Posts Tagged ‘yearbook staff’

How to Make the Best Yearbook Ever

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Making a yearbook is hard, but very rewarding work. Here are some quick tips for making your yearbook the best it can be.

1.Decide on a Theme. This is usually easier said than done, but be done it must. It is hard to put the school year into perspective before it has happened, or while it is happening, so you are going to have to put some real though into what you think might hold your classmates’ interest for the entire year. There is no tried and true method for doing this, so just do the best you can. Things you will want to keep in mind however are: how easy your theme will be to establish, how it will translate to the most people (stay away from “in jokes” if possible), and how difficult it might be to keep the theme upheld and incorporated throughout all of the sections of the yearbook, including layout and articles.

2.Make A Schedule and Stick To It. This will take some planning ahead. Make sure that you and your staff have access to your school’s events calendar so you can be sure to assign photographers and writers to attend and make a record. Making sure that this is done consistently throughout the year is going to be a huge, almost daily task, so you’ll want to make sure that you stay on top of it. There is nothing worse or more embarrassing for a yearbook staff than having some wonderful event happen at the school and having had no one there to cover it.

3.Always Be Gathering Material. This includes all types of information, from photos to stories to interviews. The more material you have to choose from, the better your yearbook will be. It may seem like a waste of time and effort at first, but when it comes time to fill those pages, you will be happy that you are able to sift through all of that stuff to find the real gems. This is especially true of photographs. Take many, many, more photos than you think you will need, knowing that a small percentage of them will turn out usable, and an even smaller, but very worthwhile percentage will turn out to be truly great.

4.Be Inclusive. If you are going to have a sections like polls, short opinions, comments, and the like, make sure that you get them from as broad a base as possible. Keep in mind that the yearbook is supposed to represent the whole school, not just members of one class or social group.

5.Check and Recheck Your Copy. The more qualified eyes you can get on your copy before it goes to press, the fewer typos, etc., you will have. Always recruit some fresh eyes – such as a parent or English teacher – as often as possible after you’ve gone through and copy-edited the book yourself a few times.

6.Choose A Great Binding Style. There are a few different ones out there, each with their own charms. If you are looking to create a yearbook in the permanent, library-quality hardcover style, thermal binding is the way to go. Have your school look into the cost of having your own thermal binding system on hand (they are surprisingly inexpensive and fun to operate) so you can get more students involved in the process, and perhaps save your school some real money over an outside printer.

Author Bio: If you are interested in more information about how the right Document Binding Style, can help your yearbook be the best ever, you might want to visit MyBinding.com. They offer a great price on binding equipment and they even offer Free Shipping on orders over $75.00. Plus, they carry a full line of Binding Accessories.

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