Yearbook Themes and Design
Choosing a Yearbook Theme
Choosing a yearbook theme is the first step of your project. Your theme will help determine the design, colors and tone you choose later.
Have your yearbook staff brainstorm the following questions:
- What makes your school unique?
- How is this year different from any other year?
- How are community or world events impacting the students in your school?
- What characteristics best describe student life today?
Narrow your ideas down to some select favorites, and come up with slogans or phrases that reflect those concepts.
Effective yearbook design draws the eye to the page and grabs reader attention. It should bring focus to the content rather than the design itself.
- Page templates provide the framework for your yearbook pages. Create your own, or use predesigned layouts provided.
- Color can be used to create the tone of your yearbook spread.
- Use the rules of yearbook design to guide your process.
Using Typography in Your Yearbook
Typography (font choice) will add to the look and feel of your yearbook theme. Decide your yearbook’s personality and use these tips for choosing fitting fonts:
- Be sure not to use too many fonts. Consider using one serif, one sans-serif and a script font, for accent, for the entire yearbook or for each section.
- Because the body copy and captions in the school yearbook are generally 9 to 12 points, use an easy-to-read font like Times or Garamond. Serif fonts increase readability for body copy and captions.
- heading (title)
- subheading
- captions
- thematic element(s)
- rules of good layout and design applied
- all classes in level represented
- good balance of gender
- grade levels
- classes
- staff and students
- variety of venues
- captivating, creative and quality photos that clearly demonstrate at least 5 different photographic techniques that can be easily identified
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