Caxton
Robert McQueen High School, Reno, Nev.
NSPA Pacemaker
Adviser: Johanna Sergott
Editors: Leah Chew and Melissa Goss
Walsworth representatives: Whitney Moore and Natasha McGlinn
Using a tree for a visual metaphor, the 2008 Caxton staff explored how their choices in high school changed the paths of the rest of their lives. The theme, “Becoming,” was a fitting structure to discuss the changes in their school and the changes in individuals’ lives. The staff divided the book into sections that take traditional divisions a step further. Three sections of features — labeled Mental, Physical and Social — precede portrait pages and ads. The staff thought about the actual content of a story before assigning it a section.
For example, the Mental section includes many academics stories. However, a story about deciding what kind of tattoo to get — traditionally student life territory — also appears in this section. Magazine-style design, Photoshop filters and 12 — yes, 12 — fonts make every page different and exciting in this book. Clearly, the staff considered its audience in designing a book that is never boring.
A thin strip of copy set off from photos by a rail of white space appears on every theme spread. The opening is no different. This treatment is reminiscent of a tree trunk, providing a subtle nod to the theme concept. A tree-related headline, “Out on a limb,” and digitally drawn tree branches further the metaphor. Three photo strips, showing progression of three different events, more literally captures the theme on this spread.
The opening copy is written in a collective, first-person voice and weaves details of the school into a reflection about how people and things change. “High school wasn’t the first time we took steps to define ourselves and it certainly wouldn’t be the last,” the opening copy reads. “But, with these choices we began to build our futures.”
The “Mental” divider precedes a set of feature stories about choices, learning and “mental strain” inside and outside the classroom. Stories about music, political affiliation and the decision to get a tattoo are woven through a section that focuses mainly on academics.
On this spread, digitally drawn leaves and branches mesh with an actual photo of a tree and other graphics to draw readers into the section. White space is used to isolate the copy and pull the reader’s eye into the explanation of what this section is all about.
The content of each spread determines the design elements used. This is clear on these pages about the production of the school newspaper. Scans of newspapers, textures and colors of newsprint, and a font that looks like old newspaper introduce readers to this topic. Crisp, candid photos round out a design that pulls readers in and gets them interested in the story.
Though every spread in the book is different, body copy, caption copy and folios have consistent sizes and fonts. This consistency allows the staff to play around with headline fonts and design styles and maintain a cohesive look.
Sports spreads received just as much individual attention as the rest of the book. This story, about varsity boys’ soccer, has a mood and a style all its own. The quick cutout photos on the right page borrow from a popular magazine technique. However, the designer has combined four of these photos to show an action sequence, making the cutout technique something new for this book.
This story, like most in the 2008 Caxton, avoids telling every detail of the year in favor of capturing the essence of the topic. The soccer team showed a particular level of commitment this year, so the story focuses on that instead of getting lost in the numbers of specific games. Scoreboards do appear later in the book, as do team photos.
In an excellent example of how the content has driven design, this story about students drinking coffee from Starbucks and other coffee shops takes advantage of the well-known shape of a Starbucks cup. Setting the text in this shape allows the text to become a graphic element as well.
Stories in the “Social” section of the book cover topics common to student life sections in other books as well as some classes and clubs that had a strongly social element. For example, Leadership class appears in this section because the class was about interacting with each other and other students.
