Treering’s annual design contest celebrates the creativity, storytelling, and talent that make yearbooks meaningful. This year, we combined the contests for cover, custom pages, and spreads, creating our biggest challenge yet.

Your response was incredible.

Three groups of judges evaluated over 1,000 entries from parents and school leaders for

• Design quality
• Storytelling
• Visual impact
• Relevance to content

The winning school spirit cover designs transformed their communities’ experiences into visual stories that could only belong there: if we traded out the school names, the covers wouldn’t work. Each is rooted in a unique culture and tradition.

Grand prize winner: M.C. Riley Elementary School & Early Childhood Center, Bluffton, SC

The judges believed this cover succeeded because it felt less like a yearbook cover and more like a mural. Built entirely from original student artwork, the design transforms student-created illustrations with a pop art treatment to create unity across the individual contributions.

With the school’s theme of “Leading in the Lowcountry” as their compass, students created a visual tribute that connects Riley’s history, community, and namesake.

“Our school's namesake, Mr. Michael C. Riley is featured on the front cover to honor our newest school tradition, MCR Week, which helps students, staff and the greater community understand his impact on life in Bluffton, South Carolina through research,” Alumni Association and Parent Liaison Sabrina Copeland said. 

Runner up: Marfa High School, Marfa, TX

The localization of the cover details stood out to the judging panel on Marfa’s entry. Every detail feels intentional, from the worn corner treatment that mimics a notebook carried throughout the Texas K-12 school year after year. It’s distressed from being shoved in a backpack. It’s decorated with local sites and businesses. It’s Marfa purple and rich in community.

To create their original cover, yearbook students collected artifacts from around the school: vintage 70s and 80s enamel lapel pins, a press pass, stickers students had on hand, a poster in the hallway, the corner of a bent composition book, and more.

“We were like little magpies,” adviser Adele Powers said.

Under Powers’ art direction, students photographed the items, converted them to transparent PNGs, and uploaded them to the Treering app. They added drop shadows and experimented with size and placement to create this photorealistic cover.

Again, rich in student voice, this could only be Marfa’s. 

Runner up: Montera Middle School, Oakland, CA

Undeniably, this cover was pure student voice. During judging, there was considerable discussion about how much personality the cover contained. Every character contributes to the story, creating a sense of community while allowing viewers to discover new details with each look. 

Rather than focusing on a single symbol or mascot, the cover celebrates the people who make the Montera unique. From the marker lines of vibrant colors to the emotions and interactions depicted, we felt part of the Toro community. 

“Every person is a real person,” yearbook coordinator Melita Juresa-McDonald said as she pointed out the art teacher, the science teacher, and even the thirteen-year-old artist (she’s holding the red notebook). 

Juresa-McDonald’s yearbook club chose it as the winner in the school-wide art contest.

Now that her son is promoting to high school, she’ll no longer run two the lunchtime yearbook clubs. 

Juresa-McDonald said, “I’m leaving them with a gift.”

Runner up: Springbridge International School, San Jose, CA

At first glance, it would be easy to miss how a stunningly textured tree with owls is a story. We’re thankful the yearbook team invited us in. 

Springbridge approached school spirit through place, memory, and shared experience. Centered around the school's beloved playground tree, the cover transforms a familiar campus landmark into a symbol of community, growth, and belonging.

Yearbook club students worked with club leader Mitzi Sampson, who happens to be a professional artist, to develop their concept.

They sketched branches on whiteboards, which she scanned, and using her iPad and Adobe Fresco, painted the tree to match the Treering theme kit “Leaving an Impression.” They wanted a rich, Impressionistic painting as the cover to match the elements inside the book.

Under Sampson’s guidance, yearbook club students learned to trade “I don’t like it” for “This feels off.” They moved the tree from the front cover to the spine, since the tree is “the center of the school.” They researched their mascot, the owl, and created eight iterations in various sizes to fill the branches (representing students in K-8 grades). Student art direction included “gentle beaks” to remove the predatory nature of the owls and heads facing different ways.

Sampson said, “Owls have long symbolized wisdom, curiosity, observation, and learning—qualities we hope our students carry with them as they grow.” 

Springbridge is a Mandarin- and Japanese-immersion school. Their uniforms align with Japanese-style traditions, and students wear hats in yellow, green, and blue, leading up to kindergarten. They acknowledge their roots in a way we can see.

“The students specifically chose the hat colors for the cover because they feel nostalgic about their earliest years at the school,” Sampson said.

Judges appreciated the restraint and intentionality of the design. Rather than relying on photographs, mascots, or slogans, Springbridge’s cover tells a deeply personal story about the people, place, and traditions that define the school community.

Honorable mentions

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As you can see, the judges consistently rewarded authentic representation over decoration and storytelling over trends. We are proud to showcase the top entries to represent the creativity, passion, and student-centered connections that preserve school memories beyond a social feed.

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