The Colophon - Balfour Yearbooks Blog

Educational subject matter experts share their best advice, research, how-to's and insights - all in the name of helping you level-up your knowledge.

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Introducing the 2025 Yearbook Distribution Day Ideas Contest!

Balfour Spreads Contest Winners!

📸 Balfour Great Shot Photo Contest: Enter Now!

Top 5 Tips for Capturing Spring Events in Your Yearbook

3 Tips to Make Yearbook Distribution Day Smooth and Fun

How to Show Appreciation to Yearbook Volunteers

🚨 Balfour Spreads Contest Alert! 🚨

Building the Dream Team: How to Recruit the Best Yearbook Staff

Do’s and Don’ts of Using AI in Yearbook Creation

Winners of the Winter '25 Great Shot Photo Contest!

Top 3 Tips to Make Your Yearbook Index Stand Out

How to Use Tech Tools to Enhance Your Yearbook Coverage

How to Use Valentine’s Day to Capture Heartfelt Moments in Your Yearbook

How to Set Effective Goals for Yearbook Success

How to Use Social Media to Boost Yearbook Sales and Engagement

Happy Yearbook Adviser Appreciation Day!

Top 7 Tips to Avoid Bias in Yearbook Coverage 

5 Expert Tips for Capturing Great Photos

How to Maximize Yearbook Space with Blended Coverage

Captions That Bring Yearbook Photos to Life in 3 Easy Steps

How to Break the Rules and Create Stunning Yearbook Spreads!

Fall '24 Great Shot Photo Contest

Maximize Your Yearbook’s Revenue with Creative Ad Sales

How to Create a Professional Yearbook with a Limited Color Palette

How to Design a Yearbook Cover that Stands Out!

Maximize Efficiency with Encore

How to Cover the Election Fairly and Accurately

Four Steps to Motivating your Staff

Happy National Yearbook Week!

Friday Night Lights: Essential Yearbook Photography Tips for Football Season

Elements of a Well Designed Yearbook Spread

Mastering Yearbook Design with an Effective Style Guide

Ten Strategies for Early Yearbook Sales

Taking your Photography to the Next Level

Selecting a Theme

Let’s Get the Yearbook Started!

Announcing the Latest Great Shot Photo Contest Winners!

Exploring Themes for Next Year

Let’s Make Next Year’s Book the Best One Yet!

Time for Spring Cleaning

Planning the Perfect Distribution

You've Got It; Now Let's Flaunt It!

Balfour’s Great Shot Photo Contest has Begun!

You Did It: Time to Celebrate!

Deadline Dilemmas: Ensuring a Smooth Yearbook Submission

Boost Productivity Before the Deadline: The Art of the Post-It Party

From Caps to Quotes: Crafting a Meaningful Graduation Feature

The Ultimate Yearbook Tip Sheet: 5 Tips for Success in 5 Key Categories

Yearbook Advisers: Mastering the Art of Backup Plans

Congratulations to our January Great Shot Winners!

Add Thematic Coverage Throughout your Yearbook

Streamlining Yearbook Ads with Balfour's Ad Manager

Divide Remaining Spreads by Week to Ensure a Stress-Free Yearbook Finish

It’s Time to Recruit for the Future of Yearbook!

Picture-Perfect Pages: Mastering the Art of Yearbook Portraits!

The Art of Color Planning

January 2024 Great Shot Photo Contest

Capturing Perfection: Mastering Photo Composition

Mastering the Art of Storytelling Yearbook Captions: Bringing Memories to Life

Elevate Your Yearbook Sales and Marketing: Essential Resources

Unveiling Cover Creativity: Explore Our Cover Inspiration Poster

How to Participate in the 2023 Balfour National Yearbook Week Contests

The Ultimate Sales Manager Guide: Your Key to Yearbook Sales Success

Perfect Your Palette: Exploring 2023-2024 Color Trends in Yearbooks

How to Create a Memorable and Consistent Theme for Your Yearbook

Teaching Yearbook Students Leadership with "Scenarios"

How to Make Your Yearbook Spread Content Pop

10 Things Yearbook Staffs Need to Do to Start the Year Right

Congratulations to our Spring 2023 Great Shot Photo Winners!

Make Summer Pics a Snap

Workshops offer bonding experience, extra planning time

You could win $500 in our Great Shot photo contest!

2023 Spring Great Shot Contest

Type Talks: All About Typography

The Book’s Done! Now What?

Colophon – Let’s be clear

Give spring sports your best shot

CSPA names 9 Balfour yearbooks 2023 Crown recipients

You can enjoy Spring Break – here’s how!

Headlines that pack a punch!

Get the attention of the last-minute yearbook buyers

Some Days Are Diamonds; Some Stone: Stress/Mental Health Management

Boost sales and coverage with your yearbook’s index

Share a little love on Valentine’s Day

Things that make you go ‘oops!’

What are we missing…..oh yeah, academics!

Eight ways to avoid missing deadlines

Make it your signature move

CSPA names 9 Balfour schools 2023 Crown Finalists

All I have left to do on my spread is the captions.

Keeping Motivation High: Pom Poms and Pancakes

Christmas Lights, Starbucks Cups and Yearbook Endsheets

Congratulations to our Fall 2022 Great Shot Photo Winners!

People coverage ideas

Stressed? Who, me? Never. (Well, maybe sometimes.)

2022 Fall Great Shot Contest

Spice up those spreads with COBs

Theme: Celebrate the Spooky Season

What does a top-notch yearbook class look like? Not what most evaluators think.

2022 National Yearbook Week: Congratulations to our winners!

Motivation, Fun Year Round

Frightened by Sales Numbers? Get Creative and Scare Up Sales

Celebrate National Yearbook Week with us!

The Essentials: Folio

Make yearbook life easier with organization tools in your classroom

Make it visual: Four strategies for the best yearbook ladder organization

Make those summer spreads sizzle

JEA names Lange a 2022 Rising Star

Let’s get going. A great year(book) starts here.

Until next school year…

Plan for summer coverage

Critiques and contests are distinctively different

Join us in person for the 2022 Adviser Workshop

Congratulations to our Spring 2022 Great Shot Photo Winners!

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week! Take time to appreciate yourself.

Save yourself grief: Change your email and voicemail response for distribution

Who gets a free book? How many should you provide?

Conversations to have with your principal

Five Balfour schools named 2021 NSPA Pacemaker Winners

Win $500 with the Spring 2022 Great Shot Photo Contest

Baylor, North Carolina State win CSPA Silver Crowns

Vary the view with inspired camera angles

Keep the memory alive: Classroom displays celebrate yearbook staffs and covers

CSPA announces Crown winners, Vista Ridge wins Gold

Protect your investment with a lens filter

Yearbook mascots to the rescue!

Baylor yearbook named 2021 Pacemaker Winner

How to get people to stop posing for you

Less is more: Creativity flourishes with text-only title pages

Talk to me: Connect personally with interactive coverage

Energize your group photo pages with fun and relevant content

Meeting photos are so…yesterday. Discover innovative ways to cover clubs.

Sold out is great. But here’s why you should consider ordering extras.

ACP names Baylor, Miami yearbooks to 2021 Pacemaker Finalist list

Happy Yearbook Adviser Appreciation Day!

Three creative ways to fill the blank space, baby

Check on your kids. They may not be OK.

Words to banish from yearbooks

NSPA selects 11 schools as Pacemaker Finalists

CSPA names 14 Balfour schools 2022 Crown Finalists

Have a holly jolly Staff-mas

YB Hacks: Visual reminders aid staffers, ensure consistent design

Green and Negri named 2021 JEA Special Recognition Yearbook Advisers

Congratulations to our Fall 2021 Great Shot Photo Winners!

Jingle all the way to holiday sales

Gobble up these yummy Thanksgiving spreads

NSPA names Bowie editor Designer of the Year

Bridgeland photographer wins Photo of the Year: Environmental Portrait

Bowie wins Design of the Year theme package category

Ridgeview Middle School takes third in Design of the Year, fifth in Photo of the Year

Enter our Great Shot Photo Contest now!

Step up your theme game with concept spreads

NSPA names Bowie, McCallum yearbook staffers Portfolio of the Year finalists

Ridgeview takes spots in each of Junior High/Middle School Finalist contests

Five schools earn finalist spots for Design of the Year and COVID-19 Reporting

The Essentials: Dividers

STICK TO IT: Schools let buyers personalize their yearbooks with stickers

Four photographers earn 2021 Photo of the Year finalist spots

Earn your spot on the sidelines

ACP names Texas Tech a 2020 Pacemaker Winner

ACP honors five Balfour schools with 14 Individual Awards

2021 National Yearbook Week: Here are the winners!

Yearbooks just wanna have fun

The Essentials: Theme

Personality plus: Pick a person to embody your theme

Celebrate National Yearbook Week with us!

Balfour schools dominate college yearbook Design of the Year awards

Baylor, North Carolina State named story, photo of year finalist for sports coverage

Build your brand with a distinctive logo

Start yearbook content with ‘what you missed’ spreads

Where to start? Photography.

Negri receives JEA’s Medal of Merit

JEA names Thomas a 2021 Rising Star

OPEN ME! The 2022 kit is on its way

Looking ahead to a new year

We’re thinking BIG about 2022 yearbooks

ACP names Texas Tech a 2020 Pacemaker Finalist

Goodbye yearbook, hello summer!

A yearbook silver lining: Pandemic changes here to stay

Teamwork is key for middle schools journalists

Think BIG with our national summer workshop opportunities

Balfour + Tribute = Free Virtual Yearbook Signing

Six tips for distribution day success

Key strategies to prepare for distribution

Congratulations to our Spring 2021 Great Shot Photo Winners!

Thank you, Teachers!

There will always be a yearbook.

Understanding Photography: Types of shots

Now what? Three projects to keep staffs engaged

Done? Focus your energy on marketing and last-minute sales

NSPA names seven Balfour schools 2020 Pacemaker Winners

Snap to it! Get ready to enter our spring Great Shot Photo contest

‘It always seems impossible until it’s done’

Entice potential staffers to join yearbook

Rock Canyon and Episcopal School of Dallas win CSPA Gold Crowns

Coverage in 2021: Last-minute ideas to fill pages

NSPA names nine Balfour schools 2020 Pacemaker Finalists

Coverage in 2021: Sports ideas

New spreads added to Ready-to-Go Collection

Five ways to get your Balfour tech questions answered

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