First impressions are everything; even in the world of yearbooks. A yearbook cover is the first thing anyone sees when they pick it up for the first time. It sets the tone of the yearbook and provides a preview of the story within. That’s why we want to help you design and create the best yearbook cover possible.
It is essential that the yearbook cover capture the perfect mix of school spirit and have a special uniqueness to it. Was there a saying that students said during the year? Was there a memorable event every student will be able to recall for years to come? A cover design is a critical component to the overall success of the yearbook.
“So how do you make it great?”
First you need to determine your style. It should ultimately match the overall theme and be consistent from the front cover to the back.
YearbookLife’s free Pictavo design program offers a variety of yearbook templates to choose from. If you do decide to go with creating something custom, you may want to browse the internet to find inspiration and get ideas.
Once you have settled on an idea, utilize a designer in your school or perhaps an art teacher that has skills in Photoshop and Illustrator to design and create your yearbook cover. Go over the vision in detail and ask for a few versions utilizing both colors and the logo of your school as well as a version without.
Once complete, utilize social media or create a survey to ask students, teachers, faculty and parents their preference and why.
Don’t rush your yearbook cover. Utilize your yearbook committee and their various ideas and resources for making your yearbook cover one you and your classmates will cherish for decades.
A yearbook is truly a memorable item for any graduate, containing photos of classmates, teachers, school events and more. It creates memories and tells the story of the graduating class. That is why the more photos you have access to, the more likely you are to discover the perfect shots to include in your yearbook.
Sometimes though it can be difficult to obtain those great candid shots. That is because the yearbook staff can’t be everywhere at every minute of the day and night. To overcome this, there are few easy to obtain these great shots:
Have your students help you. With the rise of smartphones and social media, students are taking selfies and photos with their friends at all times. Browse various school hashtags and pages to see if there is good content that could be included in the yearbook. Then ask the students involved in the photo if you can get permission to include the photo in the yearbook. In most cases kids love to see themselves and will always give consent in providing their photo.
Create photo contests. Get students involved in their yearbook. Ask them to take photos and submit them to a contest page on your school’s Facebook page. By entering they are giving permission that they are allowing you to use them in the yearbook. Then pick out a few winners and give them a free yearbook for winning your photo contest.
Utilize student’s parents. Parents always have great photo content of their kids and their kid’s friends. Reach out to the parents via the school’s PTA and see what type of libraries they have of the kids.
Great photos don’t all have to come of students on school grounds. Student yearbook photos should be about the entire year’s experiences both in class and outside. If there is a great shot at the local pizzeria of some students, use them. It will create lasting memories that students with cherish forever.
One of the most popular enhancement options for your yearbook is personalizing your yearbook cover. This type of personalization allows you to add the student’s name to the yearbook cover. Depending on your cover type, a student’s name can be printed in ink, stamped on with foil, or engraved on a name plate.
For every book you want personalized, you will send YearbookLife a spreadsheet list containing all of the personalized text. The text will be printed in Upper and Lower case letters as you indicate on your spreadsheet. Be sure the text appears on your spreadsheet exactly the way it should appear on the cover.
If you sell your personalized yearbooks through Pictavo BuyTheYearbook, you can export the personalization list as a spreadsheet file as follows:
- From the Admin icon, click on Manage Sales.
- Select the View Orders tab.
- Click on the Export to Excel button – this creates a spreadsheet of all of the orders for your book. The personalized names can be found in Column P.
- Delete all of the other columns from the spreadsheet except Column P so that your spreadsheet is just a one column file. For Personalization Option 4, with icons, we can help you separate the names from the icon selections if you need assistance.
- Save this spreadsheet and email it to production@yearbooklife.com when you submit your book.
Contact YearbookLife if you have any questions about Yearbook Personalization or any other enhancement options for your yearbooks.
Your class yearbook is one of the most important keepsakes after you graduate. That means making it look great is essential. That also means shelling out a credit card to help pay for it.
It doesn’t have to be that way though. Here are a few creative fundraising ideas to help make your book look truly amazing:
- Sell extra photos. You will have hundreds of digital photos that don’t make it into the yearbook. Why not create some CDs of the extra photos and sell them to students and their parents.
- Promote book sales to local doctors, dentists, realtors and graduates. Ask these locals to purchase books for students that could not otherwise afford too.
- Host a car wash on your school grounds for the locals to take part in. All money earned can be used for school yearbooks.
- Provide separate coupon books with ads that can be handed out when books are sold as a “point of purchase” reward for local businesses.
- Sell copies of old yearbooks that are lying around to parents and extended family of alumni that may not have had an opportunity to purchase one when their family member was graduating.
While selling ads in the actual book is always an option that can help generate some money, fundraising is another great option to bring income for your class yearbook!
Clipart is a great alternative tool for a class yearbook as it can be used as “filler space” on page that needs content. It shouldn’t though be the main focus of the yearbook and too much of it can result in your end product looking amateurish.
Clipart has a lot of benefits including:
- Most photos are royalty free.
- Most photos are free to use and if not they are usually much more affordable than regular stock photography.
- Free clipart is included with Pictavo software
Clipart works best when it matches the existing content on the page. For example, if your images are black and white on the page, keep your clipart black and white as well. In contrast, if your images are in color, also use color clipart. By using the opposite color could make the clipart stand out more and the important content be less visual.
One thing you never want to do is replace a missing student image with clipart. It will make your yearbook look more like a comic book. Don’t leave that space blank. Instead discuss with the student and his or her parents to see if there is a good headshot they could use. If that isn’t possible, look through your library to see if there is a good candid that may work.
When you do decide to use clipart make sure the images you are using are legally allowed for commercial use. The best way to find this out is to read the “terms of use” of the site you’re take the images from as the last thing you need is a legal issue to cause your yearbooks to be delayed and cost money when not necessary.
All in all, clipart is a great element to include in your yearbook content. Don’t overdo it though.
Happy cliparting!
