Pinnacle
Carmel High School, Carmel, Ind.
CSPA Gold Crown
Adviser: Lisa Morris
Editors: Stephanie Grass and Claire Horton
Walsworth representative: Kim Hendrick
Wanting to cover as many of the opportunities their school had to offer as possible, the editors of the 2008 Pinnacle decided on a calendar-themed book. With a goal of looking past the school as a whole to focus on the individual pieces of their school, the editors chose the theme “Break it down.”
The first 80 pages of the book are in calendar format. Each spread covers one week, spanning from the first day of school until March, when the yearbook had to be turned in. Most of the information on these pages is presented as quick reads: quote collections, question and answer boxes, graphs, lists of important information from the year and facts. On each spread, one story is covered with a little more depth. The editors’ letter indicates that they believe they have fit more information into this book than they could have in a traditional organizational format — and they are right.
The staff fit a lot of information onto every page without creating clutter. This spread, the first spread of opening, is no different. Attention to dominance, consistent internal margins, simple fonts, a limited color palette and clear alignment keep all of the elements on this spread from being overwhelming.
The opening copy breaks down the school into manageable groups by discussing the things that happen during school and after school separately. This early introduction of time as a key element in this book helps prepare readers for the calendar that follows the opening. Another time element, a timeline of important events from the entire year, falls on the right side of the opening spreads.
Week one of the Pinnacle calendar section covers the first pep session of the year from the point of view of freshmen. Photos from the week provide even more information, especially because they are paired with detailed captions that always include quotes from participants. As caption lead-ins, the staff used the date the photo was taken.
This spread also includes a quote collection about opinions on weighted grades, which were new to Carmel in 2008. This quote collection allowed the staff to get four more people on this spread and cover an important change for this school year in a small space.
Notice the weekly breakdown on page 15. This sidebar is on every calendar spread and provides information from every day of the year. Two “question of the day” boxes feature different students for Monday and Thursday. Photos with excellent captions describing the events represent Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday mixes some national information with a list of top-selling books, as reported by the New York Times that day. Saturday adds a completely new topic, a car wash held by a club on campus, through a list of facts.
The calendar continues for about 80 pages. In week 17, accidents caused by icy weather became the most important story for the week. Other stories on the page include volunteers at a Santa’s Secret Shop children’s event at the school and a few art classes. These secondary stories are told through extended captions. ACT testing, a men’s basketball game, a speech class, CPR training, an art class and a music class are covered in the weekly breakdown. It is clear that the staff looked for new, exciting events to cover each week.
Notice the stripe of photos in the top left of the spread. The shape and arrangement of these photos matches the cover and endsheet. A similar stripe of photos appears on every spread. Short identifications label each photo, and it is clear that the photos were taken during the week covered on each spread.
Sports pages look a lot like the calendar pages, but each focuses on one sport. Each sports spread has a story and at least two sidebars. The weekly breakdown from the calendar pages is replaced with a season breakdown, which includes highlights arranged by date for six days during the season.
The sports section does an amazing job of breaking down the numbers associated with sports. On this spread, a student profile is told through the numbers of his wrestling career, and the story of a meet in January is told through the numbers as well. These “broken down” numbers are an excellent way for the staff to work a lot more information into the spread in a theme-related way.
Each sidebar in the people section has a verbal connection to the theme, “Break it down.” On this spread, the sidebars “Breaking news,” “Live it up,” “The it list,” “Down to the wire” and “Set it straight” feature eight more students and work in information about the community and students that might not otherwise have a place in this book.
A larger feature about a student’s culture provides another opportunity for the staff to “break it down” and explain one student’s dedication to dance from India.
