See How People are Making YBK a Better Place
BEST PRACTICESEver wonder what goes in to making YBK a better place?
This week’s EIC contribution comes from Shannon Worley, former editor at Lafayette High School in Wildwood, Missouri. She’s a journalism student at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and has some great advice for making the yearbook room a great place to be.
She shares some of the team building exercises her staff loved. This is a must-see for all up-and-coming editors and student leaders. Check it out!
Need to rewind? All of our Adviser Assistance emails are available on their own page.
Leadership and the Real World
BEST PRACTICESUniting the themes of recruiting new staffers and taking on challenges, here’s the second installment of EIC Live.
Meet the amazing Casey Medlin, who was a three-staff student journalist at Cape Fear Academy in Wilmington, N.C. You read that right — newspaper, lit mag and yearbook.
She’s a student at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has some awesome things to say about how her former life as a student journalist gave her people skills and leadership experience that really does translate into her real-world career direction. She shares how she has applied her journalism skills in internships while attending college.
This one is a gem, not just for your current staffers but also for your future recruits.
Start Shaping Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
BEST PRACTICES, UncategorizedHOW TO YBK
Start empowering next year’s leaders now
One of the most rewarding parts of advising is fostering leadership in young adults. It’s even better when you can convert a student who doesn’t see themself as a leader into a force of good in your yearbook space.
As your deadlines come and go, you are probably seeing some of those students move to the front of the pack and start to shine. Some of them will simply show you that they are organized and can keep cool under pressure. Another may raise her hand and tell you she is interested in a leadership position. So, take a minute and look around the room. And, while it’s your job to inspire and empower, your current leadership should also take on this noble calling. What a great set of leadership skills for them to learn, as well.
How do you make this happen? Here are some ideas:
1. Have your current, returning staffers fill out applications for the positions they want. You can use the resources in our curriculum in the Welcome section, including the Staff Interview Form and Job Application.
2. Plan interview appointments with every member of your staff. Start with returners and talk to them about their potential for advancement in their yearbook careers. For seniors and non-returners, treat them as exit interviews, where they have the opportunity to give you feedback on every aspect of the program. This is such an important career-readiness skill.
4. Once new positions are chosen, make the training process part of your graded assignments. Mentorship sessions between outgoing and incoming leaders are an easy way to build relationships and teams.
Communication is key
This week’s Editors in Convo video features Madge Lister, a former editor from Casady School in Oklahoma City. She provides some great insight on maintaining open lines of communication on the yearbook staff. We can all take notes on Casady’s class organization and workflow, too.
Superstar Editors Have the Best Advice
BEST PRACTICESLearn how great editors get the best coverage
If you or your staffers were unable to join our adviser or editor roundtables this fall, you missed some great conversations.
We hope you got our invites to our roundtable series this fall, but if you missed them, no worries. We are happy to share some of the highlights from the Editors in Convo series.
Our first installment on coverage comes from Edward Garcia, a former Coverage Editor from the Cayuse yearbook at Walnut High School in Walnut, California. Edward shares some great advice for tracking student coverage and ways to generate new story ideas.
Modern design trends: Yearbook edition
BEST PRACTICESThe energetic and caffeinated Dan Mueller jumps right in with countless examples of graphic design inspiration. It all comes back to story and how you convey that visually.
Depth in design is Mueller’s favorite thing. He repeats it early and often that it’s all about depth — or layers. And don’t get him started on pull quotes…
Four ways to step up your type game
Vary these elements within your theme look to create contrast in typography.
- Size
- Color
- Font
- Case
He has some great tips about cutouts and the amazing background remover tool now available in Canva via eDesign.
After showing off tons of great yearbook work from the past year, Mueller does a PSA for Flipster and reveals some professional work. Magazines are great sources of inspo for yearbook. It could be as big as a feature or as small as a mod.
Be inspired by yearbook spread designs from across the country — and learn what makes them fresh. Watch the video.
How To Sell More Yearbooks
BEST PRACTICESTiered pricing, discount codes, payment plans and more can help your staff sell more right now
Discounts can be a helpful tool for offering a sale to a specific group and for a short period of time. Be careful about spreading codes far and wide and keep sales windows tight. Check out this great resource about selling your book.
Here are five ways to put discount codes into action today.
- GRAD YEAR CODE
Provide codes to parents who attend a grade-level meeting or back-to-school night. Keep the window short: Give them 48 hours to purchase a discounted book using the code specific to their child’s grade. Ex. “MustangsYBK2025” - FREE STUFF
Create a promo code for “free personalizations.” Set up a package that includes a name plate or other personalization and provide a discount code for buyers to take that amount off of their purchase. - SENIORS RULE
Start an early-bird senior ad special. Offer a promo code for submitting those ads by a specific date. For seniors who purchase a yearbook ad, give them a discount on buying their book — and earlier is always better. - OPTICAL ILLUSION
If your book is $70, which sounds better 10% off or $7 off? Consider the difference between using a percentage discount or a dollar amount. Our new discount codes feature in eBusiness can handle either version. - ANGEL BOOKS
Provide discount codes to businesses that would like to donate a book to an anonymous student. Reward their generosity with a discount.
Like these? Here’s a great handout with even more ideas.
Typography in yearbook design
BEST PRACTICESTell your school’s story with type
Self-appointed font queen and all-around outstanding yearbook adviser Carrie Faust gets pumped for letter forms. After starting with “wooooh” she defines the terms surrounding typography.
Make sure to stay tuned until the very end of the video for some very cool inspo spreads.
Typography is by definition artistic. Faust says type should be designed just as much as other elements of the theme.
Spend time with it. Convey the message. Speak to the content.
Parts of type
Faust says to find the font poster in your kit and teach it to your staff.
- Ascender
- Baseline
- Cap height
- Counter
- Descender
- Set width
- X-height
Types of type
It’s all about that serif. Carrie really breaks these down in the video.
- Oldstyle
- Sans serif
- Modern
- Slab serif
- Script/Handwritten
- Decorative/Novelty
She recommends locking down the “punk freshman” with only a couple font families. And, Faust talks about choosing contrasting type for display and mod headlines.
Fonts can make or break your book. You’ll be able to distinguish the different types of fonts, learn theories about how many fonts should appear in your book, and see how typography can drive your design. Watch the video. (Don’t miss out: Link expires on Oct. 15.)
Making It Your Own
BEST PRACTICESPutting inspiration pieces to work in your yearbook
Decorated and dedicated yearbook adviser and advocate Mike Simons takes viewers on an impressively deep dive in his “Making It Your Own” session.
With numerous examples of professional work and how to use the “yearbook blender” effectively, he breaks down theme inspiration — both visual and verbal. Simons asks attendees to describe your theme like it’s a person. Those details should feed into your “pretty hunt.”
Steps for inspo success
Remember your final product should be an evolution — not a duplication.
- Find inspiration everywhere. He lists several sites/sources in the video.
- Copy the piece exactly. Seriously, like the whole thing.
- Start tweaking. Keep going. Incorporate other theme elements. Change something else.
- Make your final touches. And, don’t forget to print it out.
Six ways to make the design your own
- Color
- Typography
- Photo treatments
- Shape and design elements
- Type and photo packaging
- Coverage and mod ideas
Learn more about how to turn examples you like into designs (and components) that work for your book, your school, this year. Watch the video. (Don’t miss out: Link expires on Oct. 15.)
WHERE IT ALL BEGINS
HERFF JONES YEARBOOKS EMBODIES ALL THAT OUR COMPANY DOES BEST: CAPTURING THE ENERGY AND EXCITEMENT OF THE ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE IN AN UNFORGETTABLE AND
TIMELESS WAY.