The winter break always comes with the temptation to kick back, relax, and recharge to prepare for the new year and the challenges ahead. While everyone, including yearbook staff, should take this opportunity and enjoy themselves, you should also keep your eyes and ears open for stories and ideas that would perfectly fit your yearbook. Here’s how you can stay productive during winter break.
Pre-break Planning
The holiday break can also be the ideal time to really make your yearbook staff into a team. In the run-up to the holidays look at some fun activities you can do either in school or outside it to really make your team cohesive: you could decorate your yearbook room together, perfect if you’ll need to come in over the holidays to do some work, or run a small gift or dessert exchange. A happy and friendly team will always produce a better yearbook.
As the winter break approaches, it’s essential to make sure you and your yearbook staff know their page goals for December and January. This could be the pages you want to send in before the break, or planning the ones that need to come in as soon as you’re all back together.
During the Holidays
Perhaps one of the best yearbook tips, or just tips in general, especially during the holidays, is to plan your time well and set small goals. Your yearbook staff deserves to relax as well, and stressing over approaching deadlines for the holiday period isn’t going to help you enjoy yourself and get ready for the new year.
It can be as simple as collecting a sample of holiday photos and short stories to create a winter break collage, or can even be a more detailed study of school trips or sports tours. Anything that really brings together the feeling of school community is worth at least reading into and seeing if it fits with your yearbook’s theme. You may also want to take the quieter time over the holidays to get additional inspiration for your yearbook.
One great yearbook tip is to always remember that your role is to give all students an insight into what has been happening throughout the year. This means that as yearbook staff, you’ll want to keep on top of as many of the different winter trips and plans as you can to really give a snapshot into the full school year.
After the Winter Break
For many schools, January can be a reasonably slow month in terms of activities. It makes it a great time of the year to catch up on some of the larger yearbook spreads that may have fallen to the wayside earlier in the process.Â
After the winter break is also a great time to ensure that you have your yearbook publisher lined up. At YearbookLife, we make the yearbook process easy. With easy-to-use design software, free webinar training, great customer care and technical support assistance, we provide you with all the resources to simplify the yearbook process. Already designing your book in a graphic design software? Then our Print Ready plan is for you! Request a free quote for your yearbook by clicking here today.
Knowing which moments to capture for school yearbooks is important – after all, we want to remember every detail of their childhood! We’ve put together some great ideas and events that are perfect for capturing yearbook moments below.
Capturing moments for yearbooks can fall on students, teachers, other staff and especially parents! Attending school events is obviously the most ideal time to get photos, but there are day to day candid shots from classrooms and school life that can show great times, too. Here are some fun ideas to keep your eye out for if you plan on capturing some yearbook moments this school year.
- Fundraising events – these events are great for people to snap candid photos of students doing great things. Get great action shots with smiles, transactions, signs, posters and the goods they’re selling.
- Sports events – These are probably the most common moments to capture for yearbooks, but sports events are great to show school pride and great school spirit. Just make sure your smartphone or camera can handle action shots and get some pictures of the crowd too!
- Day in the life – If you’ve got a spare chunk of time during the day, have a teacher or other staff member walk from class to class. Getting photos of your students in their element makes for great yearbook photos! Science experiments, debates, art class, choir, all of these make for great shots!
- Assemblies and celebrations – School rallies, parties, meetings and other school gatherings are great opportunities to capture memories. Having as many of the student and staff body in one place at the same time means the chance to get everyone in the photos.
- Away events – Sports aren’t the only reason for school spirit and pride! Math events, debate, choir and theater, even science fairs and international language trips can bring just as many fun memories to your yearbook!
- Celebrating volunteer work – Sometimes students do great things outside of school related events. If you’ve got students doing great things in the community, a great way to recognize their achievements is by attending awards or recognition ceremonies where they’re honored for their contributions.
We’re sure you’ve got plenty of other great ideas and chances to capture memories for your yearbook. Just remember – sometimes our smartphones make the best camera! Keep your lens clean, your batteries charged and do a little research about the settings on your phone. You’ll be capturing those special school year moments like a pro in no time! For more tips on using a smartphone to take photos for your yearbook, click here.
Creating a yearbook can be a fantastic opportunity for students to develop and learn new skills. A yearbook committee is an environment of inclusion, where students from varying experience and skill levels work together to produce a memorable yearbook.
As you’re building your yearbook staff for this year, you’ll likely find yourself facing new members who need to be brought up to speed. It’s also a great opportunity for veteran yearbook members to brush up on their training, and possibly even learn something new. Teaching your committee the right skills and lessons can make the yearbook process much easier. To help, we’ve put together these training tips.
4 Tips for Training New Yearbook Staff Members
It’s a big, wild internet out there. To help make your journey easier, we’re looking at the best places for yearbook tips, tricks and inspiration.Â
While you may be tempted to spend every day mentoring your yearbook staff, that’s neither practical nor realistic. Training an effective yearbook staff will free up your time, plus empower the students to take control. Here are some tips for training new yearbook staff members.
- Review the Previous Year – This is the perfect opportunity to get seasoned yearbook staff members involved. Encourage them to talk about the yearbook creation process from the previous year. Take the time to discuss what went well, or areas that could be improved upon. Listen to feedback, and urge new staff members to help brainstorm – they could come up with something entirely different and exciting!
- Get Everyone Involved from the Start – Creating an amazing yearbook is a team effort. Getting everyone involved from the start can help build a cohesive unit. Determine who will be doing what for the yearbook. Yearbook staff members should be able to take on their own responsibilities as soon as possible. Not only will this help to encourage ownership, it helps to build clear, defined roles for your yearbook team. You can find out more about the key yearbook staff roles and responsibilities here.
- Team Building – There’s a theme here, have you noticed? Working as a team is a crucial element to a successful yearbook. Work on building a team, ensuring that you get seasoned yearbook staff members and new staff members involved. Think of group activities that encourage active participation. Think of discussions that will get people engaged. What theme will you plan for this year’s yearbook? Is there a particular event that you’d like to highlight? These are examples of questions you can use to get a roundtable started!
- Teach the Core Skills – There are a few key skills that are important in creating your yearbook. Interview skills, writing and editing skills, photography skills to name a few. Focus on teaching the core skills for your yearbook. This is another great opportunity to get the seasoned yearbook staff involved! Get them to mentor the new yearbook staff, offer tips and advice on best practices, tricks and techniques.
It’s not always easy to train new yearbook staff, but it’s definitely worth it! Following these 4 tips for training new yearbook staff members can get your yearbook creation off to a great start!
Once you’ve trained your staff, finding a yearbook publisher will be next on the to-do list. At YearbookLife, we make the yearbook process easy. With easy-to-use software, free webinar training, great customer care and technical support assistance, we provide you with all the resources to simplify the yearbook process. Request a free quote on yearbooks by clicking here today.
Yearbooks are a fun representation of the year. They help highlight students, activities, current events, and the overall school. Creating a yearbook takes a lot of work and dedication, and it’s down to the yearbook staff to create an exciting, memorable yearbook.
School spirit, a creative streak, and a fondness for nostalgia are important qualities in a yearbook staff. An eye for detail and catching mistakes is also crucial! Here are the top 10 yearbook mistakes to help you avoid common pitfalls.
Top 10 Common Yearbook Mistakes
It’s a big, wild internet out there. To help make your journey easier, we’re looking at the best places for yearbook tips, tricks and inspiration.Â
Missing Delivery Dates – Missing one deadline can have a ripple effect on the production and publishing of your yearbook. Plan key delivery dates and deadlines at the beginning of the year, and stick to them. This has the added bonus of teaching valuable time-management skills!
Budgeting – Underestimating the cost of your yearbook can hurt the project. As with any business, It’s always best to overestimate the cost and have funds left over, than under-estimate. We recommend understanding all of the fees ahead of time and sticking with your intended specifications, so no unexpected price changes occur. Having a back-up fund, in case unforeseen extra fees arise, is also a good idea.
Low-Res Photos – It’s not just about choosing the right photos for your yearbook, selecting quality, high resolution photos are just as important. Low resolution photos don’t print well. Quality, high resolution photos are key – we recommend saving the files at 72 dpi or larger.
Choosing an Effective Cover – Your yearbook cover is the first thing that everybody is going to see. Covers should grab peoples’ attention and be impactful, without crowding the page. Simple is often the way to go. Check out our Pinterest page for yearbook cover inspiration.
Consistency – It’s important to be consistent in your yearbook. Make sure your headers and footers are consistent throughout. To achieve this, you may want to consider a yearbook template.
Fonts – Fonts matter! Too many fonts crammed onto one page is a common mistake. Avoid using too many fonts at one time, as it distracts from your yearbook’s message. We recommend selecting one font that you will use for headers, one for captions, and one for general text. Stay consistent throughout and make sure the font styles are all compatible.
Photo Placement – Have you heard of the gutter? The gutter area is where the opposing pages of your yearbook meet and roll into the binding. Be sure that no significant text or important images crossover that gutter area, or they may fall into the gutter during the binding process.
Editorial – It’s important to maintain consistent editorial standards throughout your yearbook. This applies to spelling and formatting. Don’t use ‘e-mail’ on one page, and then ‘email’ on another. Staying consistent throughout will keep your yearbook looking professional!
Multiple Checks in Place – No matter how keen an eye for detail someone has, mistakes are still possible. Ensure that you have multiple checks in place for your yearbook to help minimize the risks of errors. This applies to proofreading, fact checking and formatting!
Choosing the Right Company – To help create the most amazing yearbook, you want to choose the right yearbook company. Personalization, templates, easy-to-use software, the latest in digital technology, customer service and turnaround times are all key considerations. And these are all available with YearbookLife!
YearbookLife provides easy-to-use yearbook design software, great customer care and technical support assistance. We provide all the resources to simplify the yearbook process for you, with some of the best prices in the industry. There’s still time to save money on your yearbook this year with our Back To School Special. Get our lowest prices of the season by signing up today. But hurry, our sale ends on November 1st, 2019! Request your yearbook sample and price quote today.
You don’t have to be an expert designer to create an amazing yearbook. At YearbookLife, we take the stress out of creating your yearbook with easy to use templates, a wide variety of themes, and great customer service.
Finding your yearbook publisher is only part of creating a great yearbook. Determining various eye-catching designs and color combinations are all part of the fun. Maybe you’ve been browsing old school yearbooks for inspiration, but inspiration can come from anywhere! Today we’re going to look at just a few places to get inspiration for your yearbook.
Places to Get Inspiration for Your Yearbook
It’s a big, wild internet out there. To help make your journey easier, we’re looking at the best places for yearbook tips, tricks and inspiration.
Pinterest – How many of us have browsed Pinterest and thought ‘gee, that looks amazing!’ Its visual boards and interactive community make Pinterest a great place to find inspiration for your yearbook. Browse through boards, pin ideas that appeal to you, and before you know it you’ve got a goldmine of inspiration. Check out YearbookLife’s Pinterest to get started!
Designspiration – This network is like Pinterest in that it is very visual. The difference between the two is that Designspiration is for designers. Designspiration is the place to get inspired by the professionals.Â
Instagram – Following hashtags on Instagram is a great source of steady inspiration. Follow #yearbookdesign and #yearbook for your dose of yearbook inspiration. Â
Blogs – Blogs are a great way to learn more about the process of creating a yearbook from the industry insiders. They’re also a great source of inspiration and useful tips and tricks for yearbook staff.Â
Current Events & Trends – Designing your yearbook around current events and trends is a great way to remember the year. Viral videos, popular quotes, famous songs and current events can all be great sources of inspiration for your yearbook.Â
Finding inspiration for your yearbook can come from so many different places. And with YearbookLife’s easy-to-use yearbook design software, designing your yearbook has never been easier. There’s still time to save money on your yearbook this year with our Back To School Special . Get our lowest prices of the season by signing up today. But hurry, our sale ends on November 1st, 2019! Request your yearbook sample and price quote today.
