Things You MUST Consider When Creating a Yearbook Spread

Yearbook Staff Manual

Things You MUST Consider When Creating a Yearbook Spread...

Layout

• Consistency within sections (student life, academics, varsity/jv sports, people)
• Diversity between sections but with a similar feel (attainable through recurrent graphics and elements of picture/text boxes)
• Unique and obviously different specialty page layouts that still flow with the overall layouts, theme, and feel
• Font
• Font that makes sense with the theme – common feeling - 2 fonts (one for Headline and one for Copy - these fonts and their use will remain consistent throughout the book).
• Consistency in size for different type of font (sections of captions, story, headlines, etc.)
• Consistency in position and shape of text boxes – do NOT format one caption differently or have the text boxes be all different sizes/dimensions
• Theme
• Common color scheme, two to three colors for the entire book – No weird/clashing colors, diversity will come through images
• Logical eye-lines, again, consistency is key
• Consistent elements of picture box sizes/orientation/borders/drop shadows/other effects
• Consistent and REPEATED graphics that tie the theme in and make sense with the content of the page and the point of the book

Pictures

• Quality
• Get a good camera or rent one of ours, just taking pictures on your phone isn’t going to make a good quality page
• Zoom with your feet – move forward, move around, get close to your subject – you won’t have to stretch the picture so much once you get it on the computer if it isn’t taken from so far away
• Think about what you want your dominant to be when you’re out taking pictures – it’s going to be the largest image and the biggest focal point on your page so make it good
• Keep in mind the shapes of picture boxes on your layout and try to take pictures that will fit nicely
• Take LOTS of pictures, use the multiple shots per second function on the camera, and it’ll be a lot easier to catch your subject in the right position with all the best framing and background
• Interest and Diversity
• The most interesting pictures are the ones that are most difficult to get, so get into the action and DON’T JUST take the obvious picture
• Keep in mind the rule of thirds and position yourself somewhere you can take a good shot
• Frame your subject, look for angles that will make it pop and stand out
• Change up your angle; think about ground shots, bird-eye view, use silhouettes, stand behind someone to see what they’re seeing, and think out of the box
• Make sure your subjects are DIVERSE, both in who they are and what they’re doing, don’t put ten pictures of people in the same position on your page – especially keep this in mind for sports pages, there are many different parts of any team and of any sport – find them!
• Have a balance of boys/girls, top/bottom of team, under/upperclassmen, etc. Make sure you don’t have an entire page of people all from one group of people or one friend group. The yearbook is for EVERYONE and should INCLUDE EVERYONE IN OUR DIVERSE POPULATION AT SANDERSON.
• Limit posed pictures – action shots are much more visually interesting, and will make the page look a lot better
• Make sure you don’t have the same person on the same page more than once or twice – seeing the same face all over a spread is repetitive as well as unfair to everyone else who could be on the page
• Individuality
• Get a schedule for games, figure out what day classes are doing something interesting, don’t miss events, and get out there and take your own pictures!
• Unless there is a special circumstance, you should have taken almost all of the pictures that you put on your spread!
• If you’re at the event yourself, you are responsible for taking note of what is going on – it’s a lot easier to write a caption when you know what happened before and after the shot was captured!

Captions

• Structure
• EVERY picture should have a caption, and EVERY caption should contain a quote
• Avoid starting off a caption with a name, it gets repetitive and doesn’t do much to catch the attention of your audience.
• The first part of your caption is the hook, it should be exciting – start off with an action phrase like “Running down the court…”
• The first time you name your subject, use first and last names, after that use just first
• Don’t talk to or assume the audience – don’t use “you”
• DO NOT use first person – no “I asked him this” or “she told us that” or “we found that” – the yearbook is not an editorial
• Quotes
• Don’t start a caption with quotes, they need introduction
• To introduce quotes, use colon-space-open quotation, and use comma-close quotation-space to end it before you add the speaker: “quote,” explained Elizabeth.
• To use a two part quote, put a comma instead of a period at the end, then open quotation and capitalize the next word
• Don’t use “said” – diversity is the name of the game here, try not to use any synonym for said more than once or twice either
• SAID SYNONYM examples: explained, shared, commented, stated, expressed, noted, exclaimed, remembered, recalled, described, etc.
• Try to match the said synonym to the caption, it makes your writing feel a lot more put together if the word flows the feeling
• Said synonyms should be in past tense, the rest of the caption should be in present tense
• Content
• Tell the WHOLE story, especially on an academics or student life spread: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY – make it long enough so that it doesn’t leave unanswered questions, (sports captions can be a little shorter because you don’t want to say the same thing over and over, but try to find the individual story and do it justice in your caption!)
• Make sure the quote you’re going to use relates to the picture, especially on a sports spread – if it doesn’t obviously relate, connect the dots! For example, if the picture is of someone batting and the quote talks about why they like pitching, talk about how there are many different skills required in the game that all the players have to practice, even if it’s not their favorite
• Especially in sports, give extra and noteworthy background that you don’t see in the picture (but be sure to connect it to the image).
• Make sure there is DIVERSITY in LANGUAGE and PHRASES, for example, don’t start off the caption by saying “Participating in a service project…” and then have the quote be “I like participating in service projects because…” – mix up the way you say things and it will make your captions much more stimulating and developed
• Avoid using bland verbs like “is” and “are” – bring whatever action that is in the picture into your caption
• Avoid over-using “Sanderson” or “Spartans”

Copy

• Structure
• The copy is the long story on the page; most often, it relates to the dominant picture.
• Remember how to introduce and set off quotes.
• Copy will be more interesting if you include quotes from several different people, but it depends on the picture and topic.
• Make sure there are TRANSITIONS to each subtopic or each idea included in the story – don’t jump around or make the flow choppy
• Fill in a lot of information around the quotes, explain and give context – straight quotes with no surrounding text will feel unfinished.
• Avoid stating the obvious or rambling
• Whatever structure you use, be sure to include who, what, when, where, why – DO THE STORY JUSTICE
• Subject
• What is the point of your page? What would encapsulate the idea of your page but provide an interesting, unique topic? What is important to the people on your page? What is different? What begs explanation? – Ask these questions to find who or what your dominant picture/story should be about
• Continue diversity – don’t focus too much on one person or one group of people
• For sports spreads: What was different this season? What was unique? Is there anyone on the team with an interesting story? Find the interesting thing about this team or year – don’t just summarize the season
• Think about including seniors and leaders, but don’t obsess over them

After all of the above things are finished, you can best create a title for your page....

Title/Headline

• Have definite titles/subjects for each page, summarized in just a few words (ex: Women’s Varsity Soccer or Homecoming Week) that go on the folio and Nowhere else
• Main Headlines
• Avoid anything obvious and boring like “Student Council” or “Senior Players” (Sports Headings are a bit different because we often default to team names - however, if you can make it more interesting, do so!)
• Make it INTERESTING, a good title can pull together a scattered idea
• Don’t make it too long, it is meant to catch people’s attention, and they will lose interest if it’s too wordy/confusing.
• Can’t go wrong with puns
• Double check the rest of the book and last years’ – no repeating titles
• Must connect to the dominant picture/story and the entire spread
• Connect to the theme if possible
• Subheading
• Much smaller font, distinguish from main headline (possibly keep same font but italicize?)
• Can be longer, but still make sure it’s not wordy, you have the story for that
• Quotes can be good, don’t forget to give credit
• Can connect more directly to the story/picture it is next to
• Connect to the theme if possible
• AVOID CLICHES (which are overused, everyday expressions - in the nick of time, a matter of time, in a jiffy, fall head over heels, read between the lines, etc.

Additional Advice

• Avoid using yearbook members on your pages if you can – we’re going to be in the book plenty, DON’T use someone in yearbook just because it’s easiest
• When choosing pages, try to find something that you can get a connection to – if you’re friends with someone on the team or know one teacher really well, it might be easier for you to do that page.
• Interviews are CRUCIAL to the book – ask interesting questions and try to find what is different and unique about that person, find a story behind a picture – ask leading questions – listen to what they say and ask for them to expand on something that catches your attention – always ask why!

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