Planning the yearbook can be one of the most tedious parts of the whole project, but it’s also one of the most important.
A few things to keep in mind:
- calculate the space you need for all the portraits – underclassmen, seniors, and faculty (typically 25-30% of the total page count)
- some staffs decide to make senior portraits slightly bigger than underclassmen, which means there are less per page
- if you have sidebars in your student section, be sure to factor this in your calculation, so you can delete boxes to have room for that coverage
- necessities
- title page
- opening
- dividers for each section
- closing
- colophon – sometimes on the endsheets
- ads – how many pages do you need to sell? how many pages can you sell?
- index
- unbiased coverage of all student groups
- student life (typically 25-30% of the total page count)
- academics/orgs (typically 15-20% of the total page count)
- sports (typically 15-20% of the total page count)
- clubs (typically 10-15% of the total page count)
- look at the annual calendar and plan your deadlines around the events you plan to cover
- keep in mind that it is best to submit signatures together, so plan your coverage accordingly, so you’re not waiting on one spread to submit the rest
- be intentional with your theme – be sure to incorporate a few spreads that directly tie to your theme concept
- a yearbook staff page is a great way to build in flexibility. If you need the space for overflow ads or index, you can use it, but if not, you can highlight the yearbook staff.
Yearbook Ladder Template
1 file(s) 42.07 KB
Coverage Planning Worksheet
1 file(s) 139.98 KB
Yearbook Spread Planning Worksheet
1 file(s) 59.17 KB
Yearbook Spread Checklist (S. Berry)
1 file(s) 44.59 KB
Simple Spread Checklist
1 file(s) 26.47 KB
2 Responses
The download for the Yearbook Spread Planning Worksheet doesn’t seem to work.
Whoops, thank you – should be fixed now!