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Making yearbooks more accessible with opendyslexic
Fonts can be the Marsha Brady of the yearbook world. Overshadowed by epic theme packages and color palettes, the power of typography cannot stay silent. (In fact, the correct font can be louder than your graphics.) With 44 new fonts in the Treering catalog, you can share your story with boldness or a touch of whimsy. It can be focused or zany, handwritten or high-tech.
“Typography, like other design elements, evolves over time. Keeping up with current trends ensures that your designs feel fresh, relevant, and aligned with contemporary aesthetics,” Treering’s Director of Design, Allison V. said. “Typography also strongly impacts how a message is conveyed and perceived. More importantly, we listen to our users and try to accommodate their needs and wants. We often receive requests for fonts and appreciate the input from you.”
One such request came in the form of a text.
Meet OpenDyslexic
Since origin stories are a big deal in the superhero world, here is OpenDyslexic’s: app and game designer Abelardo “Abbie” Gonzalez developed the font in 2011 to help people with dyslexia improve their reading experience.
OpenDyslexic’s design addresses common challenges faced by many readers with dyslexia:
- Letter Weight: OpenDyslexic uses a slightly heavier letter weight, which helps the letters stand out more clearly on the page and reduces letter crowding. When designing for readers with dyslexia, avoid using italics or underlines because they cause letter crowding.
- Bottom Heavy: The base of the letters is slightly thicker, which provides better anchoring for letters. This can reduce the chances of them being flipped or reversed.
- Distinct Letter Shapes: The font uses distinct letter shapes to minimize letter confusion, such as avoiding mirror-image similarities between letters like "b" and "d."
Because it’s an open-source font, it is freely available. You can even make it your web browser’s font.
How Would You Use OpenDyslexic in Yearbook Design?
The short answer: headlines and captions.
The British Dyslexia Association and the UX Movement established Dyslexia-Friendly Style Guides. Summed up, the following tips can increase the readability of your spreads.
- Modular design: use negative space to break up content into meaningful chunks
- Keep backgrounds to a single color, ideally cream or pastel peach, orange, yellow, and blue
- For text, ensure there is contrast between the background and words on your yearbook spread
- Left align text
- Use font size 12-14 pt.
As with anything, it is essential to note that while dyslexia-friendly fonts and design can be beneficial for some individuals, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all learners. If possible, seek stakeholders' feedback during the design process to identify potential improvements.
Winners of the 2023 custom pages contest
As a new tradition initiated in the 2021-2022 school year, Treering's custom pages contest gave parents an opportunity to share the designs they create for their children's yearbooks. After narrowing nearly 500 submissions down to just 10, we took the vote to Treering's official Facebook and Instagram pages. The finalists earned thumbs up and hearts, respectively, while providing custom page ideas and inspiration to other parents. All ten finalists earned $50 from Amazon. The grand prize winner earned an additional $500 Amazon gift card.
On behalf of the judges and marketing department, we are thankful for each submission.
Grand Prize Winner: Lisa Ward From Keene, TX
It all began when her children asked for their extended family, who live across the US, to be in their yearbook. "We had a lot of fun reaching out to family to put together these pages," Ward said. "From California to North Carolina, Michigan to Texas, we like the reminder that family is forever!"
Why We Loved It
The core value of Treering's custom pages is for each family to make their child's book their own. Ward did that by involving her family. The coordination itself is award-worthy, not to mention the clever use of objects to center their "family forever" message with a heart.
Second Place Winner: Mary Frazee From Galt, CA
Frazee created a "Road Map" for her daughter's sixth-grade yearbook. "The pages feature all the fun things she learned and enjoyed along the way," she said. "I wanted to capture how much she has grown, and feature her first day of school photos for each year."
Why We Loved It
This is how you culminate an elementary school journey! The path from first through sixth grade showed all of Hailey's trips, achievements, and activities, as well as her teachers' names (the teachers on the judging panel felt seen). Using flowers to denote growth along the way, Frazee's design gives us a glimmer of the support and love in her home.
Third Place Winner: Sokunthea Mau From San Jose, CA
Mau wrote this to accompany her submission:
The media portrays high school as the peak of an American teenager's life. Can you blame them? The extravagant dresses at prom, the freedom teenagers have, the cap toss at graduation… As I went into my junior year of high school, I walked in with the mindset of every other try-hard Bay Area student: don’t mess it up. Junior year is coveted as being the most stressful time for a high schooler, due to the weight college admission officers put on this year. I overloaded myself with extracurriculars and difficult classes disregarding if I could manage everything all at once; in turn, my mental health plummeted and I faced burnout numerous times.
In spite of my struggles, I found myself crawling back to my comfort movies. The iconic opening scene in the Lizzie Mcguire Movie as she dances in her room replays in my head. What was it in these movies that made high school so appealing? The memories.
As I made this spread, I tried to envision myself as a stereotypical teenager gluing cutouts of my best friends on my page and listening to radio pop songs. I wanted to show what I wanted to reflect on when I remind myself of junior year, not the tests I failed or the classes I cried about, but the memories that kept me going. Like every movie coming to its resolution, my junior year has begun to tie up its loose ends, preparing for the credits and the uplifting background music.
Why We Loved It
As if Mau's verbal story wasn't enough, the application of her strategy won us. (Full disclosure: many of the judges lived through the days when you physically cut out and glued photos for yearbook pages.) Using her custom pages as a catalyst to bring joy back into her junior year, she also brought that positivity into ours.
"I love the many layers this spread has to offer," one judge said, "The texture of the fabric across the page adds even more depth into the junior year through the eyes of Mau. These little touches, I think, round this spread out and complete it."
Within her two pages, she told her story her way.
Meredith Lanning From Katy, TX
Lanning used her son Zach's pages to add additional band coverage to his yearbook "from marching season, competition show, dances, and best of all the Spring trip to Hawaii," she said. (This is just one of the eight she created.)
Why We Loved It
Lanning's behind-the-scenes look at her son's marching band shows the camaraderie and effort that goes into producing halftime shows. She anchored the spread with a large photo (we have a thing for variety) and repeated the white border to bring order. While the headline says, "One more time," we know they will relive these moments for years to come.
Finalist: Adriana Moya From Rahway, NJ
Nostalgia is always an emotion inducer. Moya set out to create a comprehensive look at her daughter's years from pre-K through 6th grade. "She has tried so many things that I wanted to remind her that she could choose any career that she wants," she said.
Why We Loved It
First of all, kudos to Ms. Moya for keeping the frame year after year. "That in itself is worthy of an award," one judge said. "I love the timeline," said another. The parents on the panel enjoyed seeing Alexandra grow, and the designers called out the consistent use of the caption block. It's clean and emotive.
Finalist: Jenny Errante From Phoenix, AZ
Errantes two daughters perform in their home state and beyond. She created a set of custom pages for each to call out their unique talents (for the sake of the contest, we chose older sister Evie's). "Both the colors and smokey overlay are representative of a stage atmosphere with a spotlight," Errante said.
Why We Loved It
From color grading on the main image and the shaded Evie across the photo to the action shots within the gilded frames, this made our designers giddy with detail. "I love the background," one judge said. Each image supported the "spotlight" concept and Errante's daughter's love for the arts. (We're thinking creativity runs in the family.)
Finalist: Brooke Turner From Justin, Texas
Because her daughter loves bright colors, Turner created this kindergarten highlight spread with that in mind.
Why We Loved It
One of our judges said, "It's a kindergarten girl's dream." Turner's use of color and modification of Treering's About Me templates demonstrate an understanding of design theory. She kept to a softer palette and used the watercolor texture from a variety of Treering's themes to create this spread.
Finalist: Elyce Shorb From San Diego, CA
As a long-time Treering parent (these are her seventh set of custom pages), Shorb said custom pages "help my daughters share with their peers many activities and events that may otherwise have gone unnoticed." She uses them to highlight the twins' "personal highlights that showcase their extracurricular activities each year that include birthday celebrations, sports, Halloween costumes, field trips, school dances, and even family vacations."
Why We Loved Them
Initially, we did a double take. Of all the parents who submitted multiple spreads, we decided to place both in the finals because Shorb honored her twin daughters with their individual interests and achievements using the same layout. And when we took a second look, we noticed the minor changes in the graphics: orange vs. pink heart, green vs. blue text overlay, etc.
"These two spreads remind me of what a girl at their age might have hanging up on their bedroom wall, photos of memories pinned up with pushpins or taped around the outer edge of a mirror," a judge said. "It brought a little nostalgia to my mind."
Finalist: Bhavika Lodhia From Aliso Viejo, CA
"We wanted to express his creativity, show off his dancing, acting, and athletic skills, and display his kindness and love towards families, friends and animals," said Lodhia.
Why We Loved It
Using a combination of Treering memories and photos, Lodhia captured a moment in time by giving her son literal snapshots into his personal history and interests. We're hoping Lodhia re-creates the dog pic for comparison in a few years.
Finalist: Ashley Diamond From Moses Lake, WA
First grade was a pivotal year for Ollie. Diamond said, "He broke out of his shell and made some wonderful friends and even joined a few sports teams."
Why We Loved It
As you saw from our design contest, scrapbook-style design is trending. We love the frames, and while the rainbow ombre could get out of hand, Diamond balanced it with the film strip and solid color frames. This is truly a collection of highlights in Ollie's year.
Winners of the 2023 editor's choice design contest
For three years now, the Treering Design Contest is a spring tradition: advisers and student editors across the US and Canada enter their favorite spreads of the year. This time, we took the vote to the people: after selecting ten finalists from over 300 entries, the world shared the love and likes via the official Treering Facebook and Instagram pages. All ten finalists earned three free yearbooks and $50 from Amazon. The grand prize winner earned 10 free yearbooks and a $500 Amazon gift card.
"It is amazing to see the passion our editors have and inspiring to know we provide a platform for them to capture and share their memories."
Bobby Hernandez, Treering Head of Growth
On behalf of the judges—a team of editors, publishing professionals, graphic designers, and moms—who appreciate every person who submitted their stories and spreads, thank you for providing inspiration.
Grand Prize Winner: PACHEK, Hopkinsville, KY
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of their western Kentucky homeschool support group's formation, PACHEK used "photos from previous years related to [each section], along with a paragraph with a little bit of group history," parent and yearbook volunteer Lora Farrell said.
Why It's a Winner
Using Treering's "Groovy" theme, PACHEK captured the past and present. There is an obvious hierarchy with the headlines and graphics. We loved that every photo includes an identifying caption. One judge said, "This spread shows how easy it is to use Treering graphics and layouts. You can still edit them to make them personable to your audience."
2nd Place Winner: Harlingen High School, Harlingen, TX
Because songs are a tool and reflect moments in time, the team at Harlingen High School used song titles to shape and guide headlines and subheadlines. "They want the students to flip through the yearbook and be able to read but at the same time experience songs that will remind them of the good moments today which become the memories of our past that we will share in the future," adviser Zeila Rodriguez said.
Why It's a Winner
Beyond the music (see what we did there?), visually this spread oozes memories. It is laid out much like someone would save clipping and highlights on a corkboard. "[The hierarchy] draws the reader in," a judge said, "There is the main photo and you are able to easily follow the flow of the spread." Every photo tells a story and has an expanded caption to teach us what we didn't see. Another judge said, "You can almost feel the music as you read through the stories on this spread."
Third Place Winner: Jackson Tong, Evergreen Valley High School, San Jose, CA
When you hear all that Evergreen Valley High School does for its fall homecoming jamboree, it could be overwhelming. "During this season, student leaders create and host a large night rally show with numerous club and class performances, spirit days, dances, and athletic activities," student editor Jackon Tong said. They use multiple spreads to cover the week inspired by classic board games.
Why It's a Winner
Tong said, "Many students from all social backgrounds come together to celebrate our school spirit," and we loved that this spread highlights the diverse activities and groups involved with homecoming. The 24 photos are organized and we applaud the use of color to group elements visually. One of the judges said, "They did a fantastic job representing the lower classman at their school."
Finalist: River City Believers Academy, Selma, TX
Authenticity is the goal of the team at River City Believers Academy. Throughout the book, they wanted to showcase how they "do 'real life'" on campus and off. As a K-12 private, church school, they actively seek new enrollments and use the yearbook to help. "When people stop by the office they always like to look through our books, as they are a great indicator of the culture, love, and commitment we have for our school," adviser Carmen Garcia said.
Why It's a Winner
This is a well-executed idea to cover four more students in the book. We loved the combination of user-submitted snapshots up top with professional portraits. It shows how everyone has a story to tell. This spread could be replicated as a module on a portrait page or expanded to be a theme covering athletes, artists, administration, and academics.
Finalist: East Stroudsburg High School North, Dingmans Ferry, PA
Despite being what adviser Keisha Agard-Thomassine calls a "quirky bunch of souls who meet atop one of the beautiful Pocono Mountains in northeast Pennsylvania," the Timberwolf spirit is evident across each spread in the East Stroudsburg High School North yearbook. "We are brimming with talent and pride and our Carolina blue flickers through our halls, walls, sneakers, and Crocs," Agard-Thomassine said.
Why It's a Winner
From the color grading of the photos to the field hockey stick and ball frames in which the collages sit, this is exquisite. The judges also called out the lowered visibility of the background image as a tool to make the photos pop. The photos demonstrate intensity and action and the large cut-out looks to the right-facing page, directing the eye flow.
Finalist: Stuart Country Day School, Princeton, NJ
"Shoes tell a story," student editor Lucy Simon said. She and her co-editor have attended K-12 Stuart Country Day School for most of their lives. "A person's shoes are a unique expression of their journey and personality." The shoe motif and vibrant colors express the energy and excitement of the journey.
Why It's a Winner
When this spread came up in judging it was a hold-your-breath moment. The general intake of air preceded an enthusiastic discussion of the balance of the design and boldness of color. "I love the shoe graphic added on this page," said one judge after reading their story.
Finalist: Argo Community High School, Summit, IL
The sub-headline says, "Making it Memorable" and the team at Argo did just that. Traditionally, they've used a school color palette. "While we do have elements of the traditional maroon, we choose a wider palette to make this year different," adviser Lisa Garrett said. This diversion further strengthens their 2022-2023 yearbook theme, "Make Your Moment." Garrett said, "When you chose to collaborate, excel, succeed, and participate you are making memorable moments."
Why It's a Winner
Homecoming is one of those events that is larger than life on a high school campus. This spread captured what a treat it was for their school to have a week where their spirit went beyond the school walls (and pages). "This spread encompasses the meaning of school spirit and having community support," a judge said. Another said, she "loved use of the gumball machine."
Finalist: Wayne High School, Huber Heights, OH
At the end of their junior year, Wayne students select two of their own to be community ambassadors for the school. Using a movie theme for the school's 75th anniversary of yearbook creation, each spread has cinematic flair. "One of our editors created this spread, and we love the little touches like the red [ampersand] throughout," adviser Beth Stacy said. "His inspiration was the movie 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith.'"
Why It's a Winner
We agree with Stacy: the pop of color is a small detail with a large impact on the design. This spread has balance in terms of copy, photos, and graphic elements. "The story behind this spread is fantastic. They did a great job using Treering's design features to tell the story with these photos," the judges said.
Finalist: Solvang School, Solvang, CA
Because the yearbook team used Treering's "Watching" theme, they "created a red carpet-style spread for our 8th-grade superlatives," adviser Alyssa Spanier said.
Why It's a Winner
The designers on the judging panel deemed the maximalism of this spread to be a show-stopper. It captured both the school spirit with the tiled mascot as well as the theme. What an energetic send-off for these students to high school.
"You have to enjoy the school spirit shown here," one judge said.
Finalist: Classical Conversations - South Bend Campus, South Bend, IN
"This design was inspired by one of my favorite design styles: Mid-Century Modern/Bauhaus," parent editor Carolyn Baltazar said. "I love how impactful and bold it is while still remaining very true to its extremely simple elements."
Why It's a Winner
Since over 1200 Classical Conversations communities publish yearbooks with Treering annually, this is one spread that can easily be replicated in each book.
Runners Up
If the top 10 weren't enough yearbook inspiration, check out this gallery of runners-up from Academy of Innovation, Central Middle School, Northern High School, Northampton High School, McKinley Steam Academy, Rawlins High School, and Wheeler Elementary School.
Honorable Mentions
Actis Jr. High
Baumholder Middle High School
Berean Academy
Cal Aero Elementary Yearbook
Camp Wekeela
Changemaker High School
Chapel Hill Christian Academy
Classical Conversations - Central Lakeland, FL
Classical Conversations - Dallas, TX
Classical Conversations - Greensboro, NC
Community Baptist Christian School
Council Jr./Sr. High School
Creative Learning Christian School
Dalhart High School
Deep Waters Academy
Doherty Memorial High School
Dumas High School
Eagle Ridge School District #36
Early College Academy High School
Founders Classical Academy of Flower Mound
Fox Meadow
Franklin Elementary
Freedom High School
Fulton Science Academy
George F. Baker High School
Glennallen High School
Grandview Hills Elementary
Haines Borough School District
Harrison Lane Elementary
Henderson International School
Hermosa Middle School
Hazel Point Intermediate
Heron Heights Elementary School
Lakeside Christian School
Landmarkhs.org
The Learning Connection Co-op
Lennox Middle School
Lois Lenski Elementary
Magnolia Science Academy Santa Ana
Mark Twain Elementary School
Mary Blount Elementary
MaST II Community Charter (Tacony Campus)
Mt. Eden High School
North Elementary School
Niles McKinley High School
Oakville MS/HS
Ocean Shore School
Orangeburg Christian Academy
Pelham High School
Phoebe School of Presidency
Piper School
Prairie Lea School
Queen's Grant High School
Radcliff Elementary
La Reina High School
Rita Ledesma Elementary School
Roaring Brook School
Sacred Heart Catholic School
Seabrook Elementary School
SEED School of Miami
Springton Manor Elementary School
Sycamore Creek Elementary
Tech High School
West Valley High School
WR Odell Elementary
Yearbook design hierarchy
Design hierarchy of a yearbook spread refers to the arrangement of elements on a page in order of importance, with the most important element drawing immediate attention and receiving support from secondary and tertiary elements. When you apply these design principles, you are taking your readers on a journey across each yearbook spread by telling them where to begin and where to exit each spread through visual cues. Sound complicated? No worries, we'll break it down below.
Dominant Elements
Think, "We're #1!" The dominant elements in yearbook hierarchy are headlines, the dominant photo package, and a subheadline. The dominant elements are just that: they dominate the most real estate on the spread. It's from them the rest of the content builds.
Headline
The headline is the most important element on a page and serves as a brief content summary. It should be attention-grabbing and provide an overview of the page's content.
Dominant Photo
This is self-explanatory: the largest photo on the spread is the dominant one. It draws the eye. It connects to the headline. It sets the tone for the entire spread. The best dominant photos are storytelling or action shots.
Subhead
The subhead is a secondary headline that provides more detail and context to the main headline. It can also be used to break up yearbook spreads into smaller sections, or modules.
Secondary Elements
Your secondary elements build from your dominant ones. Think of them as a great ensemble cast.
Photos
For most, photographs are the most important part of a yearbook. The individual images and their positioning on the spread can help further illustrate the page topic and make the page more visually appealing.
Quick tips:
- Eyes should look toward the center of the spread, not off the page
- Similar photos should be in proximity to one another
Tertiary Design Elements
If your headline and photographs did their job, readers will swoop in to enjoy your captions, copy, and extras.
Captions
These beauties provide context and information about the photos on a page, therefore they should be near their respective photograph. While they should be concise and well-written, it's easy to get cliche: "Tomás Bernal (7) enjoys his lunch." Start with the 5 Ws and then up your caption game by adding expanded captions.
Body Copy or Yearbook Stories
This is the main text on a page and provides the details and information about the subject being covered. It should be well-written, easy to read, and relevant to the headline and dominant topic of the spread. Often, when a dominant photo is of the storytelling variety, it will complement it and further explain its significance.
Sometimes, an "ident caption" will suffice. This is a list of names of students pictured, including their grade. In the middle school book below, the yearbook team used ident captions to outline the event program from the annual fundraiser.
Pull Quotes
Pull quotes are quotes from the body copy that are set off visually and used to highlight important or interesting information or one-off quotes from a student. They have both visual and verbal significance because they highlight the spread's topic with a unique POV. They can also add to the overall theme by bringing in theme elements.
Graphics and Design Elements
Like everything in yearbook design hierarchy, graphics and design elements, such as borders, backgrounds, and page numbers should be intentional. It's easy to get out of hand with Treering's graphics library, so that's why our design team cultivated 300-ish fully editable themes and color palettes for you. The purpose is to make the page more visually appealing and easier to navigate while telling the story of your year.
The hierarchy of a yearbook spread can vary depending on the page's content, and following this basic structure can help ensure that the page is well-organized and easy to read. If you're teaching yearbook or leading a club, use it
- As a checklist for students who are beginning to design
- For a scavenger hunt to see who can identify elements on a spread in a magazine or another school's yearbook
- To build your program by strengthening yearbook hierarchy in each design
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!
Teaching yearbook: graphic design
In my credential program, I missed the comprehensive graphic design, marketing, journalism, editing and proofreading, photojournalism, contract negotiation, and volunteer management track that would prepare me to be a yearbook educator. Over the years, an idea library on my classroom shelves slowly came about: other school's yearbooks, folders of magazine spreads worth emulating, Treering's Big Idea Book and Marketing Un-Stumped, plus gobs of digital files. If your yearbook advising journey is relatable, try these small changes that will make an impact on your book's visual look.
This blog was adapted from Yearbook Hero's Lauren Casteen's Teaching Yearbook: Graphic Design webinar. If you're interested in joining this professional community to grow your yearbook pedagogy or to score some PD hours, register for one of our free webinars on Zoom.
Graphic Design Self-Analysis
On a scale of 1-5, how do you currently feel about teaching graphic design? Keep in mind teaching and doing are two different skill sets.
Mild, Medium, Or Spicy?
Below are some suggestions based on your self-reflection. This year, you may be Mild, and next year, you'll apply some of Casteen's tips and be Medium with a hint of Spicy.
Yearbook Theme
A theme helps keep your yearbook unified so it doesn’t look like a different person did every page (even if they did).
A 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.
Lauren Casteen
Mild
Choose a yearbook theme from Treering's Theme Gallery. Commit to it by using it for your whole book: each theme package includes layouts, backgrounds, and graphics you can mix and match. Using powerful tools such as auto page layout, you can create a beautiful book while learning.
When you're ready, move to Medium.
Medium
Casteen falls into the Medium category: she says they start with a Treering graphics package that supports the verbal theme, and then they adapt it. The 2022 Polaris team wanted a newspaper feel to go with "A Year to Remember." The staff blended QWERTY, which had a modern media feel, and Venture, which is filled with vintage items and textures, to create their book.
Spicy
You can design your own theme. Have students come up with a color palette using an online palette generator; use Treering’s font bank to match fonts. To build a unique look, consider including student drawings or artwork.
A style guide will help your designers remain focused. It will also help you, as an adviser, provide detailed feedback on how to improve the design. Here's Casteen's.
One Graphic Design Concept at a Time
Since graphic design is an entire professional field, and you could spend beyond four years in college studying it, there is entirely too much graphic theory and practice to complete in one semester or year of yearbook. By breaking it down, you can focus on what's essential for your team this year and build as you and your team grow. Here's how to do it:
Find the Golden Ratio blog and others on the design page of the blog.
Balancing First-Year and Returning Yearbookers
If you have returners on your team, some of them may be Medium or Spicy, and that's OK. Now that you have some scaffolding, tailor your projects for your student by skill level.
You can revisit each topic each year with your returning staff members to make it more challenging. For example, maybe your newcomers are choosing a pre-made layout instead of doing it themselves, or maybe they are designing a layout for a module rather than an entire yearbook spread. Focusing on one specific skill at a time makes it easier for you as the teacher to differentiate.
Copy From the Masters
The masters are "masters" for a reason. Whether it is a magazine ad or a social graphic, inspiration is out there. You can apply a photo treatment you saved from Pinterest on a divider page or emulate a car ad layout in your yearbook.
Get Started in Graphic Design
Lastly, here are the action items from Casteen's session. Select one for your launch plan:
- Pick a theme if you haven’t (or maybe choose a few for your students to narrow down)
- Look through Treering blog articles to find a focus skill to teach
- Make yourself a Sandbox page and start playing around
- Find inspiration for a page to replicate
If you're interested in joining another of our working webinars, check out the entire Yearbook Club webinar schedule.
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.
Portrait perfection for your yearbook
Yearbook portraits comprise up to 40% of your book. Pause and contemplate that for a sec: row after row of awkward head tilts and half smiles with the same speckled background your mom had in the 70s fill the bulk of your pages. If you want to change up your layout and use the space to add additional content and cover even more students, we have a blog for that. This one, however, will help you nail the core of your people section.
Work with Your Photographer
Treering’s portrait autoflow works with any photographer.
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If you’re not the picture day coordinator (lucky!), meet your school photographer and find out when you can expect to get access to your portraits. The two-to-three weeks between makeup day and when proofs arrive should be a part of your workflow. Spend that time prepping:
- An accurate roster
- Fall event yearbook spreads
- Poll, survey, and academics content you will incorporate in your portrait section
Extra credit: learn the how, what, and why of portrait files in the Treering Help Center.
Portrait Pages: Faster Than a Cup of Coffee?
Treering’s engineers know we have a diverse group of users, so they included automation—such as portrait autoflow—in the arsenal and DIY features. Absent and new students can be flowed in after the fact, and your portrait pages will automatically re-alphabetize. What a relief!
PDF Proofs for Portrait Pages
Editors tell us the secret to an accurate portrait section is utilizing the free PDF proofs in your editor dashboard. Some of the ways schools check names are
- Distribute proofs to classroom teachers to ensure all their class is pictured
- Post PDF proofs in the lunch room so students can sign off on their names and grades
- Work with school administration to comb through portrait proofs and match them to the school’s database
- Share PDFs proofs at a PTA/PTG/PTO meeting for parents to check (this is also a hot marketing tip)
The more eyes that you have checking the spelling of names and making sure that the photo and name match up correctly the better.
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!
Pages to put in the yearbook
It’s go time: a blank yearbook ladder is in front of you and you need to know which pages to put in the yearbook. Do you take a chronological approach and cover events as they happen? Or should you create a sectional yearbook and handle coverage topically? Did you even know there were options beyond this is what we’ve always done? Below are samples of how other schools have done it and their rationale.
Put Your Yearbook Pages Chronologically
Sequoia high school’s yearbook uses 50 of its 148 pages to cover academics, student life, and special events on spreads. The two spreads below show what happened in the month of January and cover the literary food festival, spring musical auditions, lunchtime candids, as well as coursework from economics, Spanish, drafting, logic, yearbook, and graphic design classes. These spreads feature over 40 students and five faculty members.
There’s no rule on how to put pages in your yearbook chronologically: we’ve seen schools organize their yearbooks monthly, quarterly, and seasonally. Treering's Seasons of Our Lives yearbook theme makes it easy to put pages chronologically in your yearbook.
Feeling ambitious? Weekly chronological coverage can be of value to larger or K-12 schools within modules dedicated to academics, club activities and meetings, plus a sporting event of the week.
Chronological cover yearbook coverage helps keep you organized by:
- Structuring your coverage: you can’t cover an event after it’s passed
- Building in mini-deadlines: because you have a structure, you can build due dates and workflows
- Telling the story of the year as it unfolds
Use Traditional Yearbook Sections
Tradition works for a reason. Done right, yearbooks show the complete picture (pun intended) of how students contribute to their communities. It’s a visual reminder of how each story weaves together to become a group narrative. Yearbooks are definitely worth bonding over.
By using sectional, or traditional, coverage to put together your yearbook, pages are placed in topical categories. We know to find Start with Hello in the club section and volleyball in sports.
Traditional sections to put in your yearbook include
People
Student portraits (organized by class, homeroom, or grade), staff, and personality profiles tend to dominate yearbooks. Consider breaking up coverage by adding in siblings, outside-of-school hobbies, and international students.
Student Life
All the big, schoolwide moments plus the small distinctive ones (think homecoming, Read Across America, hot cocoa in Mrs. Cruz’s classroom, Dot Day, lawn chair lunches, etc.) make their home in the student life section.
Organizations
Clubs and committees that comprise a large portion of student life may warrant their own section. If most of your clubs are inactive beyond a monthly lunch, consider keeping club activities in the student life portion or feature the group photos in the reference section.
Sports
Remember, action shots have a place, as do club sports, pre-game rituals, and scoreboards.
Academics
If you’re not putting a “Life in…” page, consider grouping academics coverage by grade or subject. Ensure daily classroom activities, as well as holiday parties, are included in the coverage.
Reference
Put pages devoted to the index, group photos (club and team), and ads in the reference section of the yearbook.
If you need additional inspiration for which pages to put in your yearbook, check out these sample ladders from other schools and adapt them to fit yours.
Yearbook hero Kirsten Megaro tells a complete story
Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.
In our first-ever parent contest, Treering Yearbooks asked parents to capture and share their child’s unique POV. Homeschool mom Kirsten Megaro from Netcong, NJ created a spread to celebrate the growth in all areas of her three kids' lives: educational accomplishments, deepening friendships and family relationships, creative projects, and current hobbies and activities.
How did you decide what to include on your custom pages?
Our homeschool co-op offers a mix of core and extracurricular classes. We love how our yearbook documents the classes and field trips we enjoy with our group each year. The custom pages allow us to see a wider view of our year.
I like to include a casual portrait of each kid from the year as a focal point, then use larger text boxes to give an overview of the main activities we participated in during the year. I fill in the rest of the spread with some of our favorite photos with captions to share the accomplishments they had, hobbies they pursued, important people in our lives, and field trips we took throughout the year.
The judges loved the color scheme as well as the repeating elements of the rounded rectangles.
I love playing around with layout: moving pictures, adding frames, making it organized, but just a little quirky too.
How do your kids help tell their stories?
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.
What advice would you give to another parent who is just getting started?
Start simple: use a template for your layout—there are a lot of great options! Drop your pictures in and add a few captions. Add a creative touch here or there to start, and each year, you’ll get more and more confident and capable of showing your personality and style through your pages.
Yearbook hero Paul Nisely made us cry
Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.
In our first-ever parent contest, Treering Yearbooks asked parents to capture and share their child’s unique POV. Self-described Band Dad Paul Nisely from Charlotte, NC entered the senior tribute he created for his son, Jason.
Paul featured his son’s involvement as a trumpet player in both the marching band and the school’s band as well as the friendships he’s built and maintained throughout 9-12 grade. On the right-facing page, he created the show-stopper that had us all choked up.
How did you decide what to include on your custom pages?
I have been taking a first day of school photo of my son in the same spot in front of our house every year since kindergarten and wanted those memories on one page. I have seen this done many times before.
In addition to seeing the changes in your child, you can also see the changes in the background scenery. We had to remove the brick edging because it was a fire ant nest which we realized after a photo. The different hairstyles, clothes, and backpacks show how much he has changed and how quickly the years go by. Every time I look at that page it makes me tear up.
Paul, let me tell you, there was a lot of emotion from the parents on the panel after seeing your spread. A reverent hush permeated the meeting, and then we read your story.
I love telling a story and getting emotional reactions with my photos. I was a newspaper photographer and went to school for photography and absolutely love seeing “visual moments” and documenting them. When the marching band season is finished I love putting together the photo book for that season. Even though my son is graduating I have already told the band directors I would love to keep taking photos of the band and making more keepsake photo books for the kids and their families.
Since you’re also a professional photographer, will you share some tips?
Take a lot of photos! You can’t run out of film: it's all digital now. Be there for the moments that are important for your child and capture them. Be patient with your child and be patient when taking photos. Then tell a story with those photos.