and quirks about the school building
• Spring break locations
• Where do you want to travel?
• Must-see locations in town
• Indoors or outdoors: where’s the fun?

Time of year and events

Over the course of the year, a lot of specific activities take place based on holidays or the season. You can use these triggers as a launch point to look back on the year.

• Homecoming parade
• Halloween: costumes and scares
• Thanksgiving and being thankful
• Seasonal activities: summer, fall, winter, spring
• New Year’s Eve: school resolutions
• Valentine’s day: love or loathe?
• Can we have class outside?
• Field trips
• Science fair
• Graduation

Categories lead to brainstorms

Hopefully some of these ideas will lead to some winning articles for your high school’s yearbook. If not, no biggie (we won’t take offense). You can still use these categories to springboard some new article ideas of your own design. Ask your students what they want to remember, and go from there.

You planned your year and recruited your team. Roles are set. Parents and teachers are submitting photos. And then, an unreliable volunteer sets back your yearbook exponentially. Take heart: you’re not the first yearbook adviser to experience this!

Volunteer unreliability factor 3/10 - deer in the headlights

Ready, set… nothing. Whether fear of failure or a general spirit of uncertainty are acting as hindrances, it’s time to step in as a coach. Let’s face it, many of our parent volunteers are publishing and journalism amateurs. Take some time with the new recruits to show not tell: design a layout together, photograph an event together, get students' quotes together. Build confidence! Consistent communication, including genuine appreciation, inspires unity and helps volunteer yearbook staffers push on towards your goal.

Volunteer unreliability factor 7/10 - oops… (s)he did it again

Early detection, while uncomfortable, can eliminate problems later on. The first time someone is a no-show, address it (kindly). 

When you do get that face-to-face moment, maintain your professionalism:

• Communicate with specifics: instead of “You’re always unreliable,” try “You volunteered to take Fun Run photos and did not have a backup in place when you were a no-show. What is your plan to get pictures?”
• Keep it focused: the conversation should center around yearbook responsibilities and not on personal issues. You’re not meeting to be a relationship counselor, life coach, or even a friend. You’re a project manager looking to complete a job.
• Be proactive: document what will happen next. If your yearbook co-chair wants to remain in the role, write out what it will look like with clear expectations and deadlines. Also include an “out” clause if your volunteer continues to be unreliable.

A word of caution: it’s easy to fire off a text or email, and like we tell our children, easy isn’t always best. As we know, much of communication is non-verbal, so a face-to-face session allows you (and your volunteer) to assess body language and tone.

Volunteer unreliability factor 10/10 - the worst-case scenario

What do you do when a volunteer up and quits in the middle of your yearbook and is unreachable, unresponsive, and, frankly, unrepentant?

1. Plan for human error and phone a friend
   Within your yearbook staff, build in a group of utility players; this may be a working mom who cannot help at every event or a school secretary that does too much already. Have a few friends you can call to help with one-off tasks. The leader of your parent org may have a list of volunteers to plug in.
2. Promote from within
   Your next yearbook co-chair may just be on your staff already. Once you’ve communicated the need—again using specific, job-focused language—the team may have a solution! (You recruited the best for a reason!)
3. Flip your lid
   Not really. It was just fun to write.
4. Remember your purpose
   As cliche as it is, remember the kids. It’s the students who will open the yearbook you helped create, pour over its pages, and never once reminisce on the unreliable volunteer who temporarily thwarted progress. Why? Because you're a project manager who completed the job.