July 1, 2025
2025 school spirit cover winners
In Treering’s inaugural Cover Design Contest, which—if we’re being real—was three concurrent contests, schools submitted their covers to one of three categories:
- School Spirit – mascots, school colors, and anything else that shows off your community
- Theme Development – an introduction to your visual and verbal theme
- Elementary Student Art – original art by K-6 students
We said, “School,” you said, “Spirit.” Pride in your community shone through on every cover.
Grand Prize Winner: Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Mascot: Rainbow dragon
School colors: 15 colors representing 15 art departments
“Each of the dragon's colors represents one of the school's 15 arts departments. Those colors are carried through the rest of the design, appearing in the colorful garden that spans the bottom of the front and back cover, and in the text on the back cover where each department's name is written in its unique color,” said adviser Jeff Castleman, who also teaches drawing, painting, photography, and computer art.
This cover illustrates the adage, “Know the [design] rules, and break them.” Generally, we’d encourage a yearbook creator to avoid using 15 colors. Not Asawa Arts.
They grouped warm colors for the sunset-inspired swirls, sandwiched between greens as grasses and blues in the skies. Each piece of flora has the base of the blues or pinks with pops of contrasting colors. Black lines hem it in.
A group of eight yearbook club students collaborated on the original illustration. The lead designers, both seniors, at Asawa Arts’ yearbook club developed the visual identity of the yearbook. They went from pencil sketches to creating their own computer-based line art. Six supporting designers (all juniors) filled it in with flowers, leaves, mushrooms, and butterflies.
On the spine and in the dragon’s hands are roses. “The rainbow dragon symbolizes our school spirit,” Castleman said, “and the rose it holds represents our guiding principles.”
The acronym representing Respect, Openness, Safety, and Engagement is part of the campus as much as it is part of the culture.
Castleman appreciated the flexibility of working with his students to create the vision and fully customize the yearbook cover. He said each year, the yearbook team re-imagines the dragon, giving it a different feel, from East Asian and Medieval to this year’s psychedelic interpretation.
“We think of [the cover] as the crowning jewel on a bespoke book,” Castleman said.
Castleman's team earned a Treering-sponsored back-to-school ice cream bash for their campus.
The Final Five
Brooklyn International School, Brooklyn, NY
Mascot: none
“Our school is a very tight community as our students come from many backgrounds trying to achieve the American Dream, but not forgetting their roots,” Norma Gaytan said.
Gaytan’s students represented their classmates with flags and artifacts from their home countries.
Gloria Deo Academy, Springfield, MO
Mascot: Lion
This is the cover we expected: school colors and a mascot boldly proclaiming school spirit. The texture in the mane and near-watermark incarnations of the lion on the back adds texture.
Mid-Pacific Institute Preschool and Elementary, Honolulu, HI
Mascot: Pueo (Hawaiian Owl)
The drone photo in honor of Mid-Pacific’s 20th anniversary is impressive enough. We loved the before and after images.
Adviser Abbey said, “The students learned about how to use a grid to scale an image, practicing in art. We then applied the math to create a giant grid on our courtyard and replicated our school mascot with field paint.”
Montera Middle School, Oakland, CA
Mascot: Toro
Student art always holds a special place in our hearts. Montera’s cover art extended from the front to the back cover, making a bold statement of school spirit.
Olympia Regional Learning Academy, Olympia, WA
Mascot: Orca
The symbolism in the student art evokes powerful sentiments of school spirit. Both contest winners captured the essence of the K-12 campus’ mentoring ethos. On the front, a mother and baby orca represent the cooperative role ORLA provides.
“We take our cooperative role with the families very seriously and we could not have the kind of school or kind of students we have without the role the caregivers provide, both at home and at our school,” adviser Rachel McKaughan said.
“The back cover also represents the playful spirit we have at the school with our many hands-on electives, she said, “where students are able to discover and express many different talents.”
From each submission, we learned school spirit is more than a sports team or school song steeped in tradition. It is comprised of community features: shared values and overarching identity. Thank you to the 300+ schools that shared their story with us.
