Custom Cover Ideas
When you are designing your own yearbook cover the possibilities are endless. Start by outlining a plan to determine which features and options you want to include. Some schools start by reviewing pricing for various options and creating a budget to work within. Others let the design be the driving force. Either way, there are many cover options that can make your yearbook unique. The options vary in price but many are very affordable. Talk to your yearbook representative or publisher for ideas that would work well with your design and budget.
Cover Design
The front cover usually includes the year and theme of the yearbook along with custom art/designs/mascots/photos relevant to the theme. The spine usually includes the year of publication, the school or publication name and the volume number. Back covers vary greatly.
Some have minimal design while others continue the design from the front cover. When designing yours, think about the available options that can enhance your design.
Helpful Hint
You may believe that your student body will not judge your yearbook by its cover, but that is not true. Your yearbook cover creates the first impression and sets the tone for the entire yearbook.
Cover Options
There are two basic yearbook cover “styles” —soft cover and hard cover. Both include a durable coating to ensure they stand the test of time and can be ordered in the standard 8.5” x 11” size, or popular 9” x 12” size. Hard cover books, however, offer the widest variety of options from which to choose.
Board weight
Binder’s board is the most common material used to make hard covers. The heavier the board weight, the stiffer the cover will be to open. Standard cover weight is 90 pt. Heavier weights of 120 pt. and 160 pt. are also available upon request.
LEATHERETTE COVERS
Leatherette covers are made of synthetic materials that resemble leather, but are much more durable. Typically, leatherette yearbooks use foil stamping, embossing and/or debossing to accentuate the school name and cover design. Choose from this selection of
leatherette colors to make a great first impression of your yearbook! Additional colors available upon request.
FULL-COLOR PRINTED COVERS
Full-color printed covers are the most popular option— and often the most economical . When used for hard cover books, a full-color printed page is coated (for protection) and wrapped around the board.
LENTICULAR COVERS
Lenticular printing is used to produce printed images with an illusion of depth. It also gives the image the ability to change or move as it is viewed from different angles. You can create various frames of animation for a motion effect, show a set of alternate images or make an image appear 3D for a truly interactive experience!
EMBOSSING & DEBOSSING:
Embossing is a technique that uses a die to create a raised image on the hard cover. This is done through a combination of heat and pressure on the binder’s board.
Embossing can also be used in combination with foil stamping or a full-color
printed cover to create an even more unique look. Debossing uses the same
technique as embossing, except the impression is heat-pressed into the
surface of the cover so that an image is depressed (lowered) instead of raised.
As with embossing, debossing can be used with foil stamping or a full-color printed cover to create special visual effects and textures.
FOIL STAMPING
Foil stamping involves the use of heat to transfer metallic foil to a solid surface, such
as a yearbook cover. As with embossing and debossing, a die is needed to “stamp” the
foil into the cover material. Foil stamping can be combined with embossing or debossing to create a very striking 3D image. Choose from the foil colors listed to give your book a one-ofa- kind look!
SPOT UV TREATMENT
Spot UV is a great treatment to use if there are specific areas (or spots) on your yearbook cover that you would like to highlight. The application can deepen the color of an area for a very shiny finish, or flattened to a matte finish. It’s a great way to add eye-catching
emphasis to important areas.
DIE-CUTTING
A die is a specialized tool that can cuts shapes into a yearbook cover. Die-cutting allows you to cut out specific areas or shapes on your cover to allow text or part of an image to show through from the inside.
Stock Die-Cutting Options
The dies below are already created and available for embossing, debossing and/or foil on your yearbook cover. By choosing one or more dies, you can create a one-of-a-kind look without the expense that often accompanies it. For example, choose a stock die for embossing, then add a custom die of your school name and mascot to make your
book truly unique.
Endsheets
Endsheets are thick paper glued to both the inside front and back covers of a hard cover yearbook and include the flyleaf (first and last sheets in a book before and after your yearbook content). The weight of the paper is usually higher than what is used in the rest of the yearbook. Sometimes this thicker paper is left blank for autographs from the student body.
For additional fees, printing can be done on the endsheet and flyleaf sheets of your yearbook. Some schools design their endsheets to continue the theme or add a table of contents. Remember that you have two endsheets and two flyleafs that make up your yearbook—the front endsheet and front two-sided flyleaf and the back endsheet and back two-sided flyleaf. Some schools like to design the front endsheet and flyleaf, but may choose to leave the back sheets blank. Other schools have chosen to repeat the same design from the front onto the back.
Colophon
Some schools include a colophon on the endsheet or in the advertisement section that describes the specifications of the yearbook for the reader. The colophon includes info such as cover specs, endsheet specs, pages, copies, sale price of yearbook, amount
of ad revenue, staff listing, yearbook publisher, photographers, technology, and more.
Pre-designed pages
Pre-designed pages for autographs can be added to your yearbook to save time and give your book a more personalized feel. These pages are pre-printed on uncoated paper to allow nearly any writing instrument to easily write on them, then bound in your yearbook along with the rest of the pages. Positioning of pre-designed autograph pages may be
dependent on the type of binding your yearbook will have. Saddle-stapled books
have these pages either in the very middle or the outermost sheets of the yearbook. Other
binding styles allow them to be added anywhere. When designing your yearbook to
include pre-designed autograph pages, consider what other insert or divider pages you
have to determine the best placement.
Year in Review—or “current event” pages are now available as backgrounds instead of pre-printed supplements added to the back of your yearbook. As with other pre-designed backgrounds, you just drag and drop these pages onto any page in your book wherever you like; put them all together or use them as divider or intro pages between sections.
Planning Tip
When planning your cover or endsheet design, nothing is more helpful than samples of other books. Consider developing an exchange program with other schools in your area to trade samples of previous years for educational purposes. The more samples you have, the more resources you can review when making decisions about this year’s yearbook.