Themes

With most of the school year in the proverbial book, we are counting down until summer vacation. End-of-the-year celebrations aren't complete without a yearbook. If you're the one wearing the yearbook coordinator crown, it's time to circle the wagons and quickly create your elementary school yearbook without sacrificing style. We have live webinars on Wednesdays to help jumpstart your second semester.

Step 1: upload your student roster

Your first step is a quick visit to the front office (remember to bring some lattes) to get a community and student roster. This seems tedious. It will save you hours if you do this first. You will easily be able to

• Tag to ensure inclusivity or to create an index
• Start marketing and selling your book
• Receive your yearbooks sorted by your choice of grade, teacher, or last name which will save you tons of time once they arrive

(We promise, you'll thank us later.)

Step 2: get the word out

With an updated student roster, you can now effectively communicate with your community and launch marketing campaigns that support yearbook building and orders. Examples of communication that will help you build a better book include emails asking for photos, how to purchase books, and special features like creating personalized pages and showing your students/parents how to create e-signatures.

If you really want to ramp up sales and raise awareness of your yearbook project and photo needs, use this month of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter content. There's also a full marketing module in our free yearbook curriculum.

Step 3: collaborate with your community

Following strong communication, you are set up to collaborate on the yearbook with ease. Crowdsource photos from school staff, other parents, coaches, and students.

When possible, assign class pages to others. No yearbook coordinator is an island (or something like that). By building a team, you'll capture more, include more, and stress out less!

Step 4: upload your students' portraits

Whether your elementary school was able to take professional portraits, or you are sourcing portraits from parents, upload these to your yearbook next. Your yearbook provider should have a solution for adding these to your book. You can even use these yearbook spreads to add more content.

Step 5: build your book

Now that you’ve connected with your community and begun sourcing ideas and visuals for your yearbook, you’re ready to select and set up your book themes and styles. In addition to designing your own themes, Treering offers a free library of professionally designed themes. Each theme package includes layouts, font pairings, and graphics to tie your look together. You can also 100% customize your own.

Set spreads aside for

• School events such as fun runs and book fairs
• Sports (If your school doesn't have teams, crowdsource photos of students on their outside sports team)
• Holidays
• Trends
• Clubs
• Class favorites

Build a beautiful yearbook with features like auto-page layouts that magically lay your photos out beautifully on a spread or pre-designed pages that cover the Best of the Year and Year in Review plus student-generated content through fill-ins for a quick elementary school layout.

Step 6: set your yearbook to print ready!

Drop the yearbook and walk away. In all seriousness, hit “print-ready” to send your files to the printers and, if you're using Treering, you'll quickly have your books in hand in three weeks or less! If for any reason you want a little more time, it’s easy to adjust print-ready deadlines too. As the yearbook coordinator, you're in charge!

Step 7: distribute the yearbook and celebrate!

All this work is worth celebrating! Work with your parent group to host a yearbook signing party. It doesn't need to be fancy or cost you additional money; this could be something special like

• Playing music at lunch
• Offering a jeans day to yearbook buyers if you're a uniform school
• Allowing yearbook purchasers to bring a stuffed animal to school
• Setting up signing tables at a year-end school event

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Thanks to Pantone, earth tones are at the forefront of trending colors. Organic design is being toted as the “new minimalism”—even Martha’s in on the craze. We’ve broken down how to bring the outside in… your yearbook. Using Treering’s pre-designed themes gives you a curated collection of nature-inspired graphics for your elementary or middle school yearbook. 

The Power of Nature in Design

Beyond trend appeal, using natural elements in design can be a metaphor for our school communities. It’s why we see so many motivational posters featuring grandiose sights. 

Additionally, nature is powerful. It positively affects our physical and mental health. It's timeless. Harnessing the power of nature in your yearbook theme requires creativity to evoke the natural world in print.

Ideas for Visual Yearbook Design

Your whole yearbook doesn’t have to be a path through the woods with milestone markers along the way. (But if it is, would you send us a copy?) Of Treering’s 200+ cover-to-cover yearbook themes, these five have the call of the wild.

Here’s why they work and how you, if you’re a DIY-er, can create a yearbook design that feels as alive as the real thing:

• Use color to capture nature’s energy (they're called plum, grass green, and seafoam for a reason)
• Add dimension by layering objects
• Emphasize elements using organic shapes and natural patterns
• Create movement with flowy or circular patterns 

How to Build a Narrative Around Nature

Illustrate personal and academic growth with graphics such as the life cycle of plants or the changing seasons. Other visuals such as roots, rivers, or the stars show our interconnectedness.

Elementary Nature Theme Ideas

• In Full Bloom
• Grounded in Greatness
• Pathways of Promise
• Rooted in Growth
• Sky’s the Limit

Middle School Theme Ideas with an Organic Vibe 

• Branching Out
• Forest of Dreams
• Move Mountains
• Seasons of Change
• Trailblazers

We love seeing student interpretations of these verbal themes with cover art contests. You can also involve the school community by using students’ photos of nature on dividers and theme pages. 

You’re expecting this to be all about brainstorming to increase buy-in, aren’t you? Critiques of brainstorming as ineffective or “the very opposite of synergy” challenge us to take a different approach to choosing a yearbook theme. Try something new this year: ask “What don’t we want in a theme?” 

“Oh snap,” said my eighth-grade self.

This could result in something quite powerful: there’s a leadership movement to replace brainstorming with problem-solving strategies inspired by Einstein. Yes, the Theory of Relativity guy. And “problem” in this context isn’t a crisis, it’s more like a mathematical expression: solve for theme.

Questions to Ask When Selecting a Theme

We have our question: What don’t we want in a yearbook theme? Now, it’s time to find the answers. 

Ask why. And do it five times.

In each of the examples above, students started with their ideas and defined what they wanted to highlight. You may choose to do two or three sets of these to direct your team before narrowing down your theme.

Treering’s nearly 300 themes can provide the visual to align with the story you want to tell (verbal). Here’s what I mean:

Yearbook Red Flags

Usually, a red flag is a full-on brake moment. Because we are problem-solving to develop a yearbook theme, let’s add some drama. 

1. Trendy or Timeless?

A theme that feels relevant only to the current moment might not resonate with readers in the future. If your theme conveys a you-had-to-be-there vibe, consider how it will be perceived years from now. And whether you want your sigma theme to resonate with your grandkids.

I know. I know. After the trendy theme “problems” above, you thought timeless might be the way to go. Timeless themes might be perceived as "safe," which could stifle creativity*. They often rely on classic or traditional designs, which might lead to a yearbook that lacks innovative or fresh elements that can make it distinguishable from previous years’ books. They also might be beacons of a longstanding tradition.

*PSA: That’s not a reason to ignore design hierarchy. 

2. Themes That Are Difficult to Execute Verbally

I’m just going to say it: if you have a visual theme and don’t know how to implement it, you don’t have a complete theme. You have a look. So does my mom.

via GIPHY

A complete yearbook theme provides that proverbial lens through which the entire school year is viewed. It helps prioritize content that aligns with the central idea, ensuring that the yearbook tells a cohesive story rather than just a collection of unrelated events. Remember our school that chose POV above?

POV is gorgeous. The included layouts focus on student voices and impactful photography, neither of which works if you only feature a subset of students in the book. To truly convey POV, you need multiple perspectives.

3. Themes That Don’t Reflect the School’s Identity

If the theme feels out of sync with the school’s identity or geography and/or doesn’t capture the essence of the student body, move on. 

This is when you could involve the student body and get that buy-in we previously discussed. Theme surveys help choose the visual identity of your yearbook theme. Our design team put all of Treering’s themes together so you could pare down the selection. (We suggest five or fewer.)

Throughout the school year, some many events and activities might seem unrelated at first glance. An intentional theme helps tie these events together under a common narrative. Visual elements from fonts to graphics, develop that narrative and provide a cohesive look. After you choose yours, check out these additional theme development resources:

(Then again, if theme brainstorming is your jam, check out these questions in the Theme Module of Treering’s free curriculum. We’re that flexible.)

Aside from the release of the annual Year in Review pages, nothing fills our DMs like the fall theme launch. After holding theme focus groups with freshly finished yearbook coordinators and interviews with customer-facing team members, our design team created the largest collection of layouts to date. Treering editors said they wanted the 2024 theme collection to have increased customization, more room for text, and variety in the coordinating layouts and graphics. Yes, yes, and yes.

Many of the 2024 yearbook themes use editable shapes, so yearbook squads can change up the color palette to coordinate with their school colors. You’ll see more caption boxes in the included layouts. Each theme also contains dedicated layouts and graphics for holidays, school events, sports, and academic subjects.

In addition to the ten new yearbook themes below, Treering’s design team added 35 new fonts and 100s of graphics.

"Stick Together" - a Design That’s Still Fire

Stickers have always been and will remain a significant part of contemporary youth culture. They are everywhere: laptops, phone cases, notebooks, and water bottles. Incorporating this concept into the yearbook aligns the design with Gen Z and Gen Alpha students' everyday experiences and interests, making it instantly relatable and engaging. 

Elementary, middle, and high school students will love the playful, whimsical look a sticker-based yearbook theme will give. With over 250+ pieces of art to mix and match, layouts become even more customizable to showcase the personality and energy of your school community.

The Modular Theme: "POV"

English teachers know POV as a literary device. Students see it on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. It’s a concept where content is presented from a specific perspective, often creating a more immersive and engaging experience for viewers.

As a yearbook theme, POV emphasizes storytelling and relatability by framing school events and experiences through student and faculty perspectives. To help, our design team created a full suite of quote-based graphics and 70 modular layouts.

By using modular coverage, you can combine more topics on a spread, which helps more students in the yearbook. It’s a design shift. Using templates can help: by employing professionally designed mods, students see what works and can edit and adjust these to work for them. Then, they can move on to create their own.

Most Spirited: "Mascot"

A symbol of identity and school unity, school mascots embody the essence of your school’s identity and values. Why shouldn’t your yearbook reflect that?

Older yearbook classes and clubs may choose to use the mascot to create a narrative of the school year such as, “Through the Eyes of a Lion,” or include their own “Mascot Moments” to tell how the school values come into play day-by-day.

The mascot can also be used to highlight important school traditions, events, and cultural moments, reinforcing its role as a key part of the school’s heritage.

A Collage-Themed Yearbook

With over 65 layouts for school events and activities, “Collage” used photo-realistic graphics for a mixed media effect. The yearbook theme focuses on photography.

The included tapes, papers, and cutouts provide textures and layers. These elements play a major role in enhancing the tactile and visual appeal of the pages. Different textures—like the smoothness of a photo, the roughness of a paper-cut effect, or the subtle grain of a background—can evoke emotions and draw the eye to specific elements. The layers also help to break the monotony of flat images that a traditional grid structure may give a spread.

"Picture This" Spotlights Students

From the opening act to the closing credits, this vintage Hollywood-inspired yearbook theme is part glamor, part photojournalistic chronicle. 

Some fun spin-offs can include:

• Movie-inspired superlatives
• Renaming your portrait section “cast of characters”
• School hall of fame with science fair, spelling bee, and speech contest winners
• Adding a section of behind-the-scenes fun from picture day and yearbook club meetings

Add in Treering’s custom pages, and every student is truly a star!

"Sketchbook"

It’s a challenge to create a yearbook that appeals to both kindergartners and sixth graders. Or even one that captures the essence of a K-12 school without being too young or too old visually. In one of our focus groups, a Treering editor suggested a yearbook theme that “grows” with students. “Sketchbook” was born from this idea.

The diversity of designs is perfect for young learners in kindergarten and young adults in middle school. The graphics offering “grows” in maturity from chunky to streamlined.

Highlight Digital Design with a Cyber Yearbook Theme

As esports continue to grow in popularity as an NFHS-recognized sport, the digital design trend will heighten on pace. Ascend to the top of the leaderboard with the included graphics: neon color borders, glitch effects, and digital grids. This creates a striking visual impact that reflects the cyberpunk aesthetic, emphasizing vibrant, high-contrast visuals and futuristic elements.

If your school’s focus is on advancement, Cyber may be the 2024 yearbook theme for you

"Organic Retro"

This design trend blends the charm of vintage aesthetics with a modern, natural twist. It's characterized by earthy tones, organic shapes, and a nostalgic vibe that harkens back to design styles from the 60s and 70s. With retro yearbook themes continuing as a trend in 2024, the “Organic Retro” theme is modern despite its “old school” roots.

The soft, welcoming color palette and bold, organic shapes are non-intrusive and can complement a wide range of photos and content. It can be playful and energetic for casual moments like the Fun Run or more subdued and elegant for formal events like awards night. This flexibility allows the yearbook to capture the full spectrum of school experiences. 

An Unfiltered Yearbook Theme: "Be You"

The design team spends all year cataloging design trends. Social media is usually at the top of the list. To focus on authenticity and the in-the-moment aspect of yearbook reporting, once again, they took inspo from a trending movement and created the largest collection of layouts (90!) attached to a Treering theme. 

The designers love promoting positive messages, thus creating a series of “Be” statements, such as “BeKind,” “BeCurious,” “BeResponsible,” or “BeImaginative.” Pair these with the included emojis to react to the activities and efforts of students on campus.

"Together We Can"

A puzzle visual as a unifying yearbook theme is a powerful metaphor for the school community, emphasizing how each student, teacher, and event plays a crucial role in completing the overall picture of the school year. Piecing together individual contributions to academics and activities with a small cluster of pieces reveals the larger picture as readers turn the pages. This approach can represent how the school year builds over time, with each event, achievement, and memory contributing to the final, complete image at the end of the year.

Bold colors and oversized graphics showcase the big moves and bright spirits across campus. Enjoy pre-designed, drag-and-drop templates for clubs, events, and academic subjects.

How do I Use a Treering Theme?

Applying a Treering theme is as easy as click, drag, drop, and done.

After applying the theme, you can customize it by adjusting colors, fonts, and layouts. You can also mix and match elements from different themes or the extensive graphics library.

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

Free Whole-Book Looks and Yearbook Templates

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

Gold Foil Yearbooks

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

These two resources will help you begin:

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

Advice as Good as Gold

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

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

More Than Just a Look

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

Headline Ideas

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

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

Punny Gold Headlines

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

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

Headlines Using Synonyms

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

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

Writing Your Own Headlines

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

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

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

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

Retro yearbook theme packages offer a nostalgic twist to your yearbook, bringing back the charm of past eras. They can transport you to different times and evoke a sense of nostalgia. Nostalgia in design is powerful. Fueled by shared experiences and moments with others, it reinforces feelings of connectedness and belonging. Embracing these themes can give your yearbook a bridge between past and present for your collective memories.

What Is Retro Graphic Design?

Retro yearbook themes use elements that are typically associated with non-contemporary looks. From vintage illustrations to classic color palettes, we’ll break down each decade in design below. Consider this the Eras Tour of Treering.

2000s and Y2K Aesthetic

Since retro typically refers to events 20 years past, we begin with the advent of internet-influenced design. Remember when we stockpiled groceries and awaited the digital doomsday? A yearbook influenced by the turn of the millennium is characterized by a distinct blend of futuristic and traditional elements layered:

• High-energy color palettes, metallics, and iridescent shades
• Digital distortions and drop shadows
• Abstract and geometric shapes

1990s Design for your Yearbook

With the rise of technology, artists began to explore digital mediums to create interactive and multimedia artworks. The themes of the nineties centered around identity. In pop culture, it was the era of Friends and TGIF, and design often incorporated references to these cultural phenomena. With desktop publishing becoming more available to consumers, emerging designers pushed the boundaries of traditional design rules to use asymmetrical arrangements and overlapping elements. 

A Throwback Theme From the 1980s

Famously, the bold colors and gestural brushwork of Neo-Expressionism dominate eighties design. It’s also the period that saw the rise of digital technology, a pop culture explosion, and a distinct visual style that continues to be recognized and celebrated during spirit weeks across the nation.

It’s not a 1980s-inspired retro yearbook theme if it doesn’t include some of these:

• Neon colors
• Geometric shapes, preferably layered with a glow effect
• Airbrushing and gradients
• Maximalism and excess
• 8- or 16-bit art

The 1970s' Influence on Design

Graphic artists of the 1970s made ideas and concepts the focus over traditional artistic mediums. Artists often challenged the notion of art as a physical object. The color palette of the time featured earthy and warm tones, including browns, oranges, yellows, and olive greens. These colors were reflective of the era's emphasis on nature and a more relaxed, organic aesthetic. While disco culture inspired illustrations with a sense of movement and rhythm, typography also showed some personality with exaggerated serifs, curves, and swashes.

Consider your distribution party for your retro-themed yearbook a piece of performance art.

Taking it Way Back to the 1960s

This was the decade of contrasts. Pop art and its bright colors celebrated mass culture, consumerism, and everyday objects at the start of the 1960s. Remember the soup cans? Later, major socio-political shifts impacted design and this period became synonymous with breaking away from the norm. 

A yearbook with a counter-culture theme might want to incorporate retro elements inspired by

• Mod influences from the Beatles and the subsequent British invasion
• Op art: those wavy lines and swirls you associate with 1969’s iconic music festival, Woodstock
• Eclectic or maximalist approaches to convey a contrast

Future Implications

Consider this: your grandkids will produce a retro yearbook theme using key design trends from the 2020s: eco-conscious and minimalistic with sensory-friendly and accessible design.

From the Treering Design Studio comes the 2024 theme collection, guided by visual arts and technology trends. These ten theme packages infuse contemporary and stylish aesthetics through cover and layout designs, accompanying graphics, and color palettes. Use the inspo below to guide your yearbook’s visual theme elements, ensuring your school's legacy is etched with your unique touch.

Trends from DIY Culture

At its core, the DIY ethos empowers individuals to believe they have the skills and resources to tell their stories. Treering’s software is the tool by which creators do just this. Unleash your artistic potential by engaging with these four looks.

Maximalist Yearbook Theme

Inspired by handicrafts, Treering’s Maximalist theme package features collage-style artwork with layers of color. It aligns with the DIY ethos and the desire to create and distribute art and ideas outside mainstream channels. In a world inundated with perfect pixels, a book that captures the spirit of handmade craftsmanship stands out.

It’s a little punk rock, a little pop art, and wholly versatile. 

Tropical Chronicles

In the graphic design world, we’ve seen risograph art trend since its inception in 1960. Riso printers in Japan created their signature layered look, and its association with ‘zine culture, independent publishing, and grassroots creative efforts contributes to its continued popularity. 

The riso aesthetic is distinct from other printing methods, and its retro and handmade feel can attract yearbook teams seeking something visually interesting and non-traditional.

Yearbook Theme Inspo from the Masters: Tied Together

Continuous line art is another classic look. Picasso did it. So did Matisse. 

​​Because the line is unbroken, there is a sense of flow and movement with this look. This dynamic quality can draw the viewer's eye along the line, creating an engaging visual experience throughout your yearbook. Its hand-drawn quality is organic: the intentional variations in each line give a sense of immediacy and authenticity–two things you want when telling the story of the year.

Continuous line art often highlights the essential features of an item, creating a focus on its defining elements. Using the included graphic elements–or even creating and uploading your own–define touchpoints throughout your yearbook. Lunchtime, Read Across America, and the 100th day of school each have distinct canvases.

Crafted

During the 2023 Editor’s Choice Design Contest, many submissions included a form of digital collage, adding depth to the stories and images across the spreads. Graphics such as hand-torn papers and transparent tapes adorn these modular layouts so you can pack pages with seasonal or quarterly content. 

Crafting a digital book that looks handmade invites your school community into a world where thoughtfully placed captions and photographs tell your unique story. This intentional design choice ignites curiosity and captivates the senses. The scrapbook-like textures, imperfect lines, and off-the-grid layouts carry the essence of an artist's hands at work.

Yearbook Theme Inspo from Tech-Inspired Design

Using tech-inspired elements in your yearbook theme can evoke a sense of nostalgia and celebrate progress. When you get design inspiration from social media, streaming services, or interfaces, your yearbook theme provides a physical, tactile experience that contrasts with the intangible nature of technology. (We won’t judge if you use that nugget in your theme pitch.)

In an Instant

Let’s face it, advisers, younger audiences who are deeply connected to technology may find these designs relatable. And when used with crowdsourcing efforts and a social media plan, they’re compiled in a relevant and memorable way. The familiarity of this double-tap-worthy yearbook theme is part of its appeal.

The included layouts are highly visual: photos, photos, and more photos with plenty of room for captions and the occasional hashtag. We're just going to leave this here.

Y2K Yearbook Theme

Aesthetic blends that evoke both the past and the future remain popular. This theme package of vintage-inspired typography and futuristic elements creates nostalgia. The Y2K aesthetic draws inspiration from the anticipation of entering a new century. Seriously, who else was waiting for a flying car?

Y2K-inspired design commonly uses pixelated graphics as a nod to the digital origins of the era. And while your photography and body copy remain the focus of each spread, digital distortions, mosaic-like patterns, and geometric shapes create visually intricate sidebars and callouts.

As a yearbook theme, Y2K is both a playful and visually stimulating style that captures the anticipation, optimism, and technological innovation of the turn of the millennium.

How to Use a Treering Theme in Your Yearbook

In the Treering app, go to styles from the page designer. You can select any of the 300+ themes from the menu. (Here's a secret an insider tip: even if you choose a Treering theme, you still have access to all the layouts, art, fonts, and color palettes in the catalog.)

Wherever you get your yearbook theme inspo, the finished product should reflect your school right now. Together, color, typography, and your theme story can evoke a profound emotional connection that resonates with authenticity for years to come. So, you do you.

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

The Value of a Theme Package

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

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

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

Three Ways to Choose a Yearbook Theme Package

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

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

Theme 101: Visual and Verbal Elements

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

Visual

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

Verbal

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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?