Bring on the FUN. The club and team photos don’t have to be the most boring pages in the yearbook.
We agonize over the visuals for the theme, carefully selecting fonts, colors and graphics. We plan carefully for sidebars on spreads and fun headlines sprinkled throughout the book. So, why aren’t we making the same effort in the reference section?
As spring books get closer to that final deadline, it’s easy to dismiss the group photographs as just one more thing to do. But we’re here to urge you to do more than that.
Adding feature coverage to the group photo pages serves multiple purposes. It will:
1. Make the pages more appealing.
2. Provide another space to connect to the theme.
3. Offer more opportunities to feature students, clubs and sports.
4. Make the section more interesting for an editor to lead, organize and design.
It can also be incredibly fun. Take this club photos layout from Hill Country Christian School. The Bard staff chose to run the group photos smaller to provide substantial editorial coverage. They created a statistics sidebar, running all the numbers related to club participation. The staff also added a cutouts and quotes module about the chess club, featuring charismatic images of three club members.
If this much coverage overwhelms you or you can’t provide this amount of space, try a simpler approach. The Black & Gold staff at Rock Canyon High School utilized horizontal space between the group photos to feature additional coverage. Connecting to their “consider” theme, they gave snappy, concise descriptions of the five organizations on the spread.
The Lone Star staff at Bowie High School implemented a similar design strategy with their sports team photos. Using the space between photos, they added Q&As with two athletes, asking about their game day and preparation routines. Another interesting and helpful addition: the staff incorporated the schedule with the team photos. When possible, we encourage including scores, but listing the game/match dates and opponents are also a valuable addition.
Similar to their club group pages, Hill Country Christian School added cutouts with their sports team photos. One module has quotes and large cutouts of three basketball players while the other package features four different sports, each one showcasing a single quote and a trio of cutouts. Both sidebars focus on middle school sports, a nice way to provide additional coverage for sub-varsity teams and athletes.
As you plan your reference section, we hope you’ll consider adding feature coverage with the clubs and sports team photos. It doesn’t have to be much, but we love seeing more students in the book, connecting to the theme and creating compelling layouts. Happy designing!