Each section should have its own look. This look is created by designing elements that will be repeated on every spread in the section. This repetition makes the spreads in the section hold together. They become unified.
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Design
Yearbooks are made up of 16-page signatures, always beginning with a right-hand page and ending with a left-hand page. In the printing process, a signature is a large sheet of paper on which eight pages (a flat) are printed on each side. After both sides have been printed, the sheet is folded and cut so the pages are in book form.
The child of a military family, D.J. Stout found it difficult to connect with people he would soon be moving away from. However, by age 11, he took his love of drawing and his fascination with publications and parleyed them into “The Weekly Laf,” a cartoon newspaper he drew on carbon paper and distributed around the neighborhood.
With that kind of creative aspiration, it is no surprise that Stout is now an award-winning designer and partner with international design consultancy Pentagram in Austin, Texas.
No one involved in the process knows everything they should know to produce a senior tribute for the yearbook. Most parents have never designed, photo-edited or written for a yearbook before. Yearbook designers and the tribute staff have never had children graduate. These two groups — parents and ads/tribute staff — are often at odds in the tribute production process.
Advisers can take heart. Yearbook staffs are full of teens creating a publication for teens. They usually will know what is trendy and cool and what is not. Trust them, but give them some direction. That is the recommendation of a few yearbook advisers whose yearbooks, or who themselves, have recently won national awards.
There is only so much a designer can say with a white page. True, the beauty and simplicity of a plain background can be stark and dramatic, calling readers’ attention to a stunning photograph, a dramatic headline, or an isolated story. But other times, less is not more, and, well, more is needed. Textured backgrounds have been a staple of magazine designers for years. They are not too distracting, but give the page a nice feel.
Like all design elements, fonts should be used with purpose. And – let’s face it – the purpose of a yearbook is to tell the stories of the year. So the fonts chosen to “speak” shouldn’t draw attention to themselves but rather to the content on the page.
Walsworth offers 43 body fonts and 71 display fonts, so the selection is plentiful. But can you get the look you want for your yearbook? We compared today’s most popular fonts with AWPC fonts, and found some resemblances. Why pay for a font when you can get a similar one for free? Here is a new perspective on AWPC fonts.
Using your school mascot or colors each year on your yearbook cover does not have to be repetitious and boring. Consider St. Bernard’s, a 101-year-old school for boys grades kindergarten through nine in New York City. For 15 of the past 17 years, the school’s mascot and other traditions have appeared on the cover of The Keg in drawings by professional artist Denise Watt, a former art teacher at the school.
Design rules have their place in explaining the process of design and structure to beginning designers. These rules also allow readers to easily navigate each spread. It is probably better to follow them until you are ready to purposefully break them. But when rules begin to inhibit creativity by emphasizing what “should” be done over what “could” be done, it’s time to take a risk. If you can accomplish the purpose of the rules (readability, structure, balance) in different ways, you might end up creating fresh, contemporary designs with a whole new attitude. So consider these rules to break to achieve dynamic designs with personality.
