Starting Points for Developing a Theme

Theme is considered the thread that ties an entire yearbook together. It is a cohesive package for the readers to get the story of the entire school year, and if you haven’t already began developing the next one, odds are, you’ll start soon! Here are some starting points to begin the theme development process.

We’ve compiled a list of hundreds and hundreds of theme ideas. Have students choose three or four ideas and explore how they could be adapted to your school this year and how they would promote the coverage of your campus.
Brainstorm and list things that will be new and different at your school this year.
List descriptions of your school. How would people from another school describe your campus and student body?
What impact does your school have on the community?
In what ways is the community involved in your school?
What outside influences impact your school? Consider such things as technology, pop culture and social economic situations.
In what ways does the school location have an impact?
Use a variety of current magazines to gather phrases that catch students’ attention and might be modified into a possible theme statement.
Brainstorm possible voice and tone that you think students at your school might relate to and then search websites that use a similar voice and tone to promote their idea or product.
Once a verbal idea has been selected, students should go back to looking at magazines, advertising and websites to gather visual elements that would help develop the theme concept throughout the entire yearbook.