Coverage tips
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5 graduation photo and caption ideas
It's that time when end-of-the-year events on campus dominate our social calendars and social feeds. Whether you're doing a quick post-ceremony graduation photoshoot with friends or snapping last-minute custom page poses for the yearbook, here are five graduation photo ideas plus some fun Instagram captions to use. I met up with my neighbor, Avery who is a high school senior, varsity athlete, super babysitter, and future marketing professional for these video tutorials and inspirational photos.
Remember, the best photos are the ones that align with your personality.
Pose 1: Looking Forward to Looking Back
A simple graduation pose you can do pre-ceremony is the over-the-should smile. Set a "mark" for your subject to do the look so you can focus there. The concrete in front of the school helped us time the shots. Unless you use a telephoto lens on a proper camera, ensure your background is more interesting than that parking lot.
In the video above, notice the multiple flashes. This means the cell phone is on "burst" or "multi-shot mode" which gives you more options with which to work.
Pose 2: All That Glitters
Your first day of grade school probably involved some glitter, so why not celebrate the final day of grade school with it?
During the shoot, Avery and I found coarse glitter has more movement and picks up better with a cell phone. (It still wasn't fun to clean up.)
Pose 3: Portrait Perfection
Portrait mode on a cell phone improved our Insta-presence by adding depth to photos.
To get the most from portrait mode, add space between your subject and the background. I had Avery lean against the wall in a relaxed standing pose. at an angle. The angle allowed for the mortar lines (leading lines in photography) to draw the viewer's eye to her face.
Pose 4: MVPose
The cap toss is the image most of us think of when we picture graduation. Using burst mode, snap several photos of your senior doing his/her own version.
Because yellowish-green gym lighting is notoriously tricky, you'll want to use your in-camera photo editor to reduce the warmth and add a slight coolness to the tint. This pose also works well on the football field because there is plenty of overhead clearance.
Pose 5: Cap It Off
Remember our discussion of depth of field and portrait mode? Another application is for the cap. Many students decorate theirs, so make it the focal point of an image.
In the video, you can see how raising the phone just a bit flattered Avery more. My yearbook adviser always said, "Zoom with your feet," and it's stuck with me decades later.
Tips to Capture a Great Graduation Photo
Because authenticity goes a long way, here are a few ways to make the poses below your own.
- Try to avoid stiff or unnatural poses. Instead, move around and experiment with different angles until you find a pose that feels comfortable and looks good.
- The background of your photo can add interest and depth to your pose. Look for interesting locales that complement your outfit and pose. Off-campus, visit community murals, local landmarks, and parks as your graduation photo spot.
- Props can add visual interest and help tell a story in your photo. Consider using props like sports equipment, a yearbook, confetti, or a graduation cap.
- Experiment with different angles to find the one that flatters you the most. Try shooting from above, below, or at eye level.
- You can sit, stand, jump, walk, or even lie down for your senior photo.
If you're saying cheers to the end of an era and the start of a new one, may your memories be filled with joy.
Six ideas to fill pages
Page count can be a dirty word in the yearbook industry. It’s how we compare programs or evaluate pricing. It's also how we wow our readers. Peppering in showstopper spreads breaks up the monotony of photo collages, portraits, and team photos. These pages also fill your yearbook with even more personal stories and unique-to-this-year happenings. (And if we're being honest, these last-minute ideas can help you increase coverage with ease.)
1. Interactive Pages
Drop-in yearbook spreads, such as about me pages make it effortless to complete the year's story. You can customize the questions and prompts on these fully editable yearbook templates and give students even more space to share their POV on the year. If you don't have a spread to fill, consider adding a sidebar so students can react to campus happenings.
2. Spirit Quiz
When Sequoia High School had over half a page to fill in their junior section, they added a teen magazine-style quiz. This spirit self-assessment featured eight additional students plus the school mascot while showing off what is uniquely Panther programming.
Make it Your Own
For your spirit quiz, determine which activities and behaviors define your student body and assign a point value. For example:
- Owning spirit wear +1
- Participating in a club +2
- Attending a musical or a sporting event +3
- Knowing the lyrics to the fight song or alma mater +3
- Serving the community+3
Use the scoring to affirm your community, even if it's a one or two. A simple "we want to know you more" will go far for students trying to find their way.
3. Then and Now
We’ll save the yearbook-as-public-record soapbox for another blog. Know this: anniversary years are a great time to reflect on where your school community has been and where you are headed. Schools also use building projects, campus splits, and expansion projects to add reflective photos and copy to their yearbook pages. Does this sound overwhelming? A show-stopper spread in your theme copy or your people section is all you need.
In addition to featuring changes in the building, you can write about or share photographs from
- Teachers and coaches who are alumni
- Current students of alumni
- Famous alumni (ICYMI: alumni are a huge resource)
- The local historical society
- Past yearbooks
- Blueprints
4. Pet Spread
If you’re new to crowdsourcing, or in need of additional coverage, start with a pet spread. If we’ve learned anything from #caturday and #dogsofinstagram, it’s that sharing pet photos brings us joy and is a natural part of our culture. Case in point, when our design team asked the Treering staff to submit photos of their children and pets to use in sample spreads, the latter had nearly twice the submissions.
When your students crack their yearbooks open in five or 15 years, the sight of their furry, feathered, or scaly friend beside their artwork and activities truly captures a moment in time.
5. Art Showcase Pages
Student contributions extend beyond the field, club meetings, and stage. Those creative moments in the studio or during classroom art time belong on your yearbook pages. Also, like a pet spread, an art spread is a way to include those camera-shy students.
6. Fashion Page
Expression isn’t limited to canvas and ink: Yearbook Hero Grace Montemar said her school included a fashion spread because it “allowed Yearbook Club to spotlight classmates from various grades whose fashion sense stood out from the crowd.” Featured students expressed their style and their inspiration with interviews.
We love how this school asked students from each grade level to come to the photoshoot in a white shirt and jeans.
Do you have more easy ideas to fill pages? Share them via social and tag us!
23 yearbook hacks for 2023
Forget resolutions, it's time to get to work. Our staff brainstormed the top yearbook hacks you can use at any stage in the yearbook creation process and packed this blog with videos, how-tos, and examples. Use the quick links below if you need to jump to a specific area.
Yearbook Design Hacks
Designing a yearbook is much more than just putting pictures on pages. Intentionality, storytelling, and branding are included. The following time- and sanity-savers will help you progress in your role as editor, adviser, coordinator, or yearbook fan girl.
1. Auto Layout
What if you could just drag the photos you want to use on a spread and they would magically be organized and re-sized? Voilà!
The best part? Everything is still fully editable, so if you need a starting point, you can continue to build your spreads with more photos and text, swap our images, and change the color of the elements.
2. Color Picker
You can pull the exact color from any picture to add to your design. This builds the yearbook’s visual cohesiveness because you can pull from photos or graphics to create your custom palette.
3. Layers in Design
Up your design by using layers to arrange photos, images, and text. In the examples below, you'll see graphic elements used as photo frames (movie night spread) and editable shapes used to organize content (table of contents). Using the forward and background tools in the options panel can help you arrange elements.
4. Custom Pages
Schools are used to offering senior ads as a way to congratulate students. Treering schools take it a step further and allow every family to tell their story with two free custom pages (and the option to add even more).
5. Missing Portrait Hack
"Picture day is the easiest day of the year," said no adviser ever. As hard as we work to make it a flawless experience and to capture every student and staff member, perfect attendance is out of our control. One way we love to see people included in their respective sections is by flowing them in with this spirited touch.
6. Advanced Portrait Settings
Another hack for your people section is included with the advanced portrait settings. Subtitles are a simple way to add marks of distinction such as student activities and honors as well as staff department or job titles. Other advanced portrait settings include spacing and sizing options.
7. The Magical Shift Key
Shift your process for aligning and rotating objects.
8. Printed Proof
A printed proof is an exact copy of your yearbook, and every school gets one free. Use your printed proof to
- Check the placement of cover art
- Assess the readability of fonts, especially the names on your portrait pages
- Show off your amazing work (more on this in the marketing section)
9. Picking Favorites—it's OK!
"Liking" graphics, backgrounds, and photos makes it easier to find them to add to yearbook spreads. To use your hand-picked collection in your book, filter by "My Likes" and "Team Likes" in the drop-down.
10. Pre-Designed Pages
Annually, Treering publishes elementary and middle/high school "Year in Review" and "Best of the Year" Pre-Designed yearbook spreads. These spreads include noteworthy highlights from pop culture and current events, and like all things Treering, these pages are editable so you can choose to replace the content with your own. Some communities prefer school or local election news, campus trends, or athletic records. Pre-Designed pages which include mention of our philanthropic partner, Sandy Hook Promise, are also available as well as about me, art gallery, and puzzle pages.
Get More People in the Yearbook
The best practice for yearbook coverage is to ensure each student is in the yearbook three times. Think one photo in each section: portrait, classroom, and activity.
11. Crowdsourcing Features
Treering’s crowdsourcing tools include integrations with Facebook, Instagram, and Google Drive as well as shared photo folders. Teachers, parents, and students can email photographs from their devices directly to event folders in your school account.
According to adviser Lauren Casteen, Yearbook Hero and leader of Treering’s Teaching Yearbook cohort, there are four reasons to crowdsource content:
- Equity: if you want your book to look like your school, your school needs to help you build your book.
- People are already familiar with documenting and sharing their lives via social media—it’s an easy next step.
- Your yearbook staff can’t be everywhere all the time.
- Less work for you! (This is our favorite.)
12. Monitoring Coverage
A big question we hear is, "Why would you want to tag student names when we're not doing an index?" Since our job as advisers is to cover all the students on campus, tagging is one way to track how many times students appear in the yearbook. It also helps you find out who is missing from your pages and craft strategies to include them.
13. Keyword Tagging
By using keywords such as event names and topics (e.g. AP Lit), your search just became that much more powerful, and the English folder less intimidating to navigate.
14. Find Carmen San Diego
Tagging by student name helps you easily find students within your web of folders.
15. Polls
Create polls to give a snapshot of the student body's preferences. Treering's software even makes the graphs for you. Expand on this or that-style questions or multiple choice ones by interviewing a respondent for more detail. You may be surprised why your star soccer player is a cat dad.
Marketing Tips
The second semester is when we see surges in book sales. Here are some hacks to get more yearbooks in more hands.
16. Free Yearbook Flyers
The price is right. So is the message.
17. Use Your Printed Proof as Social Proof
Social proof is one way you can positively encourage others to support your program by buying a yearbook.
- Show students, teachers, and parents how you are using the photos they submit by posting a PDF proof with their snaps in use
- Share sneak peeks
- Photograph your printed proof around campus as if it were a student (tag us!)
- Video your yearbook team swooning over their work
Hacks for Yearbook Advisers
All of the above definitely apply to yearbook advisers and coordinators, and here are few extras because you are our people.
18. Free Webinars: Yearbook Club
A yearbook adviser PLC? Live yearbook training? Technology pro-grow? However you want to sell it to your admin, we have it. And it’s free.
19. Styles
By establishing photo and text styles early on, you create a cohesive look for your yearbook. Because the font library continues to grow, it's nice to set some limits, especially with emerging designers!
20. Portrait Proofing with PDFs
Printing PDF proofs from the editor dashboard as soon as you get your portraits flowed is one quick way to ensure accuracy. Distribute them to the office staff and classroom or homeroom teachers for a double and triple check.
21. A List of Evergreen Content
Evergreen content for yearbooks is a collection of interview questions, infographic topics, and story ideas that can be used throughout the year. While we want to have a yearbook that reflects the current year and trends, having a timeless collection keeps your students working on interviews and photography and provides material to fill in on portrait pages, sports sections, and even in the index.
22. Supplemental Books
Sometimes club sports, special events, and alumni need a little extra. You can still attach a fundraiser, take advantage of our free design software, and enjoy all the other perks of making a Treering book: no minimums and a three-week turnaround from the day you submit.
Treering’s printed books for family reunions, church or neighborhood directories, scout troops, sport associations (rodeo, mountain bike, cheerleading, gymnastics), 4-H, school auctions, cookbooks, performing arts studios, first responders, and more.
23. Yearbook Hack Central: Treering Blog
(Shameless, we know!) We're glad you're here and hope you find more yearbook hacks by searching the blog or signing up for notifications when we post new content.
Crowdsource content for a more equitable yearbook
We see it all the time on our feeds: pics or it didn't happen. The same applies to your yearbook. According to adviser Lauren Casteen, Yearbook Hero and leader of Treering's Teaching Yearbook cohort, there are four reasons to crowdsource content:
- Equity: if you want your book to look like your school, your school needs to help you build your book.
- People are already familiar with documenting and sharing their lives via social media—it’s an easy next step.
- Your yearbook staff can’t be everywhere all the time.
- Less work for you!
What Should You Crowdsource?
The short answer is anything: photographs, survey/poll responses, and stories. Here are some of our favorites:
- Pet photos
- Senior plans
- Student art
- Photos from away games and tournaments
- Classroom photos
- Field trip snaps
- Evergreen content
- Hoco/Prom-posals
Casteen puts it this way: "Everyone matters and has a story to tell. Storytelling is a way to incorporate different voices." Crowdsourcing for these stories is a start. Follow up with submissions with interviews to understand the process, history, or cause/effect of the photo.
If a Tree Falls in the Woods...
And no one shares a pic, no one will know you're crowdsourcing. Something like that.
To start and maintain a solid crowdsourcing effort, create a plan for a series of time-specific asks. For example, if you need band photos from the regional competition, reach out to the director and boosters before the event to prep them. Then follow up the next day. Think about your own camera roll: how long does it take your weekend to be swallowed up with the screenshots and snaps you take Monday through Friday?
Assess your Communication Channels
What tools does your school have in place to communicate with staff and students? RenWeb may not be the cutest, but if that's how your parents receive messages from the school, stay the course. Active social media accounts are also great ways to meet specific users, especially if the robotics team has its own Facebook group or the PTG uses theirs to solicit members.
Check out this article if you need to see some more winning social posts to help you crowdsource and sell more yearbooks.
How Treering Helps
Treering's crowdsourcing tools include integrations with Facebook, Instagram, and Google Drive as well as shared photo folders. Teachers, parents, and students can email photographs from their devices directly to the yearbook folders.
Custom pages or senior ads?
In a Facebook yearbook adviser group, I ran across the question: I’m confused by Treering users saying they can customize two pages for free. Don’t you start with an entire book of blank pages? Well, yes. And parents get their own two blank pages. And advisers can add in recognition ads. And… why don’t we break things down together?
Your Yearbook Your Way
We have hundreds of blogs on how to design a yearbook from scratch and how to use auto-layout features. Let’s focus on the two areas that are student-centric; we are equally concerned about giving schools the ability to capture their story each year, while also providing students with the tools to tell theirs.
Custom Pages: Personalized School Yearbooks
Custom pages are two free pages that are only printed in a student’s unique copy of the yearbook. This is just one way Treering aims to create a more inclusive yearbook for schools.
Treering’s personalized pages provide every student—for free—the opportunity to tell their story of the year.
“I created our custom pages to celebrate our activities, accomplishments, and accolades!”
Tawanna Edwards, 2022 Memory Maker Winner
“We take so many pictures that it’s hard to narrow them down. I usually start by choosing my favorites that give a good overview of our year, then ask my kids what information and pictures they want to include to remember for the future.”
Kirsten Megaro, 2022 Memory Maker Winner
Senior Ads: Parents Celebrating Students
When it comes to school yearbooks, whether it’s 5th grade, or senior year, promoting and graduating students deserve special recognition. That’s why schools have traditionally offered optional, for purchase senior ads in the yearbook. These ads appear in every single copy of the yearbook and they create an excellent way for parents to celebrate their graduating student and do it with the school community.
Revenue from ads can be used to upgrade yearbook equipment and fund celebrations throughout the year.
The Case for Offering Both
You might be asking, “May I offer both?” That’s a big yes, and here’s why: proud parents will always want to share with the entire school how thrilled they are to see their student’s achievements. Traditional graduate ads in school yearbooks handle the job.
Meanwhile, thanks in no small part to all things social, students expect the ability to memorialize their very best moments, memories, and photos from throughout the year. Graduating seniors shouldn’t be the only ones. All students, from all grades deserve a home for their memories.
Anatomy of an elementary school yearbook
This is the time of year when all those shared photo folders are filling and your spreads are mostly blank. It’s time to build the book. And if you don’t know where to start, check out a sample yearbook ladder to see how one of our Treering schools organizes its book.
Principal’s Letter
Some of the best advice I ever received on principal letters came from a veteran adviser: “Connect to the theme.” The yearbook theme serves as the unifier between all the clubs, activities, sports, and classes that take place throughout the year. So it makes sense that, as the leader of the school, the principal’s message both unifies and sets the stage for that theme. Incorporating the theme is a way to also recognize the hard work of your yearbook team and a subtle show of support.
When meeting with your principal, communicate:
- The desired length
- Any talking points your want him/her to address
- Deadline (really, you want to give roughly two weeks)
Depending on your relationship with your principal, you may be able to present a first draft for him/her to finesse. Generally speaking, the principal’s letter appears at the opening or closing of the book or in the staff section.
Classroom Photos
Photographs of students working in the classroom give a true portrait of their day. (Lame pun intended.) American students spend roughly a quarter of their day in school. Let’s showcase their contributions and celebrate their achievements.
Elementary School Events
Fundraisers, dances, parades–oh my! These all-school events showcasing your student body's unity are must-haves for your yearbook, as are the class distinctions: 5th/6th grade trip, 100th Day of school, faculty vs. parents soccer game, reading buddies, etc.
Don’t feel like you have to devote a double-page spread to each! One spread can feature all the class parties, and another the fundraisers.
Candids/Lunch
Just as the academics photos are valuable, so are the in-between moments when students are at lunch or during transition periods. Playgrounds and lunchrooms are daily photos ops for volunteers and teachers to snap these carefree moments. You may want to include photo collages between grades (i.e. upper and lower school recess and lunch) or as the perimeter for autograph pages.
Portraits
Much of your elementary school yearbook will be portraits–these tend to take up an average of 40% of the book! You can organize these:
- By grade and feature some fun facts about each group (e.g. miles run at the Jogathon)
- By grade and teacher with classroom candids sprinkled in
Heads up: this is where you want to be extra diligent with your proofreading strategy. We suggest handing out your PDF proofs to each teacher to approve or hanging them in a conspicuous place to make sure names and classes are correct.
Extra Ideas for Your Elementary School Yearbook
Table of Contents
In an elementary school book of 20 pages, will you need a table of contents? Probably not. If you want to help guide your readers, add a small one to your title page. Larger books should divide themselves into sections. A table of contents is a great place to drop in some extra photos of students.
Special Recognition for Promoting Students
Parents love bragging about their children. (Present company included!) If they are not adding copious custom pages, they may appreciate the opportunity for a recognition ad. You'll appreciate the opportunity to raise some additional funds for your program.
Because you know your elementary school community best, you know what they will want in the yearbook. We're here to help!
Why I stopped publishing senior quotes
Unpopular opinion: senior quotes are problematic because they are unoriginal and full of risk. Before you click away from this perceived pessimistic view, put on your journalist hat and look at the facts. This position is not an anti-expression rant but a push to develop original, authentic content for our yearbooks. Here’s how I replaced senior quotes 15 years ago.
Three Reasons To Start a New Senior Tradition
1. Participation and Originality
A struggle we see from advisers is a small percentage of students submit their senior quote. Those who do use a quote from a movie, song lyric, or timestamp, not their own thoughts. That’s not journalism. These pop culture references may have a place in a module or personality profile elsewhere in the book if it relates to your theme.
2. Vetting Process
Do you know the periodic table? Are you fluent in slang, TikTok trends, drug euphemisms, and veiled sexual references? Does your district have a hard line on what is free vs. hate speech?
3. Senior Quotes Can Equate to Bad PR
A quick news search for "yearbook senior quotes" yields myriad results of senior quotes gone wrong. Allegations of bullying in the yearbook and “unlawful accessing” the online editor abound. Schools have even cut the pages from their books due to the quotes in print.
Ideas to Replace Senior Quotes
Thanks for sticking with me. Below are ways to celebrate the seniors on your campus and capture their voices (rather than Michael Scott’s).
Brag Sheets
If your seniors want to leave their proverbial mark, include their school contribution with their senior portrait. A Google Form listing all the activities, clubs, and teams offered on your campus makes it quick for students to click through. Partner with a department and ask for it to be the bell ringer or exit ticket for a day.
You could also include class stats, such as athletic participation rate, percentage of students in leadership, and volunteer hours.
Include More Quotes With Expanded Captions Throughout the Book
If your yearbook program is journalistic, it should have storytelling and reporting at its heart. Expanded captions include direct quotes. By using them, you are creating a yearbook full of original voices and senior, junior, eighth grader, etc. quotes. Here’s how it works:
- Identification information: who is doing what when and for what purpose? (Use present tense.)
- Secondary information: what is something you wouldn’t know from looking at the photo? (Use past tense.) This could be the result of the play or experiment pictured or the relationship between the students.
- Quote and attribution: include a direct quote from the subject that adds emotion, opinion, or information that isn’t obvious. Identify the quote with last name (grade) said.
Create a Survey Based on Thematic Coverage
Theme is king in yearbook. You selected it because it was the guiding story and look for your book. When you are developing your theme, create interview questions using this language.
For example, Rock Academy’s theme “Give + Take” yielded interview questions such as “What’s your take?” or “Give me five…” (songs, class activities, places you go on campus, etc.). Pro tip: use an idiom dictionary to search for such spin-offs for your theme.
For their book “Speak Life,” Sequoia High had a running module throughout the book called “Speak Your Piece” with quotes from students about a specific moment.
Sell Ad Space
Yup. I said that. When you pay to play, there is a little more consideration and propriety. Some schools offer 1/8 page to all their seniors and give parents the option to pay for upgraded space. (You'll have to get creative with the alphabetizing.) Others create a section with the index to feature ads.
With Treering Yearbooks, families also have two free customizable pages that print only in their book.
Stay the Course
Full disclosure: my first year, there was a little heat from students and a petition. By year two, students (of all grades) saw their voices in every corner of the yearbook, and no one questioned it. The standard response became "We have senior quotes on every spread in the yearbook."
Yearbook hero Lauren Casteen focuses on equity
Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.
Yearbook Hero Lauren Casteen decided in kindergarten if she were a teacher, she could go to school every day. Her passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion transformed her approach to teaching yearbook class: instead of recruiting the top 20 students to create a book about their friends, she built a team that reflects the students whose stories they tell. In 2022, Lauren earned an M.Ed. in Urban Education with a certificate in Anti-Racism. Her pedagogical approach is to lead the yearbook class as a public history course where the goal is to accurately and thoughtfully record the history of Northern High School.
Why should someone buy a yearbook in 2022?
As a historian, I like knowing that there is an artifact. Our yearbook students are telling future generations, “We were here!” It is something future scholars will study. Furthermore, our yearbook students have written and published something. It matters.
So much of our memory-keeping has become digital. I have 500 pictures on my Instagram, but it doesn’t compare to having something to physically go through. Digital doesn’t create a reverence for your memories.
How do you address issues of equity with the yearbook?
When I inherited the yearbook program, it required a written application with teacher references. It limited the type of students who could apply. Now, any student can sign up regardless of grade or ability level. I run a discipline report prior to scheduling anyone in my class and have one-off conversations with students [e.g. history of truancy] as needed.
With yearbook, there are many places where different kinds of students can be successful, and I want a committed staff that is representative of the student body. We are a majority non-white, Title 1, semi-urban school. Students of all educational abilities and language backgrounds roam the halls. The yearbook class should reflect that.
And you sold out three times.
Yes! I had to do a second order and had to open up sales to with the ship-to-home option.
What made the Knights want the yearbook?
The yearbook staff evaluated last year’s yearbook: we found out it covered mainly the juniors and seniors. It was also very white, when the school is very diverse. We resolved to make it look like our school.
As a school that is committed to equity, we can’t do that if we don’t know who is in the book. Since the yearbook is a historical document in the most faithful way possible, our team tagged and tracked coverage. And since my staff cannot be everywhere all the time, it is important for other people to send us things.
How did you crowdsource content?
I started with the teachers. I recorded a tutorial and emailed it, asking them to send us photos for the yearbook. The chorus and outdoor ed faculty were early adopters. I even taught the lacrosse team how to share photos via the app when they were headed to Wilmington for a game.
On our yearbook Instagram, we post sneak peeks. Someone commented that the outdoor ed page looked good. We responded, giving credit to the teacher. This created a buzz and now some teachers have a student classroom photographer to put ownership and responsibility on the kids. It also makes them want to join the yearbook staff.
Students like that the app talks to their Instagram; teachers like that it connects to their Drive.
What does the fall look like for the team at Northern?
I have 70 students signed up for the yearbook class for the 2022-23 school year. We are excited about this year’s book, as it will be the last book we’ll produce in our current building—we’re moving to a new home next year!
Our staff's favorite covers from 2022
In the yearbook world, judging a book by its cover sounds harsh, yet it is our reality. It's a super important piece: the cover holds the book together while introducing the theme and its visual elements. We also use the cover to promote yearbook sales. Because of this, our staff gets pumped when we work with schools to take their cover from ideation to completion. Together, we grabbed our favorite covers and compiled a handful to inspire others with their displays of school spirit, artistry, and thematic elements.
Our Favorite Covers Started with Developed Themes
We love a great yearbook theme (frankly, that's why we offer 300+ to users). A developed yearbook theme builds on what's trending on campus, such as new construction or an all-school volunteerism initiative. It inspires spin-offs, headlines, and coverage. It tells the story of this year.
Epic Themes and Epic Covers
Scarsdale, NY's Greenacres Elementary School used school and world events to guide theme copy in their book. Over five spreads, they detailed the highlights of the class of 2022's journey on campus from their days in kindergarten during the 2016 school year to the move to middle school. Each fifth grader's portrait is paired with their kindergarten one.
We first saw St. Xavier Catholic School in Juction City, KS's yearbook cover when the team entered the #TreeringMemoriesMatter Contest. By creating St. Xavier Xopoly, the team demonstrated the strong culture on campus. On the dividers, they used game-like spaces to continue the theme. We never smiled so much over being sent to detention.
Virginia's Governor's School for the Arts combined travel and the pandemic into their student-designed cover art. Inside, the dividers combine the pen and ink aesthetic from the cover with photo collages created by digital artists on campus, taking us on a voyage through a year of development and discovery.
Why we Love Yearbook Cover Contests
Cover contests are popular with elementary and middle schools. They unite the student body around the yearbook theme or the school's mascot (more on mascots below). Besides gathering original art from campus creators, it's a marketing tool to sell more yearbooks.
2 Cover Contest Winners
Nebbie Williams Elementary from Rockwall, TX chose the Presley yearbook theme by Treering Yearbooks and used its rocking graphics to inspire the art direction. A sixth grader designed the winning cover for the 25th anniversary book and runners-up appear on the back.
Another original art plus Treering Yearbooks theme book that caught our attention was La Costa Heights Elementary from Carlsbad, CA. The parent-led yearbook team selected the "Dream Big" theme and filled the yearbook with inspirational quotes. They revealed the theme to the students on campus when they launched their yearbook cover contest and the students interpreted it in their submissions.
Spirit Book Covers
We call mascot and school color-centric yearbooks "spirit books" because they tell the story of the year wrapped in school elements. Some schools create an iteration of their mascot each year on the cover, others do it to celebrate anniversary years or big moves.
POV: Mascots
The cover is a show-stopper, and the story behind the yearbook makes Chateauguay Valley Regional High School in Ormstown, Quebec, Canada more than a favorite: the team there is why we do what we do. When the school year began, there was not going to be a yearbook, so a group of students stepped in to create and promote it. (We're not crying either!)
Davis Intermediate serves fifth and sixth graders in Wylie, TX. The school’s motto is "A marauder… a swashbuckler searching for the greatest treasure of all… the treasure found within!" This cover contest winner encapsulates yearbook gold.
In Austin, TX, Purple Sage Elementary used art class to facilitate their annual cover contest. The art teacher brought in old yearbooks for students to look at, taught lessons on how to draw the mascot, and explained the concept of a yearbook to younger students. The Purple Sage faculty selected the winner from 48 entries: the top vote recipient is on the front, second place on the back. The ten finalists appear on the title page.
The Value of Student-Driven Yearbooks
The common element: our favorite yearbook covers began with a student-created piece. Student Emma Lorenz from Haywood High School in Hayward, CA said, "Seeing my own art be a part of my school's history feels like a dream. I'm always on a journey to improve my art and I can't wait to one day look back at this cover."
What will your students create this year?
How many pages do I need in the yearbook?
You’re planning for the school year: you chose a publishing partner, the yearbook team and curriculum are set, and the clock is ticking to the first day of school, better known as the first day of coverage. Are you feeling overwhelmed yet? (We hope not!) Determining your yearbook's page count is a quick win and a way to get the year(book) organized. Your school’s enrollment and your yearbook ladder are two ways most schools get set up. We’ll discuss the merits of both.
Use Your Enrollment to Determine Page Count
Math lesson: there are 380 students on campus and you want to ensure three-times coverage. With an average of 12 photos on each spread (that’s two facing pages for those of you playing along at home), you’ll need about one spread for every 16-24 students. That breaks down to:
- 50 students or less: 32 pages
- 50-300 students: 40 pages
- 300-500 students: 64 pages
- 800-1000 students: 80 pages
- 1000+ students: 100-400 pages
While it’s nice to have a range, that’s a fairly impersonal method of guestimating your page count. It neglects the nuances, personality, and culture of your school. Let’s look at a second option for determining how many pages you need.
Why a Yearbook Ladder Is Win-Win-Win
A yearbook ladder is a chart that represents the pages in a yearbook. To build it, grab the last few years’ yearbooks, the latest school calendar, and your team.
- Brainstorm the non-negotiable events, sections (people, arts, sports), and yearbook traditions
- Brainstorm features, specials, and theme-related content
- Decide if you will organize the book chronologically, topically, or a blend of both
- Allocate spreads
We love doing this digitally because it can be fluid. If your page count is looking overwhelming because of time or budget, combine some topics. If it is underwhelming, return to number two: what additional, meaningful content will you add to your yearbook?
Remember, if you’re working with Treering, your page count is flexible; increase or decrease it at any time.
The only yearbook timeline you'll need
Project manager. Social media marketer. Volunteer luncheon coordinator. Teacher liaison. Journalist. School historian. Memory maker. Yearbook coordinators wear all these hats and more! Below, we’ve taken one thing off your to-do list and compiled all the things on the definitive yearbook timeline so your planning and production resources are in one place.
When Last Year's Book is Complete...
Don't freak out. Keep scrolling if you were just handed the reins to the yearbook.
Fall
If there's one thing we hear from advisers around the globe, it's that they wish they started earlier! And while we can’t give you the gift of time, we can hook you up with some ideas to save you some.
Create a Plan
(Note to self: planning and controlling are two different things.)
It's impossible to think about yearbooks without considering yearbook themes. Whether you use a pre-designed one or create your own using Treering's design application, make sure it tells the story of your school this year.
Gather the school calendar, and PTA-sponsored events, previous yearbooks, and, with your team, start your ladder. This will be the overarching plan for the year(book). Your yearbook details should align with your ladder.
From there, add your team, create shared folders, and decide how to assign spreads. You’ll want to schedule follow-up meetings and track progress on this timeline.
Pre- and post-event check-ins ensure expectations are set and met.
Tweet
Start Marketing
When we think of marketing, we think of yearbook sales. It’s so much more. Your marketing plan should include
- Crowdsourcing efforts
- Yearbook staff recruitment
- Yearbook sales
No one will know what you do (create the most epic yearbook ever), what you need (photos, photos, and more photos), and how they can be a part of it (upload photos, join the team, host a party) if you don’t tell them.
Back to school is the ideal season to begin selling your yearbooks for two reasons: early discounts and the opportunity to earn free yearbooks. We’ve created a marketing plan template so you can stay organized.
If you are using your yearbook as a fundraiser, once again, work backward from your goal. For instance, is the PTG trying to earn money for more books in the library or playground equipment? Is your yearbook team trying to invest in new equipment? How much per book is needed to earn that amount of money?
Gather Content
August through November offer myriad opportunities to capture content and begin building your book:
- Student orientation
- First day
- Halloween
- Yerdsgiving
- Classroom shots
- Homecoming
- Spirit week
- Fall sports
Seize the [Picture] Day
Portraits comprise 40-60% of the average yearbook. If you aren’t on a first-name basis with your school photographer, it’s time to change that.
Touch base with your photographer and double-check they will export the photos in PSPA format (this is industry standard, but not everyone uses it) and confirm how they will deliver them to you. Copy your picture day coordinator on all correspondence (and offer up this professional school photographer's advice).
Winter
When you hit winter on the timeline, there is a shift at school: everyone becomes vacation-focused, and the list of things to do multiplies. (Late to the party? We have you covered with our yearbook quick start guide.)
Stay the Course
By now you have a rhythm: Your team has their assignments and together you’re tracking progress. Fall event pages are drafted and in the yearbook. Portraits should arrive momentarily. You follow up every event with an ask for additional POVs.
Begin Proofreading
Treering Yearbooks allows you to download a PDF proof of your book throughout the design process. Here’s how we use them:
- Hand our portrait pages to teachers to help verify names and classroom placement
- Project pages and evaluate them as a team
- Track coverage
- Post sneak peeks on campus
We have a whole module in our free yearbook curriculum on editing.
Cover Year-End Festivities
Fall and winter are the seasons for Bodhi Day, Christmas, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Thanksgiving. Consider adding family celebrations to your coverage timeline as well as class parties.
Inspire Generosity
‘Tis the season to be selfless! Treering’s donation option makes it easy for families to gift yearbooks to the school. Advisers and coordinators then share the love by distributing yearbooks to those in need or gifting them to staff members.
Spring
It’s time to spring into action and finish the book! (Heads up: it’s also time to get those yearbook spreads and personalized pages ready for Treering Yearbooks’ spring contests.)
Finish Strong
If winter was the season everyone is ignoring you, in spring, everyone has questions. Can I have more time? How do I get my photos in? How do I buy a yearbook?
Some easy ways to help save your sanity are:
- Be proactive and share the personalized pages tutorial online (seasoned advisers hold their own training session).
- Use templates or the auto page builder to start your layouts. You can always modify them.
- Make sure all teachers and the front office staff have the ordering info. You may even want to share a QR code for them to place in newsletters.
- Add Year in Review and Trend pages
Let It Go... and Celebrate!
Before you hit print ready, ask yourself:
- Do we need to order extra books? (Some schools like to keep a copy in the library.)
- How do we want our books sorted?
- Where should our books be sent?
- When will they arrive and do we need expedited shipping?
Summer
High five! You did it!
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What should I do with all my child's art?
Dear Mama, you're not alone. Many of us look at the creations in our children’s portfolio and think, “Now what?” The fridge is covered. The more ambitious among us swap out art in frames, while others load up bin after bin (or just chuck it in the bin). We have an art display idea to help you preserve your child's memories.
How to Photograph Your Child’s Art
The number one rule in photography applies here: get your lighting right! Eliminate shadows and flares by having multiple points of lighting. Natural lighting by a window is best.
Second, you’re going to want to make sure your camera angle is congruent to your art. (See, that high school geometry class has real world application!) This gets rid of distortion. You can make slight adjustments using your camera app.
Personalized Pages
Now that your child’s art is digitized, do something with it!
Since every Treering yearbook comes with two, free personalized pages that print only in your yearbook, you can create a mini-gallery to display paintings, sculptures, and sketches without giving away more real estate in your home. (You can also add more pages for homework, family vacations, and events.)
Fast forward to high school graduation: all your yearbooks are lined up and you can show off your child's progression in penmanship, Scouting, or science fair.
Instead of suffering from mom guilt, you can display your child's year in art forever.