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.
