How To Create A Great Yearbook

Download Article

You've been put in charge of designing your school yearbook. It's a large task, but definitely doable. The first step is to find out what guidelines and requirements have been set by the school. After that, assign responsibilities to the yearbook staff and make a plan. Next is the fun part—designing the cover and adding some amazing inside pages to create a memorable keepsake for your school.

1
Determine if you have enough members on the yearbook staff. Is your yearbook group a class or a club? If your group is a club, make sure you have enough members recruited to evenly spread out the workload.
- 8-10 members is a good goal. If you have a large school, and/or a lot of sports and clubs, you may want to have a few more students on the staff.
2
Assign students to cover specific sections or elements of the yearbook. You can ask students for their preference in which areas they cover, or you can delegate which areas each student is responsible for.^[1] Depending on the size of your school and the number of yearbook staff members, assign one student or a group of students to cover each area.
- Assign students or a group to a section that covers sports and extracurricular activities.
- Have someone in charge of the layouts for the main individual profile pictures, and for making sure that every student and staff member has had their photo taken.
- Have a group of students responsible for capturing special moments and candid shots.
- Decide who will handle the written content. Will each group will be responsible for all of the writing for their area, or will you have a few select students do all of the writing for the entire yearbook?
Advertisement
3
Pick a theme and keep it in mind during the entire design process. The theme incorporates everything from the colors you use, to the style of the yearbook (like vintage), to the slogan. Think about these elements when designing the cover, creating inside pages, and incorporating quotes or graphics.^[2]
- If the slogan for your yearbook is "A Story to be Told," think about all the ways that this slogan can be incorporated into your yearbook. It could likely be the title on the front cover. Maybe your autograph pages look like a paper scroll or you choose Old English or Medieval Gothic fonts.
4
Make a rough draft layout of your yearbook. Have each group collect and organize their content to help figure out how many pages they will need. Once all of the groups have submitted their work, put everything together to see how it fits. This will give you a general idea of how to organize the yearbook.
- For instance, you may know that page 1 will be the title page, page 2 will be the table of contents, page 3-4 will have teachers and staff, and 5-8 will be senior pictures. Continue piecing all of the sections together until you have all of the areas covered. Don't forget to account for section dividers and autograph pages as well.
Advertisement

1

Keep the layouts simple to help maintain the focus. Try choosing just 5 or 6 different layouts and repeating them throughout the book. This helps keep everything organized and consistent, and allows the readers to focus on the content of the yearbook, rather than on how everything is arranged.
2
Experiment with different fonts. The little "feet" on the ends of the letters in serif fonts make reading easier, so serif fonts are better to use for long texts like stories and articles. Sans-serif fonts grab the reader's attention and work great for titles.^[3] Try a lot of different fonts until you find one that fits your theme and the look you want.
- Some examples of serif fonts are Times New Roman and Garamond.^[4]
- Popular sans-serif fonts are Futura and Proxima Nova.^[5]
- For variety, try font pairing. Font pairing is when you use a combination of different fonts together to create visual interest.^[6]
3
Make the first page a title page. Your title page should contain all of the basic information about your school. Include the title of the yearbook and the school name, address, phone number, and website.
- You can also include the volume number, if your school has been keeping track with publications.
- Some schools are including the number of students and staff as a historical reference.
4

Add a table of contents so readers know where to find what. Once you have all of the sections of your yearbook decided and the page numbers assigned, be sure to add the information on the table of contents. This makes for a quick reference point if someone needs to look up the staff photos or find a picture of the girl's basketball team.
5
Sort the main individual profile pages alphabetically by grade level. You can sort the photo pages by the highest grade level to lowest grade level, or the lowest to the highest. Order the photos alphabetically within each grade level. Don't forget to add the section for staff photos.
- Add a simple black or white border around the edges of the photos to separate them from the page background.
- If you collected student quotes (sometimes this is only done for the senior class), include those under or beside each profile picture—depending on the layout of your pages.
6
Add a section for the group photo pages next. Here you would feature all of the group photos including sports teams; elective classes like band and choir; and extracurricular clubs and activities like yearbook or honor society.
- You can also include group photos of students that aren't considered an organized group, like student office assistants or teacher's aides.
- This section might take up quite a few pages. Be sure to keep the layout consistent on all of them.
7
Disperse pages of candid shots throughout the yearbook. Candid photos are special because they capture moments that represent the school and the students, so it's important to include them. These are the photos taken of students and staff throughout the year at sporting events, on dress up days, or just in the classroom.
- These pages can be full spread photos or made into a collage. Have some of each!
8
Don't forget to add the autograph pages! This might be the funnest part for some students. These pages are meant for friends and teachers to sign at the end of the year. Students may use them to draw pictures, write quotes or a nice note, or even leave a phone number to stay in touch.
- You could have one large section for autograph pages, or have smaller sections of 1 or 2 pages dispersed throughout the yearbook.
9
Add optional pages if you have the space. Once you have make sure you have all of the necessary pages included, see if you have the space to add section dividers, a current events section, advertisement pages, and an index.
- Add pages between the different sections to separate them from one another.
- A current events section could be laid out similar to a newspaper and would include major events, popular trends, and even prices for a loaf of bread or gallon (liter) of gas. It's a fun space to look back on as a reminder of the times.
- If your school sold advertising space to raise money, be sure to include those.
- Include an index page at the end to list each student and staff member's name and the page number(s) they are featured on.^[7]
10
Get feedback from someone who isn't on the yearbook staff. Once you have everything put together, and have checked and double-checked your work, give yourself a break. Since everything tends to run together once you've looked at it so much, having someone else look things over can be very beneficial in catching mistakes or oddities.^[8]
- Ask an English teacher for their help with proofreading all of the printed text.
- Have an art or graphic design teacher look over the general layout of yearbook.
- Take the feedback you receive seriously and implement changes where you can.
Advertisement

1

Incorporate the theme into the front cover. The front cover is your chance to make a memorable first impression. Since the theme is a major part of your project, incorporate your colors, slogan, and style into the cover so readers immediately know what to expect in the rest of the book.
2
Make your school colors prominent. Blend the colors into the drawing, design, and the wording that you use on the cover.^[9] Try swapping the colors around to figure out what looks better and is more visually appealing.
- For instance, if your colors are black and gold, try a black background with gold font. Then try a gold background with black font.
- Dark text on light backgrounds is typically easier to read, but light text on a dark background often works well to direct attention to a specific point.^[10]
3
Include your school mascot if you have one. Whether you are the bulldogs or the cavemen, your mascot is an important representation of your school. You don't necessarily have to feature an image of your mascot if you don't feel that it works with your theme. Just include it with your school name.
- For instance, you could write "The Jefferson Bulldogs" or "Charlton High Cavemen."
4
Remember to include the current school year. Adding the year to the cover allows you to set your yearbook apart from the other yearbooks that students own. It also makes it easier to reference when it's time to go back and reminisce.
- Instead of writing the entire school year "2017-2018," you could put "Class of 2018."
5
Use your yearbook software program if you want to create a digital cover. This can be as simple as a solid-colored background with an understated school name, year, and motto printed down in the corner. Make the design more intricate with geometric patterns or abstract art.
- If your school took a school photo with all of the students, use the photo for a full page cover.
- Make a collage from memorable photos that were taken throughout the school year.
6
Create your rough draft and get feedback. Once you have decided on all of the elements that you want to include, get started on your draft! Don't worry about making it perfect, you just want to get an idea of the layout to be sure all of your elements flow together and fit properly.
- Consider making a couple of different options to see which one turns out better. You may be surprised.
- Check with members of the office staff, maybe an art teacher, and a few other students to see what they think about the designs. Listen to their ideas and suggestions and use their feedback to decide what changes you can make to improve your design.
- Use the feedback to create another draft and then check back in to see what they think.
7
Hold a contest if you want to give other students a chance to participate. Another option is to open this task up to the rest of the student body. Give them the guidelines—perhaps it can only be drawn by hand (no computer programs or graphics), must include the current school year, and needs to reflect the chosen theme. Whatever guidelines you decide on, make sure they are clear.
- Set a deadline and include instructions for where to turn their work in.
- Have the yearbook staff vote on the best submission, or open voting up to the rest of the school. It's always a good idea to keep the artwork anonymous during the voting process.
- Announce the winner once it's been decided.
8
Submit your final draft to the yearbook company. Try to be patient while you wait for the final proof to come in the mail—it may take a few weeks. Once it arrives, look it over and pat yourself on the back for all of your hard work.
- You'll usually have one more opportunity to make changes after this point. If you see any errors on the hard copy you receive, contact your representative from the software company to make the final adjustments before printing the rest of the yearbooks.
Advertisement

Ask a Question

200 characters left

Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

Submit

Thanks for submitting a tip for review!

References

About This Article

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 9,872 times.

Did this article help you?

Get all the best how-tos!

You're all set!