By Jen Bladen, yearbook adviser
Harvard-Westlake School, Studio City, California
We have a romantic notion of the solitary page designer, cut off from social contact, alone in his/her cubicle, spooling out flawless designs. That picture is nobody’s yearbook room or staff!
It takes a village to design a good yearbook.
First, all of the rising seniors (a.k.a. second semester juniors) start brainstorming a look and feel for the upcoming year’s book after our final deadline. Last spring, the Class of 2015 looked at magazines and websites and drew sketches and created sample spreads.
Then they went to yearbook camp and met with the gurus at Ignite Journalism University at Pepperdine University in Malibu. The instructors, coaches and even the resident assistants helped my students shape their design ideas.
When we got back to school in the fall, we started creating spreads that might work with the theme created at camp. Then we met with The Cover Artist Stephen Williams who really helped guide students as they solidified their plans. The best part of working with a professional yearbook cover artist like Williams is that he doesn’t truly design the cover of Vox Populi: he helps my students find their own vision and put it on paper.
We also utilize the expertise of our Balfour representative Corey Mundwiler, especially when we get ready to submit the cover and endsheets. He’s the greatest at assisting us in choosing the very best materials and finishes. His great taste and decades of experience really help us get the most for our yearbook budget.
The next major step is to take the now more fully-formed design package to the Advanced Yearbook Workshop in October. The instructors and other yearbook staffs gathered there give my designers vital feedback that supports our creating consistency throughout the book. This is usually where details like folio design and section titles are worked out.
One more important design tool is the critiques we get from NSPA and CSPA. When we get their feedback about the last year’s book, we create an immediate to-do list for the current year’s book. For example, last year the judges said that our captions were thin on student voices. This year we have a new rule to include a quote in at least one caption per spread. It looks better – beefier captions look better on the page – and it is better coverage – we always quote someone not in the photo to include more students in the book.
Finally, we take advantage of the amazing workforce we have at school every day. Before each deadline, I project the pages we’re about to submit and get feedback about the design from the yearbook staff of eighth graders, freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. We especially look at readability – something you can’t fake on a wall-sized projection! If we find a flaw or an inconsistency, someone immediately opens the spread to correct it. It’s an important last step before submission that makes our book look so much better than if we waited for proofs.
Including my 63 students, gurus, rep, cover artist, judges and various other friends and experts, almost 100 people contribute their voices to creating our yearbook design. The actual photos are taken, the words are written and the pages are created exclusively by students. But our village helps us determine early and often how the overall design will come together.
Excerpt from Elements magazine “How’d You Do That?: Innovative Design Strategies.”
