Themes
Looking for inspiration, design tricks, how to make a great cover, promoting your yearbook and engaging your community?
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Elementary theme ideas from pinterest
When it comes time to prep a recipe, outfit, dinner party, or even yearbook, Pinterest is the go-to place to receive inspiration. (We get it, this blog is a close second.) Yearbook theme ideas on Pinterest provide inspiration for elementary yearbook coordinators, middle school clubbers, and high school editors alike, but how many can you drop into your book right away? Spoiler: Treering has over 300.
From Idea Pin to Yearbook Pages
Groovy, one of our new elementary yearbook themes for 2022-2023 is one of our top saved posts on Pinterest. To apply this, or any other pin-worthy theme, log in to your Treering account and click "edit yearbook" on the dashboard. From there,
- Set your styles and theme
- Select a layout or create your own
- Import and add your own photos to pages
- Access shared photos from your school community
- Add your own text or use one of the overlays to pages
- Add theme graphics to pages
- Add or change the page background
- Autoflow your portrait pages
With 15 fully editable layouts for club, classroom, and event coverage, filling pages with memories is as simple as dragging and dropping. Coordinate portrait pages, specialty coverage, and recognition ads with 40 included backgrounds and 150 graphic elements.
This left-facing page was created using Groovy's built-in theme graphics. Using the lowercase letters from the collection, this idea came to life with a few clicks of the align tool. We love interactive pages because they are one more way students can make their yearbooks their own. Also, these are especially fun over which to reminisce in the years to come. On the right side of the spread, there is room for a photo collage of classroom celebrations or even teachers' favorite dishes.
And if you're on the hunt for high school inspiration, tech seems to trend.
Elementary theme ideas from pinterest
When it comes time to prep a recipe, outfit, dinner party, or even yearbook, Pinterest is the go-to place to receive inspiration. (We get it, this blog is a close second.) Yearbook theme ideas on Pinterest provide inspiration for elementary yearbook coordinators, middle school clubbers, and high school editors alike, but how many can you drop into your book right away? Spoiler: Treering has over 300.
From Idea Pin to Yearbook Pages
Groovy, one of our new elementary yearbook themes for 2022-2023 is one of our top saved posts on Pinterest. To apply this, or any other pin-worthy theme, log in to your Treering account and click "edit yearbook" on the dashboard. From there,
- Set your styles and theme
- Select a layout or create your own
- Import and add your own photos to pages
- Access shared photos from your school community
- Add your own text or use one of the overlays to pages
- Add theme graphics to pages
- Add or change the page background
- Autoflow your portrait pages
With 15 fully editable layouts for club, classroom, and event coverage, filling pages with memories is as simple as dragging and dropping. Coordinate portrait pages, specialty coverage, and recognition ads with 40 included backgrounds and 150 graphic elements.
This left-facing page was created using Groovy's built-in theme graphics. Using the lowercase letters from the collection, this idea came to life with a few clicks of the align tool. We love interactive pages because they are one more way students can make their yearbooks their own. Also, these are especially fun over which to reminisce in the years to come. On the right side of the spread, there is room for a photo collage of classroom celebrations or even teachers' favorite dishes.
And if you're on the hunt for high school inspiration, tech seems to trend.
3 middle and high school yearbook theme ideas
When you have over 300 pre-designed theme ideas from which to choose, how do you pick the “right” one for your school yearbook? Good yearbook themes are the ones that make grab us at the cover and make us gush over its cool design. Great yearbook themes capture the here and now. One way to make your yearbook theme so 2023 is to apply graphic design trends from the year. Incorporating these trends as well as pop culture makes your yearbook relevant now and will make your grandkids deem it a ‘20s relic.
Yearbook Theme #1: Watching
With 200 drag-and-drop graphics to customize this streaming media theme, your yearbook will showcase the memorable events of the school year in a format, frankly, we know too well. Press play on sports action shots, recap spirit week, make section dividers menus, and "favorite" key classroom moments.
Yearbook themes based on technology aren't timeless, and that's a good thing. Remember Clippy? He represents a moment in time, as does your yearbook.
It may be tempting to search movies and show titles for the headlines of every spread and to use our drag-and-drop templates to create three layers of menus as modules. If that seems overwhelming, keep it limited to the thematic pages: title page: table of contents, divider pages, and closing. Use the theme's graphic package to enhance, not dominate content. Like all things Treering Yearbooks, it's fully customizable.
The "Watching" yearbook theme will make your school want to rewind and relive its memories. Yes, we're still watching.
Yearbook Cover Idea #2: Well Plaid
Middle and high school yearbook theme ideas can get their inspiration from your campus building as well as what's trending. Private schools, schools with a Highlander or Scottie as the mascot, or even school districts in cities such as Glasgow, Aberdeen, or Lothian can play off their tartan as a theme element. Some thematic coverage ideas include:
- Uniform combinations and how students accessorize
- Where's Scottie? a Where's Waldo-esque feature with your mascot hidden in a crowd
- Punny titles such as Breaking Plaid (school records) or The Powers Plaid Be (student leadership)
- Plaid hair days and other spirit week coverage
Yearbook Theme #3: Vibrant Nostalgia
We told you last year that nostalgia was a hot trend. (We even did a 90s-themed event for advisers!) With the rise of Y2K aesthetic and the popularity of serif fonts, the Windows 95 look is popping up on packages, movie posters, and social media.
Both design geeks and fashionistas will love how we featured Pantone's Fall/Winter Color Trends within the "Vibrant Nostalgia" theme palette.
Click here to check out all 300+ themes available for free in the Treering Yearbooks design application. And if you’d like more ideas for your school's yearbook theme this year, check out these five questions to ask your yearbook team.
Trending in '22: yearbook covers and themes
Using graphic design trends such as 3D and geometric shapes, nostalgia, art deco, and paper cut out, the Treering Yearbooks design team created 22 new collections of graphics, font pairings, layouts, and backgrounds to help organize the story of your year. These yearbook covers and themes make it easy for you to create a whole book look with backgrounds, templates, and fonts.
Update for 23-24 school year:
Bold Yearbook Covers and Themes
We love the way these three yearbook covers grab your attention. The vibrant colors and bold graphics are immediately attractive because they all have roots in the familiar. According to shape psychology (yes, that's a thing) geometric and abstract shapes are a part of the natural world, and because we see them in our daily lives, they create a level of trust we don't get with the abstract.
If you don't want to dive deep into that rabbit hole, and just want something pretty, try adding embossing to make the text or art pop even more. The extra tactile sensation on your yearbook cover will wow your school community.
Coordinating drag and drop layouts repeat the yearbook theme elements introduced on the cover. In addition, there are thousands of graphics and backgrounds you can mix and match.
A rule of thumb for creating your yearbook theme style guide: stick with the three-peat. Choose three repeating elements (font, color, or photo shape) and KISS.
Trending Yearbook Covers and Themes
One way to make your yearbook theme so 2023 is to apply graphic design trends from the year. Incorporating these trends as well as pop culture makes your yearbook relevant now and will make your grandkids deem it a ‘20s relic.
Vibrant Nostalgia
I'm not going to say, "I told you so." Just seeing the Windows 95 look popping up on packages, movie posters, and social media is enough.
Watching
Yearbook cover and themes based on technology aren't timeless, and that's a good thing. Remember Clippy? He represents a moment in time, as does your yearbook.
It may be tempting to search movies and show titles for the headlines of every spread and to use our drag-and-drop templates to create three layers of menus as modules. If that seems overwhelming, keep it limited to the thematic pages: title page, table of contents, divider pages, and closing.
ThreeD
"Vibrant Nostalgia" may be today, but "ThreeD" will be tomorrow. Sorry if that sounds like a Black Eyed Peas song. Designers who are pushing this visual envelope are doing away with flat graphics, and still using recognizable shapes and even text. If your students want to do a "Dare to Dream" or "Future-Forward" yearbook theme, this cover design and accompanying theme package are for you.
Design Your Own: Even More Elementary Yearbook Cover Ideas
Creative elementary school yearbooks tie in their theme with a cover contest. Artwork from runners-up can appear on the back cover, on autograph pages, or on the title page.
What’s next for you? How about surveying your student body? If your yearbook team selects their pick for the five elementary yearbook cover and theme ideas, the student body can select their favorite.
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?
Yearbook hero Jazmine Richey and her editor share their vision
Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.
In March, Treering Yearbooks announced its 2022 #TreeringMemoriesMatter Design Contest for yearbook advisers, coordinators, and editors to share their unique perspectives from their campus community. It’s time to meet the winners and glean their best practices for yearbook spread design.
Jazmine Richey is a student editor from Grandview High School in Grandview, WA who was nominated by her editor-in-chief Lilly Kassinger for her basketball spread. This spread caught our eye and became the one to beat for several reasons: it shows basketball season from the fans and team’s POV, it’s modular, and there’s a highlight reel produced by Jazmine linked to the QR code.
Jazmine, what all went into creating this spread?
I wanted to create a spread with not only the sports players included but the huge student section our school held. I created a highlight video for our boys' basketball team and wanted it to be included on my spread to show parents, students, or anyone who buys a yearbook. I took a picture of our own basketball hoop and wanted to incorporate each of our boys by giving them their own basketball.
It was an exciting year for you: national recognition for your yearbook staff, basketball state tournament playoffs, a crowd in the stands, and a new campus building!
They're pretty excited, especially because it's everyone's first year in the yearbook class. We're all really glad our hard work has paid off like this. More than anything, this yearbook spread represents both the creativity of our yearbook team and the passion our school showed during the winter sports season.
Lilly, please describe your relationship with Jazmine and why you nominated her.
Jazmine is one of our spread developers. In addition to creating her spreads, she does photography and edits videos to create content for our school. My role as editor-in-chief is to edit the spreads made by our team to make them fit together and take care of the rest of the book's loose ends.
How does your team design the book?
Our team makes all our spreads in Adobe InDesign and everyone creates their own layouts. As the editor, it's always nice to see the way each person on the team likes to design their spread, because once they make a couple you can see what their style is. Then I get to make the little tweaks to tie them all together for our book
Explain the big tie-in: the red line.
The spread is built around what we call the Red Line of Equity, which is a red line that is on our hallway tiles in real life. As this is our first year in our new building, we decided to incorporate it into our yearbook as a design element featured on every page, tying back into our theme of "Paving The Way" as we take the new parts of the school and turn them into traditions. The line represents not only the presence of the Red Line of Equity in our everyday lives but the beginning of the creation of traditions here at GHS.
Our school's yearbook's main strength is our theme and the way it is present in all aspects of our design. Our Red Line doesn't run through every page just because. We gave it a meaning. Just think about what story are you trying to tell about your school and dive right into making it into a reality.
What advice would you give to another student who is just getting started?
The most important thing is to have a vision.
QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.
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!
QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.
Summer yearbooking: how to prep
There are two schools of yearbook coordinators: the first, would never click on this blog, and the second, is ready to prep for the following school year. We’re glad you’re ready to lay the foundation for your yearbook over the summer and hope these three steps relieve stress because you’ll enter the school year more prepared than ever, and help you tick off some boxes so you can fully enjoy your summer vacation.
Step 1: Build your Team
Yearbook finished, check! Distribution party a success, check! Use this momentum to recruit a new team. Before you hand out your yearbook staff application, debrief with your current team and state your goals for the upcoming year.
Are you creating a memory book? Be sure to build a team of photographers to capture the emotion behind the events as well as some marketing mavens who will pump up crowdsourcing efforts.
Are you looking to go more journalistic and create a history book? You’ll need writers/reporters in addition to your layout designers and photographers.
Are you creating a spirit book? You’ll want people who are passionate about your school community.
If you lead a student class or club:
- Make sure your recruiting message aligns with your goals
- Highlight the transferable skills
- Solicit recommendations from the faculty as well as your current team
- Build your syllabus and bookmark these rubrics from our free yearbook curriculum
Summer is a great time to do some introductory training with your team. Some advisers do a two- or three-day minicamp and select the theme, colors, and fonts for the year. Others host team-building events to build trust before jumping into design.
If your team is comprised of adults:
- Make sure your recruiting message aligns with your goals
- Set specific expectations for involvement
- Follow up, follow up, follow up
- Offer opportunities for all parents and teachers to contribute
Step 2: Start a Ladder
A ladder is the lifeblood of yearbook organization because it serves two functions:
- It helps you create a schedule
- It helps you determine your page count
From your ladder, you can reverse engineer your yearbook from the final deadline to all the photoshoots that need to be scheduled in between. Since this doc is an overview of the entire book, some yearbook staffs like to post it and use it to check off spreads when they are finished.
Using this yearbook organization module will help you with all the back-end administrivia.
Step 3: Relax and Wait for School to Start
We’re working parents, so we get it: it’s easier said than done. Yes, you’re going to want to solicit summer vacay photos for the yearbook, so grab you-time when you can. From an extra five minutes of privacy in the bathroom to hours with a great book, we wish you well.
To echo the signatures in our yearbooks, have a great summer!
7 things to do when the yearbook is done
Congratulations! The yearbook is done… Now what? I remember the years before I found Treering Yearbooks, when my publisher called in the pages at the end of February. A whole quarter of yearbook students with “nothing” to do was a pedagogical nightmare. Even with a three-week turnaround, Treering advisers everywhere need inspiration, motivation, and a few learning outcomes to finish the year. After talking with several advisers, we compiled this list of things to do to make the end of the year even more meaningful.
1. Keep, Change, Stop
This is a conversation to have with your printed proof in hand. Thumb through as a team, project some spreads on the wall and complete a matrix. What aspects of your program are proverbial home runs and should be keepers? What needs to be changed? (Use this time to brainstorm solutions.) What needs to be stopped?
How it worked in San Diego, CA
After ten years at a K-12 private school, the yearbook staff said they wanted to stop having a purple yearbook. It was a sacred cow we were ready to take off the altar. We color-coded the book in warm reds for the upper school and cool blues for the lower school. When we did the reveal, some of the lifers were enraged until the editor explained, “Blue plus red equals purple.” Cue tears.
It was another five years before we did a purple book again. Had we not had the Keep-Change-Stop conversation, the journalism program would continue to limit its creativity and every book would essentially be a spirit book.
2. Honor the Yearbook Heroes
Grab a stack of thank you cards from the dollar store and take time to recognize the people who helped you create the book, from the office team who gives you the roster at the start of the year to the mom who tirelessly uploads photos from the pick up line. If you are not acknowledging the yearbook heroes on your campus in your colophon, think of a public way to do so:
- School marquee
- Social media post
- Special luncheon
- Send a THNKS a latte
How it worked in Olathe, KS
Being unable to set foot on campus last year was certainly an obstacle, but with the help of our amazing PTO members, school staff, yearbook committee, and community of parents, we were able to still capture the year in a holistic way. We worked with parents to showcase our year in and outside of school.
Because it was a collaborative effort, and we really do have such an awesome community of parents who make this all possible, it was easy to make a video and celebrate our yearbook coordinator through Treering’s #YearbookHero Contest.
3. Make Time for Fun
How many of us Type-A advisers focus on business and forget to play? When the yearbook is finished, it’s the best time to celebrate. Some ideas for stress-releasing fun include:
- Craft time
- Digital escape rooms
- Potlucks
- Game nights
- Sundae bars
How it worked in Clarksville, TN
All of us brought in a board game to play. Our adviser made us rotate for a week and try one another’s. I learned Exploding Kittens, Sequence, and Mancala. It helped us break down the stress of finishing the book and focus on celebrating as a team. After the week, we went back to business and got ready for our signing party.
4. Hold a Social Media Bootcamp
The period between going print-ready and distributing your yearbook is the ideal time to teach new skills, such as social media marketing. If your school has a social presence, adding yearbook-related content is one idea to keep what you and your committee are doing top of mind.
Tweet
Before you bring in a marketing professional or check out a professional course, set the goals and expectations with your team. Do you want to
- Recruit volunteers?
- Sell more yearbooks?
- Crowdsource content?
How it worked in Arlington Heights, IL
Going social was the best thing we did for our yearbook. When I saw the social media calendar, we adopted it, and it increased our followers, which increased our yearbook sales and crowdsourcing efforts.
We also created a hashtag for our yearbook, so if any parents posted a photo—if they used the hashtag—we would consider it for publication. This helped us get a bunch of photos we wouldn’t normally have: boarding the bus, friend groups at events, and cultural events.
5. Brainstorm Evergreen Ideas
Evergreen content for yearbooks is a collection of interview questions, infographic topics, and story ideas that can be used throughout the year. (Here are 40+ to get you started. You’re welcome.)While we want to have a yearbook that reflects the current year and trends, having a timeless collection for reporters and designers serves two purposes:
- Something to do: in that first-of-the-year lull, students can build out evergreen modules and work hard to incorporate less involved students.
- Fill coverage holes: sometimes an event doesn’t happen (hello 2020). Sometimes a student doesn’t cover an event. Sometimes you just have holes. By having a collection from which to draw, you will always have usable content.
How it worked in Williamstown, KY
I remember the first time a student missed an assignment. As a second-year teacher and rookie adviser, I felt like a failure because I didn’t have a contingency plan. My editor actually came up with the idea to have a question of the day. She would text the question in the morning and everyone would ask three students. They would then input the responses into a Google Form.
We kept all the questions related to our theme, Give + Take. They were simple like “Give us your top three songs” or “If you could take a class on anything, what would it be?” Since they were thematic, it was a perfect complement to our book. If we needed a student for coverage or had a blank spot on the spread, we had the material for an instant quote bar. Using Google Forms also allowed us to track and sort the answers by the respondent.
6. I Do, You Do, We Do
I Do, You Do, We Do is a teambuilding idea as well as a way to add in professional growth. It works like this:
- I pick a skill to teach the class and demonstrate it
- You learn and apply the skill
- We do it together
How it worked in Miami, FL
We decided we wanted to use Doodle as our theme for next year and wanted to create coloring book-style pages in the book for dividers and such. None of us are Photoshop pros, so our adviser suggested we learn. Each of us on the editorial team for next year picked a video on YouTube to watch. Then we taught our classmates how to do it. Teaching my friends to do something I just learned made me proud and they listened well.
7. Practice Interviewing
It’s easy to fire off a text that says, “Give me a quote for yearbook,” but yearbook staffs don’t do easy journalism. Spend some time refining your reporting using the yearbook storytelling module of Treering’s free curriculum.
How it worked in Lakeside, CA
Our district hired a branding company to re-do the website, marketing materials, and our social presence. They brought in a photographer to capture student life and take professional headshots of the staff. When the final products came out, they were incomplete. No one knows the Warriors like the Warriors, so I seized an opportunity: hire out my yearbook students.
We wanted to improve our writing, so we created a list of questions to ask teachers and re-wrote all the staff bios for the website.
Your Turn
With these seven actionable ideas, you can find a place of rest going into summer. If you want to get a head start on planning for the fall semester, check out six weeks of yearbook lessons, including rubrics and a yearbook class syllabus.
Three yearbook colophon ideas
What is a colophon anyway? Publishers include this vital piece to record production notes and sometimes acknowledgments. Since your yearbook is a historical document, including a colophon adds professionalism to your publication. But it doesn’t have to be boring! Below are three examples of yearbook colophons that include theme details, shout-outs, and yearbook staffing information.
Essential Components for Your Yearbook Colophon
- Title of yearbook and theme information: include any behind the design information
- Book details: the number of pages, cover type, and paper weight
- Design specs: font names sizes and use cases
- Photography credits: Identify your portrait photographer, staff photographers, and any volunteer super parents who contributed
- Software tools: list which applications you used to build your book
- Publisher information: name of the publisher and the names of the publishing staff who helped
Thematic Colophons
Both of these colophons leverage their themes (Stay Gold and Speak Life, respectively) with the headlines as well as the graphics. (The actual copy of their colophons is below for you to use.)
A Bold Colophon
We love this one because it features the yearbook team, gives the book details in an easy-to-read format, and both editors have space to say thank you.
Yearbook Colophon Template
To create a quick colophon, copy and paste the following in your yearbook. Make it your own by giving behind-the-design details.
[Yearbook name] is produced by [School Name] in [City, State] and published by Treering Yearbooks in San Mateo, CA. The [hard- and/or softcover] yearbooks are [matte or glossy] finish [with upgraded embossing or foil]. The book's [number] pages are printed in full color on 100lb. sustainably sourced paper—the Treering standard. We used the Treering app for the layouts; [if applicable, list software used to make photo illustrations]. The theme art is [theme name from Treering] and [name] designed the cover. Headlines are [font and size] with subheadings in [font and size]. Body copy is [font and size]. [Photographer] took the school portraits and [parents, coaches, non-yearbook students] contributed [team, event, and/or candid] photos.
7 yearbook traditions we love
Building a yearbook program relies on building traditions with your staff and school community. When we build school traditions, we create a culture and expectations while transmitting values. That doesn’t equate with inflexibility, rather it provides a guide within which we ebb and flow. While the greatest tradition is the yearbook itself (more on that in a second), here are six others to build a lasting program.
An American institution since George K. Warren took photos of graduates in the late 19th century and sold them as prints to share, yearbooks are the definitive school tradition. What started off as a college-only record book now extends to elementary schools.
This adviser has watched students from world history classes grab yearbooks from the idea library and scour copies from other schools while awaiting the bell to ring. With no connection to the students, these school desk critics compared how our programs—such as ASB, athletics, and the arts—matched up with theirs. They evaluated the theme, mainly the visual components, and gave me a three-minute critique. [Pats self on back for not laughing.]
1. Staff Traditions
Yearbook Wedding
Trending with middle and high school staffs, yearbooks weddings are a pre-production celebration where students pledge themselves to the task.
- The yearbook staff writes vows. This can be as simple as providing a positive atmosphere and completing assignments on time, or as specific as SMART goals for coverage and sales.
- The adviser invites parents and stakeholders (admin, student leadsherhip, coaches, parent org leaders) to attend
- At the ceremony, students recite their vows and receive a ring
- Everyone eats cake
#Yerdsgiving
First of all, yerd means yearbook nerd and it’s polarizing: people loathe or love it. (For those of you playing along at home, I'm the former.) Regardless, #yerdsgiving is the annual gathering of journalism students over food before Thanksgiving break. Some students lead crafts or games, some practice the art of gluttony. Most take the time to craft thank you cards to school staff and students as well as vendors and parents who helped the yearbook team gain momentum at the start of the year. This yearbook tradition is also an avenue to invite alumni to inspire your current staff or even families to celebrate.
Holiday gift exchange
While it seems like you have a gift exchange for every group with which you’re involved, keep it simple:
- Hold a re-gift exchange where students bring in something they received and don’t want.
- Exchange variations on a theme such as socks or snacks
- Put dollar store stockings up with 3x5 cards so classmates can write notes of encouragement
Yearbook Banquet
Being on yearbook staff has to have perks, and one is a fancy-pants dinner before distribution. (Please note fancy is a relative term: we’ve done everything from a chain Italian restaurant to a steakhouse to a revolving sushi bar.) Think of your typical sports banquet: the coach (adviser) stands and speaks a few remarks on the team then hands out the awards. Traditionally, the yearbook staff unwraps their yearbook and shares it with their family. It’s special because they have the first copies and it’s individualized time for parents to see all the work their child accomplished.
2. Thematic Marketing
Theme surveys are a fun way to raise awareness that yearbook sales began as well as get buy-in from your school on the theme. While yearbook purists believe a theme should apply to one year only, you may find several coveted visual aesthetics from Treering Yearbooks’ theme gallery.
The big reveal can happen once you receive your printed proof and you can make videos and social media teasers with your staff. Some schools make it one of their back to school traditions to reveal the yearbook theme at the start of the school year and use it throughout to market the book and generate content by
- Making T-shirts and wearing them when they are photographing events (remember that QR code to buy!)
- Creating thank you cards, Google slide presentations, and posters via theme graphics
- Asking related questions via social media; for example, with a theme “Give + Take,” ask for multiple takes on the fun run or invite athletes give their top five songs for warm up
- Keeping everything yearbook-related in your theme colors
3. 3x Yearbook Coverage
Maximizing coverage should be a tradition for every yearbook staff. If we are truly telling the story of the year, it involves everyone on campus. From a yearbook marketing perspective, if students know they are in the book, they will want the book. If they want the book, parents will buy the book.
We love thinking of yearbooks as memory books—they are—they are also a component of the historical record.
4. Staff Recruitment and Announcement
Your yearbook team is a big deal. Say it with me, "We are a big deal!" Create yearbook staff traditions around recruitment and the announcement of who made the cut each spring. Some ideas include
- Host a party and pass out applications
- Crown your staff publicly (feather boas, sashes, and capes work well too)
- Publicize who is on your yearbook team in newsletters, on social media, and in the front office so parents, coaches, and prospective volunteers can get in touch with you
After all, your yearbook team is a big deal.
5. Freeze time
You don’t have to be Doc and Marty McFly to time travel. Year after year, yearbooks create a personal history; the yearbook might be a few hours of reading during summer, and when you fast forward five or ten years, it will be so much more. Moms, let’s face it, our yearbooks give our kids license to laugh at our hair, clothes, and priorities.
The value of a yearbook does not end at graduation.
6. Dedication
Does your school have a tradition of dedicating the yearbook to a member of your staff or community? If not, skip to the next section. This gets political.
A yearbook dedication could
- Thank a teacher for being a yearbook champion
- Recognize an administrator who is retiring
- Honor a member of the faculty who impacted the school community
- Be a blanket statement to a group on campus, such as the robotics team who went to the national championship for the first time
- Congratulate the promoting/graduating class
7. Yearbook Distribution Party Traditions
Many schools have a special, extended lunch or tie distribution to an all-school event to celebrate the end of the year. A word of advice: if this is a new tradition for you, connect with school leadership early to plan your distribution day.
The good
A simple party with pens, tunes, and tables is all you need. Always invite non-buyers to include them in the signing. More than likely, they'll be the first to buy a book next year. (And if you're using Treering Yearbooks to publish, parents can still buy a book!)
Pizza, a DJ, and pens that correspond to class colors take it to the next level.
The extra
One K-12 school I know used to have students line up outside a bounce house. After they climbed up and slid down, they'd receive their yearbook.
Another elementary school invites the middle school cheerleaders to the signing party. They perform and pump up the 5th graders for fall.
Whichever yearbook traditions you employ, make sure they match your community. If you're just getting started, select one and own it. Once it's routine, add another.
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Participate in national scholastic journalism week 2022
Celebrating the students on campus—all of them—is what we love most about inclusive yearbooks. This year, the theme for Scholastic Journalism Week is “Amplifying Voices.” If you’re participating, or here for inspiration, here are some ways to integrate Scholastic Journalism Week into your school and get more students heard.
Monday: Participate in #MakingConnections
From PTA/PTO councils to journalism teachers, there are people willing to share best practices. It’s one of the reasons we love to share about Yearbook Heroes. Identify:
- Who is doing what I want to do?
- What can I learn from them?
- Who can inspire my students?
- What similar stories do we have on campus?
- Who is disconnected? How do we amplify their voice?
You may be the one to teach others—share your story!
Tuesday: #teachmeTuesday
Because this is a celebration of scholastic journalism, take some time to teach journalism. Start with a writing lesson or practice interviewing. Collectively, you could tackle intorduce media literacy or a difficult reporting assignment such as covering the recent wildfires or tornadoes.
Wednesday: be about the business of #SharingStories
Take advantage of our pre-planned social media calendar to jumpstart your shares. Make sure your posts feature diverse grades, activities, and subjects. This way, you show students the value individuals make to the whole of your school community.
In your yearbook, you may want to include quote packages or fill-ins to amplify voices and give students the means to share their stories.
Thursday: always fit in a #throwback
Throwback Thursdays are fun because you can do nearly anything:
- Feature stories from alumni (don’t forget to use their yearbook photo!)
- Collaborate with a social science teacher on campus to integrate journalism's impact on history
- Print and display favorite yearbook spreads or covers from the previous years
Friday: #DemocracyInAction
JEA encourages schools to use the last day of Scholastic Journalism Week to share how their schools and communities value the freedom of the press. Here are some ideas on how to participate:
Elementary Schools
- Memorize the First Amendment
- Start student-led media projects
Middle and High Schools
- Have a conversation with school administration over the Principal’s Guide for Scholastic Journalism
- Learn to evaluate sources
- Memorize the First Amendment
Your participation in Scholastic Journalism Week 2022, be it one day or all five, will show your journalism students their voices matter as well as the responsibility they have as campus advocates to be the voice of others.