1. Coverage
This is not your parents’ yearbook! Loosen things up and make it appealing with a new twist on a routine story.
2. Great Photography
Support the quote, bios and Q & A with lots of good photos.
3. An Innovative Way of Doing Things
Move away from the big story and approach coverage as a way to get more people, events and information about your student body into the book.
4. Well-Designed Typography
Type fonts are keys to visual success.
5. Hot Topics
Get a reader’s attention with topics that say NOW!!
6. Echoing Color
Use a spot color to echo a headline or type style in your alternative copy.
7. Info Graphics
Use contemporary graphics that include surveys, graphs and other elements for quick reader communication.
8. Good Writing – W.E.D.
A marriage of great Writing, thoughtful Editing and contemporary Design always attracts attention.
9. Packaging
Link small related ideas about the spread for jump spreads and better overall coverage.
10. More Quotes
Students love to see their names and the names of their friends. This is also an excellent way to include more students in the yearbook.
Contributed by:
Jane Roehrig & Heidi Ash
Herff Jones Sales Professionals, CA
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Font Foundations
PAIR PERSONALITY TO PURPOSE
Keep in mind the message you are trying to communicate with your type. Sports, even women’s sports, do not lend themselves to a feminine script, for example.
WHEN WORKING WITH TYPE, MORE IS NOT BETTER
Limiting type to no more than three fonts for the entire book is a growing trend. When combining type for headlines, remember two’s company, three’s a crowd. Limit spread designs to one distinct type supported by something simple.
SERIFS ARE MORE READABLE THAN SANS SERIFS
Use a serif font for body copy and captions, as a general rule. The more unusual the type, the lower the readability.
SANS SERIFS ARE MORE LEGIBLE THAN SERIFS
Use sans serif fonts for primary headlines, as a general rule.
AVOID USING ALL CAPITALS
That doesn’t mean you can never use all caps. Just realize that all capital letters reduces readability. Use all caps only when you have a specific design purpose in mind. Especially avoid using all capitals in a script face. Your readability drops to about zero.
PAY ATTENTION TO RELATIONSHIPS WHEN COMBINING TYPE
If elements are not the same, they should be very different. Remember that, like the perfect marriage, types need to either be very similar or fairly opposite. Contrast type in size, weight, form and structure, for example, using AHJ Chantilly Bold for heads and AHJ Garamond for text provides good contrast; AHJ Chantilly Bold for heads and AHJ Unitus for text does not provide enough contrast. The combinations you form should communicate, not confuse the reader.
SOME TYPES JUST DON’T MIX
Don’t use two scripts or a script and an italic together. They usually have the same form and so they conflict with each other rather than contrast. Never use two types from the same category (for example: Script, Decorative) together.
DON’T ABUSE TYPE THROUGH MANIPULATION
Remember, your purpose is to communicate, and type can help you do that. Don’t manipulate type to fit your design by adjusting leading and width. Instead, edit the copy or find a word that fits the headline space. Once established within a section, type size, leading and width should remain consistent.
COMPLEMENT YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF FONTS WITH YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF DESIGN
Use of effectively planned white space and color can enhance your use of type. Place type on the page to create entry points for your reader.
LEARN MORE FROM THE EXPERTS
Magazines like Before & After and Dynamic Graphics have information and advice. Check out books like The Non-Designers Design Book by design experts like Robin Williams. Many of these tips come from her. For more technical information, check out her Non-Designers Type Book. Browse the bookstores and stock up on magazines that use type effectively so you can build a library of ideas.
Contributed by:
Lynn Strause
Herff Jones Special Consultant
Former JEA Yearbook Adviser of the Year
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A headline grabs the readers’ attention and pulls them into the coverage on the yearbook spread.
These guidelines will help in writing effective headline packages.
1. Read the copy; as you read, write out a list of key words and phrases.
2. Describe the action in your dominant photo. Does it match any of the words in your key word list?
3. Choose your favorite key words and phrases from your list.
4. From your favorites, write a first draft of your main headline. Use literary techniques you learned in English class — alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, pun and rhyme — whenever possible.
5. Reread your copy. What factual details from your copy will help you write your secondary headline?
6. Draft your secondary headline; write a sentence that identifies key information from the spread.
7. Pair your headline and secondary headline together. Do they work together? The headline and secondary headline should be similar in tone — both should be playful, serious or informative.
8. Edit both components. Eliminate unnecessary words or information. Make sure your verbs are strong and active. Write all headline packages in present tense.
9. Use the following tools to help with headline writing: dictionary, idiom dictionary, rhyming dictionary and thesaurus.
10. Do a final check of the headline package to be sure that it accurately identifies the context of the spread.
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Captions are the most read copy in a yearbook because they provide immediate information about what is happening in the photographs featured on the spread. As such, they should be filled with facts and details that the reader wouldn’t otherwise know.
1. Interview more than one person per photo. Get the facts that may not be obvious.
2. Verify name spelling of subjects in photos with the official school registration list.
3. Group captions should begin with the group’s name followed by rows designated as “Front row, Row 2, Row 3, Back row,” in a different typeface from names or in parenthesis.
4. First sentence, written in present tense, should answer the important questions of who, what, when, where, why and how.
5. Remaining sentence(s), written in past tense, provides additional information about the event or subject that would not be obvious from looking at the photo.
6. Photo credits may be included at the end of the caption, if not credited elsewhere. Simply use “Photo by” followed by photographer’s name.
7. Photo stories, longer captions including details that might otherwise be found in copy, may result in the need for less copy. Photo stories should be at least three sentences long and could include quotes from subjects in the photograph.
8. Do’s of caption writing should be followed: answer all obvious questions, variety of phrasing, use complete name, first sentence written in present tense, active voice when explaining the action.
9. Don’ts of caption writing that should be avoided include: overuse of lead patterns, passive verbs, stating the obvious, commenting on or talking to the photo.
10. Gag or joke captions should never be used. They are unprofessional and alienate the readers.
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THESE TIPS CAN HELP YOU WRITE EFFECTIVE YEARBOOK COPY.
1. KEEP SENTENCES SHORT AND SENTENCE STRUCTURE SIMPLE.
People don’t read long sentences. We can’t change them. Use strong verbs and strong nouns. Drop all the excess.
2. SHORTER PARAGRAPHS ARE MORE INVITING.
People also don’t read long paragraphs. One thought per paragraph. One quote per paragraph. A paragraph can be one sentence. Deep breath English lit teachers.
3. AVOID VAGUE WORDS.
Words such as “many,” “a lot,” “several,” “some” or “a few” waste space. Find the specific or drop the thought.
4. BE SPECIFIC AND ACCURATE.
You are reporting events. It matters that you say the team had a 7-3 season more than it matters that the team had a winning season.
5. KEEP YOUR READER’S ATTENTION.
Take a break from traditional copy every once and a while. Give them a treat with fact boxes, Q and A, bio boxes, timelines, quote collections and public opinion polls.
6. AVOID USING THE PHRASE “THIS YEAR” AND THE NAME OF YOUR SCHOOL.
They know the year and they know the school. That’s the point of the book. Don’t mention them.
7. WRITE COPY IN THE THIRD PERSON.
You’re an objective reporter. Make it sound that way. “He,” “she,” “it” and “they” are your pronouns. Exceptions exist, but they are few.
8. DO NOT EDITORIALIZE.
Quotes are the most important part of the story. So are sources. Have at least three sources per story. Never make an opinion statement that cannot be attributed to a specific source. Be particularly careful with opinionated adjectives and adverbs.
9. FOLLOW YOUR STAFF’S STYLEGUIDE.
List the rules for using names, titles and figures as well as the rules for punctuation and capitalization. Associated Press knows all. Consult the pros when you are lost.
10. USE THE LANGUAGE OF YOUR READERS.
Write the way you speak. This isn’t a term paper people. But, avoid slang and obey basic grammar rules.
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YOU CAN’T PULL A THEME OUT OF A HAT. TAKE A MOMENT WITH THESE BRAINSTORMING SUGGESTIONS TO PICK THE PERFECT UNIFIER FOR YOUR SCHOOL THIS YEAR.
1. List what is unique to your school this year.
2. Check theme lists. But, make it work for you.
3. Make sure it is memorable and flexible enough to be developed into sidebar mods.
4. Keep the visuals – type, colors, shapes and patters – consistent throughout the book.
5. Decide how to carry the theme through the book. Put it on the cover, endsheets, title page, opening, dividers, mini-magazine, sectional graphics, folios and index.
6. Develop mini themes for coverage mods within traditional or unique sections.
7. Create mock-ups of the theme pages and hang them around the room. Live with the theme for a few days to decide on final details.
8. Brainstorm coverage ideas to use throughout the book and promote the theme/concept.
9. Create a stylebook to ensure consistency. Consider all type treatments for headlines, copy, captions, mods, profiles and folios.
10. Incorporate the theme with sales campaigns to hint at the theme/concept without giving it away.
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Other than yearbook sales, the best income source for the yearbook budget is the sale of advertising. In addition to senior parent ads and student friendship ads, the business community tends to be a great supporter of student activities, including yearbook.
1. TARGET LIST
Brainstorm the potential target list, including previous years’ advertisers. Add from the local Chamber of Commerce membership list and yearbook staffers’ contacts and acquaintances.
2. PLAN YOUR SELL DATES
Select dates that might provide the greatest response from local businesses. Early in the school year is generally better than approaching businesses during their busy holiday seasons. In years to come, consider summer sales.
3. ASSIGN SELLERS
Divide and conquer once the master list of potential advertisers has been completed. Assign specific businesses to specific staffers. If a staffer has a personal connection to a business, then let that student make the sales call.
4. PROVIDE AD DESIGNS
Designing suggested ad formats is a great way to let businesses know that you are trying to help them have the best possible ad.
5. INCLUDE COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL GROUPS
Consider community groups as potential advertisers. Community service groups such as Kiwanis, Rotary and non-profits and military recruiters are all potential sources of ad revenue. More ads for school groups like band and student council are appearing in books from coast to coast. Some have expanded to include AP classes and other small groups that have purchased pages.
6. OFFER PATRON ADS
Patron ads are a way to make it possible for individuals to help support the yearbook. A one line, two line or three line listing can be an inexpensive way for individuals and small businesses to be included.
7. DON’T FORGET TO FOLLOW UP
Follow-up is the key to getting as many business ads as possible included in the yearbook. If the owner/manager is out when the initial sales call is made, be sure someone goes back to talk to the decision maker.
8. PROOF CAREFULLY
Proof all business ads very carefully. It is best to stop by the business or send a PDF of the ad by email for approval of all the ad details and content.
9. COLLECT FUNDS BEFORE PRINTING
Collection of all ad revenue should be completed before ads are actually submitted to the plant. Make it clear in all communications with the advertisers that full payment needs to be made by a specified date.
10. CELEBRATE BEING AHEAD OF THE GAME
Submit the pages after careful proofing, knowing that you have a jump start on the deadline process by being able to submit income-generating pages early in the production season.
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Congrats soon-to-be graduate! It’s time to celebrate. At Herff Jones, we take pride in being a part of each graduation day.
You worked hard for that degree, now throw yourself the party you deserve. Check out our helpful checklist to stay on track with planning either a large party or a smaller celebration with close family and friends. The choice is yours, we’re just here to help you get organized.
Download this graduation party checklist. Because you’re graduating soon!
Choose a date, time and location for your graduation party
Start building your guest list
Create your food and drink menu
Rent tables, chairs and tents if needed
Collect photos, awards, trophies, and more for your photo board or memory table
Create and order your invitations
Complete your guest list
Mail invitations
Put together a list of hotels for anyone traveling from out of town
Order keepsakes that can be displayed at the party, such as a signature diploma frame
Order thank you notes, return address labels and stamps
Order your cake
Create a slideshow of your favorite photos to play on a TV or projector
Depending on location, you may need to board your pets; make reservations for them, too
Buy decorations, paper plates, napkins, utensils table cloths and more
Order flowers
Make a great music playlist
Make sure you have a speaker to play music
Make sure you have a slow cooker, serving dishes and coolers ready to go
Begin purchasing food and beverages
Confirm delivery of rental equipment
Make sure you have plenty of trash bins and trash bags
Check the weather forecast for rain and make any necessary arrangements
Time to decorate
Pick up food and any remaining beverages
Set up memory tables and photo boards
Create a hastag for people to share pictures on Instagram and Twitter
Clean, clean, clean!
Pick up cake
Pick up flowers
Get ice
Put signs and balloons outside the venue
Take your pet to the kennel
Set out trash and recycling bins
Set up tables and chairs
Turn up the music
Chill drinks and display food
Send thank you notes to everyone who helped set up, cook and clean
Send personalized thank you notes to people who gave gifts within two weeks
DOWNLOAD THIS GRADUATION CHECKLIST AS A PDF SHOP GRAD ESSENTIALS »
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It’s spring. You still have books to sell. Something has to happen.
This is when Lisa Sherman kicks off her annual telethon.
“We run a non-buyers list report in eBusiness, which tells us who hasn’t ordered and provides contact information for their guardian,” the 16-year adviser from Edwardsburg, Michigan, said. “Then, each of my staff members takes a section of the list and makes personal phone calls to each individual.”
The cold calling adds another practical skill to the class. She posts a script on the whiteboard reminding students how to introduce themselves, talk about the yearbook and give ordering instructions.
“Week one, we call all non-buyers with the last names starting with A–L. In week two, we contact the remaining non-buyers with last names M–Z. Week three is for going back through all the lists and emailing parents who have still not purchased, even after the phone contacts.”
The last week of the month, staffers send out a final reminder to the students’ email accounts. At that point, the guardians had heard directly from the staff twice and the student heard once. In one month.
An extra bonus: the staffers gained skills and confidence in business communications.
Each staffer has a goal of selling 10 more books by the end of the month. And that adds up. Sherman has seen a dramatic increase in sales through the telethon. Maybe this is the last-minute sales push you need.
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Walk into Evan Williams’ classroom at Clay Middle School in Carmel, Indiana, and you might think you’ve walked into a professional journalism office. There’s not a desk to be seen. There’s a tad of chaos. And there are students clustered around computers, grouped together on the floor and pouring out into the hallway.
“There’s not enough room for a lab and desks,” he said, “so I just got rid of the desks.”
This is the attitude Williams takes toward everything in his broadcast/newspaper/yearbook space. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, make it better.
With plenty of newspaper experience and a degree in journalism education from Ball State, he came to be a one-stop journalism educator. In a middle school.
“It took me a while to understand yearbook,” he said. “My first three yearbooks are nightmares. I put them up there and I look through them now. They’re a joke.”
We’ve all been there. But he found his groove with our industry-leading online software eDesign, and empowered his students to take charge of their work.
Then Square One™ changed how yearbooks take shape.
“When you guys announced it,” he said, “I was already on board. And I was like, ‘We’re using the swiss grid,’ and my students were like ‘whaaat?!’ And I was like, ‘We’re being fancy.’”
You heard him. Middle school students taking on Square One™. And being fancy.
“Having the squares on the page – in eDesign the grid boxes with the internal space – that’s a game changer. Kids want to do two columns of text, and doing that with the old grid was not easy. Now I say, ‘go three boxes across and do four boxes down, there’s your two columns.’”
Williams had a moment when it all came together. Two of his students sat down to create a day-in-the-life spread. He walked them through Square One™, and they got it.
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- Musical without Square One
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- Musical with Square One
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- Cross Country without Square One
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- Cross Country with Square One
“They understood mods without understanding mods. They got each rectangle tells a story. They understood seven different modules are seven different stories, and they were able to jump into their first deadline.”
This simplified approach to teaching formatting gave Williams some peace of mind, but he doesn’t feel like he sold out teaching design.
“We were getting pages done before Thanksgiving, which was unheard of,” he said. “In the past, I’ve been a little leery about using templates because the students want our book to have a unique look. But I didn’t shy away from the interchangeable modules because they have the freedom to change them. Even if we do use the modules, we’re changing the fonts, adding text and some of the design changes to fit the theme.”
Herff Jones’ proprietary design approach just helps, because it’s how professional publication designers craft their spreads. Williams teaches faster, students find success quicker and the pressure of producing the book eases. Plus, you can always create modules and templates from scratch.
“The modules and grid have been a lifesaver,” he said. “For the kids who aren’t as visual, it gives them a starting point they would not have had without a ton of struggle.”
With a new sense of pride and with freshly empowered students, Williams made a promise to his staff members.
“I told the kids, this is going to be one of our best yearbooks ever. This one is going to set a new standard.”
Evan Williamshas advised student publications at Clay Middle School for 14 years and teaches Herff Jones and Ball State University journalism workshops. His students’ work has been featured in Herff Jones’ showcase books four times, and the 2016 volume was a Best in Show winner at the fall JEA/NSPA convention.
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