Once you have determined the theme and tone for your yearbook, creating a Style Guide can help you achieve a unified look.
Yearbooks look best when consistent design elements are repeated throughout the book, and late September or early October is the perfect time to create a style guide!
A style guide is basically a written plan for what your book is going to look like. Guides often take the form of a poster and are hung in the yearbook room. A digital version placed in a prominent place on the journalism drive is a good option too.
Elements of a Style Guide
- Write your Theme and describe the tone of the book.
- List fonts, font styles, and sizes for captions, body copy, lead-ins, main headlines, subheadlines, photo credits, and folios.
- List your colors and your plan for how/where to use each one.
- Include the sizes of your top, bottom, inside, and outside margins. Decide on the number of columns for each page and start and end all elements at one of the columns.
- Visual Connections to your theme – sketch examples of graphic elements to repeat throughout the book. Add plans for how to use them.
- Verbal Connections to your theme. Write a list of words and phrases related to your theme to repeat throughout your book.
- Develop a system for organizing your photos. Where will they be saved, and how will they be named and organized?
Ask your rep if you need help with a Style Guide. We have lots of experience, know all about yearbooks, and absolutely love helping you plan amazing books.
🚨 Reminder🚨: SIX DAYS LEFT
Our 2026 T-Shirt Design Contest has begun!
Guidelines:
- Original artwork
- Include “2026” in the design
- Optional: “Senior” or “Class of”
- No specific school mascots, names, or colors
For more information and to submit a design click here!
