Top 10 Tips for Developing a Theme or Concept
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.
Additional Resources
Dream Big
Hear it from Ann – It’s always fun to study the new releases, noting what staffs are doing well and how trends are shifting. Whatever time I allot to reviewing books, I always wish I had more.
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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.
YBK: It's a Big Deal
It’s hard to guess exactly why the buy-rate at Blue Valley West High School in Overland Park, Kansas, is nearly twice the national average, but it’s not hard to understand how important culture and tradition are in the equation.
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