Adviser & Staff | Fall/Winter 2011 | Issue 66

Issue 66 | Fall/WINTER 2011

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ReplayIt is the first digital enhancement that brings the yearbook to where your student is—the digital age.

Students can share and upload their personal photos, while taking student polls and tagging one another.

See how ReplayIt and the yearbook are better together at ReplayIt.com!

Create the story of your year.

Together. replayit.com 11-0707

Issue 66 | Fall/winter 2011

12 Twelve for Twelve Cover Story: With the focus on readers, trends for 2012 yearbooks center around including relevant, storytelling content and packaging it in a reader-friendly way.

Welcome to Jostens Adviser & Staff magazine —the

2 Lasting impressions In North Carolina, one senior’s T-shirt fundraising effort provided yearbooks for classmates in need.

largest-circulation magazine in the world devoted entirely to creating and marketing yearbooks. Your subscription is provided compliments of your local Jostens representative.

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‘Every reader, every page’ Sarah Nichols, JEA National Yearbook Adviser of the Year, uses social media and the web to bridge the gap between instant and delayed gratification while demonstrating the value of the printed book.

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Adviser corner Jostens Adviser University, a highly acclaimed professional development workshop exclusively for high school publications advisers, is set for Orlando on July 20–23, 2012. Also, Jostens and Bobby Hawthorne have released the third edition of The Radical Write.

8 Speaking from experience Jostens Adviser & Staff asked veteran yearbook advisers to share their goals for 2012 and their action plans for making it happen.

Photo by Victoria Elajami, Milwee Middle School [FL], Mark Sherwood, adviser

Editor in Chief: Gary Lundgren Managing Editor: Mary Saracino Art Director: Chris Koshiol Production Artist: Kit Neville

Contributors: Robin Bilinski Tina Cleavelin John Cutsinger Sarah Cole Deanna Dellana Debra Klevens Melissa Laudani Rhonda Levens Jennifer Luetje Ginny Ordman Terry Quinn Shannon Sybirski Shannon Williams Monica Willson Joletta Yoder

© 2011 by Jostens Inc. [11-0705] Item #3166. All rights reserved. Limited non-commercial reproduction of this publication for educational and classroom use is allowed with appropriate credit to Jostens. Jostens, the Jostens logo, ReplayIt, Personal Yearbook Pages, Image Share, Jostens Ad Services, Jostens Direct Solutions, Jostens Yearbook Avenue, Jostens YearTech, Jostens YearTech Online, Page Surfer and Yearbook It! are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Jostens, Inc.

Send correspondence, change of address, subscription requests and article manuscripts to asmagazine@jostens.com or mail them to: Adviser & Staff magazine ATTN: Gary Lundgren Jostens, Inc. 3601 Minnesota Drive, Suite 400 Minneapolis, MN 55435

26 Gallery

The competition was rigorous as approximately 9,000 students entered their photographs and designs in three contests sponsored by Jostens. Check out our gallery of outstanding student talent: Page 26: Jostens Photo Contest Page 30: Jostens YearTech Online Design Contest Page 31: Jostens/Adobe Design Contest

32 One-minute workshops The Creative Accounts Managers, Jostens traveling yearbook gurus, share rapid-fire information on the latest in yearbooking in one-minute workshops rounding out this issue.

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Lasting impressions In North Carolina, one senior’s T-shirt fundraising effort provided yearbooks for classmates in need.

Evans Caison may think globally, but she acts locally.

Caison, a 2011 graduate of Terry Sanford High School, Fayetteville, NC, is no stranger to community involvement and getting things done.

“Being on SGA [Student Government Association] for four years, I helped with many student government events,” Caison said. “But I had never felt like I’d truly left a lasting impression on my school.”

The summer before her senior year, she figured out a way to do just that.

As an underclassman, Caison recalled seeing seniors walk through the hallways on the first day of school clad in matching class T-shirts.

“I remember thinking how special it was that they were in unison on their first day as seniors,” she said.

“Being a little bit competitive, I wanted our class to have the most students to ever come through with matching shirts.”

Since she loves to paint and draw, Caison decided to design and sell a senior T-shirt. The front of the bright blue shirt featured a big red peace sign. On the back it

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said: “Out Dawgs, Seniors 2010–2011. We suggest you bow down.”

Transforming her vision into reality turned out to be a bit daunting and it required two months of her summer.

“Having never done something like this before, I had no idea what a challenge that would be,” she said.

“I quickly realized that collecting money in the middle of the summer from seniors is a task!”

To get the word out, she posted on Facebook, she texted, and she held a meeting.

News spread and Caison’s idea took off. She ended up selling about 90 T-shirts, topping the previous year’s senior T-shirt sales record.

When the shirts were ready to distribute, she arranged for seniors to meet at the high school the day before the first day of classes, so everyone would be prepared for the senior class walk-in day.

But all her hard work wasn’t just to generate senior class camaraderie.

While Caison felt her project was fun and exciting and a great way to make money, she noted, “I wanted to do something significant with our proceeds.”

As a kid, Caison used to love looking at her mom and dad’s old high school yearbooks and seeing their friends.

“I was looking forward to being able to reminisce with my own senior yearbook and recall the memories I had made.”

Senior Moment | Caroline Wheeler, Rebecca Keefe, Brooke Forbis and Evans Caison commemorate senior class walk-in day in their T-shirts. The T-shirt sale earned $427, which was used to buy yearbooks for seniors who couldn’t afford them.

“I was looking forward to being able to reminisce with my own senior yearbook and recall the memories I had made,” she explained. “I knew that I would love for every graduating student to have that same opportunity that I would soon have.”

She realized that not every senior at Terry Sanford would be able to afford to buy a yearbook.

So, she decided to donate the money from the sales of the senior T-shirts to purchase yearbooks for low-income seniors.

“To me, money shouldn’t be an issue,” she said. “I felt like, just because you can’t afford it, doesn’t mean you don’t deserve it!”

While Caison knew that many charities are in great need of donations, she chose to distribute her proceeds to the yearbook program because she wanted her “senior class to have something that could directly benefit them and that would stick with them for years to come. The yearbook program was something local and it affects people I know.”

Caison shared her idea with her yearbook adviser, Misti Speck.

“At first, I think she thought I was crazy for wanting to order so many yearbooks,” Caison said. “But I explained my program and she gave me an idea on a better way to distribute the books.”

Speck suggested that Caison first ask the school’s guidance counselors for the names of seniors in need and then check that list against the roster of yearbook buyers to identify students who hadn’t yet bought a book.

“She could see my vision and helped me along the way,” Caison noted.

Caison’s T-shirt sales netted $427, which placed memory-making yearbooks in the hands of seven deserving seniors.

Caison is now attending the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she hopes to major in pharmacy.

From print to social media:

A&S offers the latest in yearbooking

Welcome to Jostens Adviser & Staff magazine — the largest-circulation magazine in the world devoted entirely to creating and marketing yearbooks. Our magazine is published twice during the school year and mailed to every high school yearbook adviser in the country — courtesy of your local Jostens representative.

If you have ideas or contributions for future issues of the magazine, we would love to hear from you at asmagazine@jostens.com. The Spring/Summer issue is under production and will be mailed to schools in March.

To provide a timely supplement to the print magazine, monthly Jostens Adviser & Staff e-magazines are emailed to yearbook advisers. Each electronic issue features a multipage PDF on an in-depth yearbook topic. If you haven’t been receiving the e-magazine and would like to be added to the distribution list, please email asmagazine@jostens.com.

Finally, yearbook advisers and student staff members are encouraged to “like” Jostens Adviser & Staff on Facebook to read weekly postings featuring the latest yearbook news and trends. Also, share your ideas and questions. Visit facebook.com/jostensadviserandstaff and hit “like.”

From print to social media, Jostens Adviser & Staff strives to unite the yearbook world with timely, relevant and educational content.

Happy yearbooking!

Gary Lundgren, editor Jostens Adviser & Staff

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A HELPING HAND | Sarah Nichols helps four-year journalism student Sydney Rodriguera set the white balance on her camera for classroom lighting. In addition to the yearbook, Nichols advises the school’s news magazine, news website and photojournalism programs.

‘Every reader, every page’ Sarah Nichols, JEA National Yearbook Adviser of the Year, uses social media and the web to bridge the gap between instant and delayed gratification while demonstrating the value of the printed book.

January 19, 2011, began like many other Wednesday mornings for Sarah Nichols, the Details yearbook adviser at Whitney High School, Rocklin, CA. She woke up, went to work and spent the day teaching students in her publications, journalism, photojournalism and mass media classes.

After school she attended a staff meeting in the library.

“It was the first time I had left the classroom,” she said, “and I was in a daze at the start of the meeting, enjoying a few minutes of peace after a chaotic day.”

That’s when she saw H.L. Hall, Journalism Education Association Yearbook Adviser of the Year committee chair and Kelly Furnas, JEA executive director, walking out of a back room, followed by a long trail of people.

“I thought to myself, Those people are here for me!”

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Her stomach rumbled with a curious mix of nervous energy and anticipatory butterflies.

Her instincts proved to be right. Hall and Furnas had come to bestow the JEA 2010 National Yearbook Adviser of the Year award upon her.

“I was surprised and touched and obviously very honored, but I was also caught off guard and that’s something that doesn’t happen often or easily.”

The honor represented the crowning achievement of a career in yearbooks that began when Nichols was a junior in high school at Centerville High School, Centerville, OH. As part of Centerville’s Elkonian staff, she served as editor of the people section during her junior year and as co-editor during her senior year.

Her tenure there would prove to be formative.

“Being part of yearbook in high school was the single most influential experience in my life,” Nichols said. “The close personal bond I formed with my high school adviser inspired me to pursue advising, but it was more than that. I loved every aspect of the book’s production and the collaborative experience involved. I knew at age 16 it was something I wanted to pursue.”

She launched her yearbook advising career at Danville Community High School, Danville, IN, where she taught journalism for five years.

In the summer of 2005, Nichols started the new yearbook program at Whitney High School. She helped the first two yearbook editors name the yearbook (Details) and wrote the program’s first mission statement.

“We are inspired and bound by our name, Details; we strive to cover it all. Our motto is ‘Every reader, every page.’ ” Nichols’ enthusiasm for yearbook is renewed each year by the fervor her students bring to the effort.

“Seeing students start with just a few tools and helping them find their way is such a fun journey,” she said. “Every day has those ‘Aha!’ moments mixed in with all of the laughter, food, chaos, revisions and teamwork.”

DEADLINES & HEADLINES | On deadline in room C-2, National Yearbook Adviser of the Year Sarah Nichols and Details editors Lauren Roudebush and Amanda Peterson.

Nichols gave the editors the T-shirts as a “nerdy yearbook gift” during the holidays and they wore the shirts on deadline days to motivate the staff.

As a veteran adviser, Nichols has witnessed the evolution of yearbooks. In the early years of her advising career, yearbooks were still primarily created by scanning photos printed from film or by tagging photo prints and mailing them to the plant.

“From shooting digital images on high-end cameras to creating page PDFs and uploading online, it’s a totally different process,” she said. “Students record interviews with their cell phones and use text messages to verify quotes.”

New media channels, such as the web and social media, continue to impact the ways yearbook staffs gather stories and images to produce the story of the year.

“Teens are used to getting things quickly,” she noted. “Everyone’s a photographer now and everyone’s sharing or posting photos constantly.

Sarah Nichols That alone has significantly affected how we operate.

“We’ve had to shift our mindset to stay in the conversation, bridge the gap between instant and delayed gratification, show the value of the printed book.”

“Making yearbooks relevant in an increasingly digital age was our focus,” she said. “So, I pushed the staff to achieve this.”

The staff expanded its Facebook presence and used social media to generate better coverage opportunities, solicit

photos and obtain information. They use interactive elements, such as “likes this” stickers, customized for each student. They offer supplemental yearbook coverage in the form of a website, detailsyearbook.com.

“That student-created, student-managed site includes Flickr galleries, Soundslides audio presentations linked to pages in the book, profiles, spring scores not included in the printed book, comments from readers and more.”

The look and feel of the website matches the school’s 2010 yearbook. It offers readers an interactive spring supplement, as well as expanded multimedia coverage of important school events, all year long.

“Other staffs are doing similar things to reach new readers/buyers and make the yearbook experience as interactive as possible,” she said. “With QR codes, personal pages and all of the other cool things happening, it’s fun to watch yearbooks evolve.”

Ultimately, Nichols hopes advisers have fun.

“Take positive risks,” she said. “Let the kids do the work. Teach and train, and sit next to students every step of the way, but let them run the show. Expose your staff to excellent examples and reward them often for work well done.”

2010 yearbook adviser honor roll of excellence In all, seven advisers were honored by the Journalism Education Association in the National Yearbook Adviser of the Year competition co-sponsored by Jostens. In addition to the Adviser of the Year honor, Distinguished and Special Recognition advisers were also recognized.

SARAH NICHOLS National Yearbook Adviser of the Year Whitney High School [CA] CHARLA HARRIS Distinguished Adviser Pleasant Grove High School [TX] MARY PATRICK Distinguished Adviser Maize South Middle School [KS] MITCH ZIEGLER Distinguished Adviser Redondo Union High School [CA] MICHELE DUNAWAY Special Recognition Adviser Francis Howell High School [MO] BRENDA FIELD Special Recognition Adviser Glenbrook South High School [IL] MEGHAN PERCIVAL Special Recognition Adviser McLean High School [VA]

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Jostens Adviser University Orlando welcomes sixth annual professional development workshop exclusively for high school publications advisers on July 20–23.

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Jostens Adviser University, a highly acclaimed professional development workshop exclusively for high school publications advisers, is set for Orlando on July 20–23, 2012.

While it is highly recommended that you take your students to a local workshop, Jostens Adviser University is an outstanding opportunity to grow and network at a professional conference without students.

This is your workshop and your chance to focus and learn without chaperoning students. You won’t create theme packets and finalize ladders. Instead, you’ll focus on strategies and methodologies required to be an effective adviser. You’ll interact with advisers of all experience levels from throughout the country.

The award-winning faculty includes educators who have written journalism and photojournalism textbooks as well as several past recipients of the prestigious National Yearbook Adviser of the Year honor from the Journalism Education Association.

Two options for academic credit are available through South Dakota State University and the University of San Diego.

Jostens Adviser University is geared to both beginning and experienced advisers. And since the focus is on strategies and methodologies, advisers working with any yearbook company will find the curriculum relevant.

The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort will host the workshop. This family-friendly resort is located minutes away from Orlando’s famous attractions including the Walt Disney World Resort®, Universal Orlando® Resort, Wet ’N Wild and Sea World® Orlando.

The workshop, in its sixth year, begins with an opening general session at 2 p.m. on Friday, July 20, and concludes at noon on Monday, July 23. An optional seminar is available on Monday afternoon.

Complete workshop information and online registration will be available on Jan. 16 at jostens.com/jau. Please email jau@jostens.com for questions or to request a copy of the brochure in the mail.

The Radical Write

Learn to write it right with popular textbook For two decades, countless high school publications students have learned the art of journalistic writing from The Radical Write, the popular textbook written by Bobby Hawthorne.

Jostens is honored to publish this acclaimed textbook. By popular demand, a third edition of The Radical Write was released in 2011. Hawthorne teamed with Jostens to publish a new edition with updated text and a new design.

A humorous, no-holds-barred examination of the content of student publications, this best-selling text suggests alternatives to the content clichés that dominate high school journalism. Both newspaper and yearbook writing are covered. The hardbound 220-page text features 14 chapters: • Take a radical new approach

• Gather, then get organized

• Identify your audience

• See beyond the facts

• Concentrate on reporting

• Find, develop a local angle

• Separate data from story

• Keep on rolling with the flow

• Search for a unique angle

• Take your story to another level

• The “show” must go on

• Develop, trust your voice

• Interview the right person

• Put your heart into every effort

Hawthorne showcases writing samples extensively throughout The Radical Write, allowing students to learn by reading the word of others. Sidebar quick tips appear in the narrow columns on the edges of the pages. And, anecdotes from Hawthorne add personality to the pages.

A website for teachers featuring exercises, activities and supplemental materials is now available at radicalwrite.com.

The Radical Write [item #2087] sells for $40 per copy and is available for schools working with any yearbook company. To order, call 1.800.972.5628 or email merch@jostens.com. Jostens customers may visit Yearbook Avenue > Plan > Order supplies.

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Speaking from Every experienced adviser sets goals for making the publishing experience and the final yearbook better than the previous year.

Jostens Adviser & Staff asked veteran yearbook advisers to share their goals for 2012 and their action plans for making it happen.

Drastically improve the quality of the writing

Taking time for planning is critical

Deanna Dellana | adviser James Bowie High School [TX]

Sarah Cole | adviser Orono High School [MN]

GOAL: Our major staff goal for next year is to drastically improve the writing in our book. From captions to headlines to stories, it’s time to step up our game. We also want our spreads to revolve around the story.

We want them to be more thematic as opposed to just a “report” about a certain spread topic.

ACTION PLAN: Because we’re moving to block scheduling, I’ll have more time in class to work on writing.

We’ll incorporate “Grammar Crammers” at the beginning of each period that will help students strengthen one of their weakest areas.

We’ll also use “Six Word Memoirs” to help students understand that writing should have a powerful, moving introduction. Our writing needs to draw our readers in—not just give a standard, boring report.

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Improve organization, deadline completion Jennifer Luetje | adviser Washburn Rural High School [KS]

GOAL: Our staff has vowed to improve organization and deadline completion.

Another goal is to improve content and quotes.

GOAL: I plan to prioritize planning this year. It’s easy to get caught up in what needs to be done this very second, but setting aside time to plan is critical.

ACTION PLAN: After meticulously creating our ladder, I want to try to allocate which deadline each spread will fall under and then take it to the next step of actually assigning each and every page.

Another specific item I can do is create a calendar of important school events and have student photographers sign up so that we ensure the big events are covered.

I think a huge wall calendar will be my best friend next year!

ACTION PLAN: We’re going to assign spreads early, so everyone has time to prepare, plan and gather tons of content.

We’ve learned that if we interview enough people, our pages come together almost effortlessly. If we sit in the yearbook room staring at our computer screens, our pages are flat and lifeless.

We’re going to set minideadlines so that pages stay on track. Staff members will also be teamed with photographers assigned to the sport/event/activity. Photographers will be actively involved in the selection and placement of photos, so (hopefully) the best pictures make it onto each spread.

experience Fewer lengthy stories, more shorter features

In pursuit of more and better photos Joletta Yoder | adviser Hudson High School [IA]

Monica Willson | adviser Perry Hall High School [MD]

GOAL: At the end of each year we reflect on student reviews, as well as our yearbook critiques, in an attempt to address areas of weakness.

ACTION PLAN: Despite my better judgment as an English teacher, both students and judges agree that they’d like less-lengthy feature writing. Therefore, as we plan our upcoming edition, we’re focused on designing pages with shorter features, as well as integrating topics to create interesting layouts.

The editors and staff do a wonderful job of setting up the book prior to the first day of school, but oftentimes they feel more comfortable re-creating layouts that we’ve used previously simply because they’re comfortable.

I want to push them out of their comfort zone with design while addressing our omission of lengthy writing. I just hope that the writing that follows our work at yearbook summer camp inspires our readers.

Increase student involvement, recruit males for the staff Rhonda Levens | adviser Syracuse Junior/Senior High School [KS]

GOAL: My goal, as a yearbook adviser, is to better facilitate our pursuit of more and better pictures, which is an ongoing goal for our staff.

GOAL: To recruit more students to get involved in yearbook and have more males on the staff. We had only one male student on staff for the past two years.

ACTION PLAN: We’ve become too passive, hoping someone was there to get good shots. My challenge is to find a way to balance my expectations (that they’ll take ownership in their spreads and be the ones there, getting the shots they need) with the realization that my small staff, who’s expected to write and design both the district yearbook and the high school newspaper, can do only so much.

I believe through planning, accountability and motivation, we can make it one step closer to our goal in the upcoming year.

ACTION PLAN: At our school, we don’t do pre-enrollment in the spring. With all of the core requirements, it’s difficult to get students enrolled in yearbook. This spring I met with the English teachers and asked them to recommend students for yearbook based on a list of criteria I gave them. Then, I took their recommendations and generated letters for each student, which I hand-delivered. The immediate response was great. Thirteen students told me that they wanted to be in yearbook and five of them are boys!!! All of the students are honor roll students who are involved in school activities—a bonus because they know what’s going on in our school.

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Speaking from experience

Reference, review and reinforcement

Planning is essential for chronological coverage Melissa Laudani | adviser Lawton Chiles Middle School [FL]

Shannon SybirskI | adviser Tesoro High School [CA]

Concentrate on getting everyone in the yearbook Terry Quinn | adviser Plano Senior High School [TX]

GOAL: We work in rotating deadlines so that each staff is working on a different deadline. I also rotate in a deadline where the staff focuses on the business end of yearbook, making flyers and posters and promoting the book on campus.

So, you may ask: How can I possibly be more organized?

GOAL: As we try to take our book and program to a higher journalistic level, I’ve noticed that some of the newer students feel overwhelmed.

Our goal is to communicate clear expectations with the staff so they know exactly what they need to do, how to do it correctly, how to peer edit and how to make any final changes before the articles/pages are given to the section editor.

ACTION PLAN: To accomplish this resolution, we’ll use the Three R’s — reference, review and reinforcement.

We’re in the process of revising our staff manual so it’s much more specific to our program. It’ll be linked to PowerPoint presentations that will be taught weekly, which will reference back to the staff manual for review and reinforcement.

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ACTION PLAN: When we first switched to a chronological book a couple of years ago, I created a spreadsheet that laid out each traditional section of the book on each spread in chronological order.

After having done a chronological book for a couple of years, I thought, Hey, I’ve got this. I don’t need the spreadsheet anymore.

As long as we cover events as they take place, we don’t need to plan everything out ahead of time.

Boy was I wrong!

There were so many times this year where we had to look at the calendar and ask ourselves — what’s going on that we can cover for the yearbook?

So, at the end of the 2011 school year, we started planning out every module of every spread of every section of the new 2011–2012 book.

We’ve planned out story ideas, making sure we cover academics, student life, people and groups on every spread.

We’ve planned which sidebars will go on which spreads.

Of course, there’s room for change — events and unforgettable moments always happen after everything is planned, so you have to plan for the unexpected.

But, I will never again not plan as much as I did this year!

GOAL: We have to do a much better job of getting everyone in the yearbook. This year we had the list on the wall but we weren’t diligent about highlighting until we were working on the proof of the people section.

ACTION PLAN: To get more people in the book, I think we need to actually search out kids to get their photo/quote. Maybe even alphabetically.

We have basically 136 pages to work with for 2,600 kids. This means we need 19 photos on each page. We then have the big people section, so whatever we do there we can subtract from the 136-page total.

The bottom line is that we need to pay attention to the math. The kids and I will talk about this and they’ll come up with a plan that’ll work.

More interactivity with students, community

Back to the basics: Always verify facts Ginny Ordman | adviser Iowa City West High School [IA]

Debra Klevens | adviser Parkway West High School [MO]

Meeting deadlines starts with a three-day workshop Robin Bilinski | adviser NorthWood High School [IN]

GOAL: My plan for 2011–2012 is to make our yearbook more interactive with the students and the community.

ACTION PLAN: The process to achieve this is threefold. To begin with, I plan to restructure my yearbook curriculum so that students in Yearbook II–IV learn more design skills.

I’d like to begin the year teaching the newbies the fundamentals of journalism while my experienced students work on creating infographics. I want to make our book more interactive!

The second thing I’d like to do is revamp our marketing strategy. I’d like to increase our presence by creating and managing a Facebook page. On this page, I want to post the current yearbook page ideas we are working on, cover design choices, etc.

The power of the “like” button could really drive sales and it could create a much more interactive yearbook society. It could only improve our coverage as well.

Lastly, I want to get community buy-in on our product. In the 12 years I’ve been advising, we’ve never sold ads other than senior ads. Under our new administration, I’ve been given the go-ahead to sell ads within the community. This will not only help raise funds for our program, it’ll also help get our name out there in the community.

I’m so excited about the potential 2012 has to offer!

GOAL: As the yearbook staff was finishing our 2011 spring supplement on June 1st, I inquired how the senior girl who had qualified for state in golf had finished. The new editor-in-chief, who was sitting beside me, said “Twelfth.”

She’d read about it in the local newspaper, so we inserted that “fact” on the golf page.

The next day, I was on the phone with the golf coach getting team stats and mentioned the girl’s 12th place finish.

“No, she was sixth,” the coach said.

She should know — the girl was her daughter.

That experience cemented my new yearbook goal — to emphasize fact-checking with my journalism students.

ACTION PLAN: After 14 years of teaching, the emphasis I give this fundamental principle of journalism has apparently waned. So, next year, I’ll teach the beginning journalism students—and re-teach the yearbook staff — of the need to be skeptical, to always verify facts.

Whether it’s how to spell a name, what grade a student is in, or what place a golfer finished, a fact needs verification.

Along with that, I need to teach my students the proper way to check facts.

For names, it’s a school roster, not the person sitting beside you.

As it turns out, at state the golfers play two rounds and our senior was 12th after the first day. So that’s what the local newspaper had been reporting.

That near-mistake would be like reporting the halftime score of a state basketball game as a final score.

I’m determined to see that doesn’t happen next year.

GOAL: Not fall behind on production (by Bilinski standards, not plant standards).

ACTION PLAN: In order to keep up with production, will get my staff to a three-day yearbook workshop.

The three-day workshops are fantastic because not only can the staff work together to develop the theme concept and designs, they can also develop stronger working relationships. The editors also get a sense of individual and staff strengths and weaknesses.

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Twelve Fo

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R Twelve It’s back to the basics where yearbook trends are concerned. Rather than trying to impress press association judges or other staffs with overrated gimmicks, today’s yearbook journalists realize that by focusing on their readers, everyone wins.

With the focus on readers, trends for 2012 yearbooks center around including relevant, storytelling content and packaging it in a reader-friendly way.

From modular design to whole-book links, many trends drive coverage and help the staff meet its goal of featuring every student at least three times.

Trends are no longer for the eclectic, but essentials for any staff seeking contemporary ways to connect with readers.

It’s back to the basics.

A dozen design trends for your 2012 yearbook

by Gary Lundgren

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| 2 | Make it MODULAR Modular design greatly expands coverage and design options.

With modular design, traditional photo spaces become content modules, opening a host of coverage options. By rethinking the use of spaces once automatically assigned to single photos, staffs use modular design to take control of the amount of content and how it is presented on the spread.

Designing content modules becomes less intimidating if they’re seen as small layouts within a big layout. The strategies and rules used to design the spread are applied on the smaller modules.

Graphic techniques such as lines and tints might be used to lightly frame or highlight modules.

THE GROUND’S THE LIMIT | A modular approach to design allows the Arcadia staff to present four different content modules on this chronological spread covering Oct. 3–9. To avoid a cluttered look, a dominant module provides the focal point and also features the largest photo on the spread. Horizontal and vertical rails of expanded spacing also alleviate overcrowding. The vertical module is a whole-book link and features a “news feed” with student comments made during that particular week. | West Shore Junior/ Senior High School [FL] TACKLE TRAP | The dominant module is a powerful focal point on this spread.

Color skillfully enhances the centerpiece module—giving the spread the impact of color without covering the entire spread. The dominant module showcases the spread’s largest photo and the main headline/story presentation. Smaller content modules are grouped around the dominant module and are separated by standard spacing. | Loudoun Valley High School [VA]

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| 3 | Levels of SPACING Spacing is a very powerful design tool. Content may appear unified, framed or isolated on the spread depending on the spacing used by the designer. These levels of spacing provide flexibility.

Standard spacing, generally 1 pica, is the default spacing used for consistency.

Tight spacing, generally 1 to 6 points, is often used between photos and other related elements for visual unity and to save space.

Expanded spacing, generally a vertical or horizontal “rail� of 3 to 6 picas, is used to separate or isolate content from the rest of the content on the spread.

BACK ON TRACK | Three levels of spacing provide design flexibility while adding some breathing room to content-packed designs. Expanded spacing is used to emphasize the eyeline by turning it into a horizontal rail. Horizontal and vertical rails are also used to frame the headline/story module. Tight spacing is used between photos within two of the modules.

Standard spacing, in this case 1 pica, is used as the default to promote consistency. | Westlake High School [TX]

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| 5 | Showstopper SPREADS Readers bore easily. So, why not provide a few visual surprises throughout the yearbook by displaying the content in ways that stand out from the rest of the book?

These showstopper spreads often present interesting feature topics and feature magazine-style designs with large, full-spread bleed photographs.

Opening, closing and divider spreads, while more consistent in their presentation than feature spreads, may also take on a dramatic look with large images and minimal text in 14 point or larger.

FACE THE MUSIC | Magazinestyle spreads provide readers with a visual surprise and studentfocused feature coverage at the end of each monthly section in this chronological yearbook.

Feature spread topics included music, phones, fashion, social networking, Nerf guns and food. In addition to the creative design, the highly personal content on each spread was high in reader appeal. | Glenbrook South High School [IL]

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| 6 | Strategic COLOR When designing a process-color spread, there are two common strategies to use in selecting color shades for graphic accent.

Echoing color from the photographs, especially the dominant, promotes a color-coordinated look. The three-peat graphic strategy is helpful by encouraging the designer to echo the color three times or more across the spread.

Theme/concept-driven colors are pre-assigned to each section as part of the overall design plan. This approach promotes visual unity throughout an entire section while color-coding the book as a navigational aid to the reader.

COLOR-CODED NAVIGATION | Beginning on the cover, four colors are used as visual cool tools to introduce the “Reveal” concept. Each of the colors represents one of this chronological yearbook’s seasonal sections.

For easy reader navigation, the color is repeated on the dividers and in a subtle way in the folio treatment. | Kirkwood High School [MO]

ECHOING COLOR | Outstanding photography commands attention without being overpowered by loud and distracting background colors. For visual unity, a color is “pulled” from the dominant photo and used with full intensity to emphasize the key word in the headline presentation. The color is screened down and used for the horizontal bar that unifies the pages. | Dos Pueblos High School [CA]

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| 7 | Typographic STYLE Yes, there are lots of crazy and creative fonts available. And, most of them don’t belong in a yearbook—or any other medium that relies on clear, concise communication. For clear communication, readers should notice the words and not the letterforms.

As a general rule, serif typefaces are best for stories and other multiparagraph text. A sans serif typeface works well as contrast for elements such as captions, secondary stories and pulled quotes.

A decorative typeface may have limited use to visually support the yearbook’s concept. Consider limiting a concept-related specialty font to key, theme-related words.

A CUTE COUPLE | A serif and sans serif typeface combination often looks good together. A casual yet formal look is created by using a serif typeface for the spread’s monthly label headline and for the smaller daily headlines. The font is further enhanced by using all lowercase letters and displaying them in gray. A crisp, sans serif font is used for the numbers on the vertical dateline.

For consistency, the sans serif font is repeated for the caption stories, with extra line spacing to encourage readability. | Palos Verdes High School [CA]

A BOLD STATEMENT | A strong sans serif typeface is used for an enlarged quote, also doubling as a headline, overprinted on the dominant photo. To establish a visual hierarchy, the presentation is crafted using different point sizes, allowing impact words to jump out.

The smaller headlines appear in a light, condensed version of the same typeface to achieve both variety and consistency. | Mounds Park Academy [MN]

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| 10 | Crazy CROPS Photojournalistic images must be cropped to represent the visual story effectively and accurately. This important fundamental has not changed.

However, for carefully planned, illustrative purposes, visually interesting crops are trendy. The good ol’ COB (cut-out-background) photo is always popular and works best with planned, posed photos. COB photos work best when anchored to a module or a line. Partial cut-outs are also popular and leave most of the image intact.

Other trendy, crazy crops include sloppy COBS, with jagged scissor-cuts around the COB images. Magazines also use extremely tight horizontal or vertical crops to give mug shots an extreme look for quote presentations.

NAMES & FACES | An interesting photo-graphic technique adds visual interest to the index.

Wavy lines, a concept-related visual cool tool, sweep across the spread. Tightly cropped, cutout-background photos appear behind the lines.

For further emphasis, the photos are printed in black and white. | Grand Blanc High School [MI]

WHAT GOES AROUND | Placing cut-outbackground images inside colorful, overlapping circles creates a fun, high-energy photo illustration to accompany a story on the Mr. WHS pageant. | Whitney High School [CA]

CONTRAST | Using COB (cut-out-background) photos for the quote presentation creates visual contrast with the rows of modular portraits on the upper portion of the spread. The COB technique is effective because the photos either bleed to the bottom edge of the page or are anchored to bold rule lines so they don’t look chopped. | Coronado Middle School [CA]

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| 12 | TEXTURE and shine Readers like to use their sense of touch—especially when interacting with the yearbook cover for the first time. Textbooks traditionally have smooth, litho covers, so give the yearbook something different. Consider materials or techniques that turn a smooth cover surface into something tactile featuring graining, embossing or a satin-like finish. Also, consider spot UV application on litho covers or inside pages to really make the photographs shine.

GIVE ME 5 | A dazzling opening section features five spreads— each featuring five students. This spread features five people with hidden stories, which allowed the Tonitrus staff to share things about students that not everyone knew. For each of the five students featured, a “Circle of Five” column lists five of their friends. For added impact, spot UV application was applied to the photos and the oversized “5” in the headline presentation. | Rocklin High School [CA]

DEFINE RED | This Custom Embossed quarterbound cover features a horizontal panel of VelveTouch material creating a dazzling cover enhanced by the feel of velvet. Debossing is used to indent “red” into the material.

“Define” is embossed, or raised, on the silver material for additional dimension. | Arbor View High School [NV]

CONTRAST | Quarterbinding allows the Liberator staff to combine a textured book cloth with a smooth, high-gloss litho panel featuring colorful photographs.

The fabric is a woven cloth material called Flax. | Pace High School [FL]

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grand prize winner |

Grand Prize: “All as One�

Bridget Bennett, photographer; Jeff Kocur, adviser Hopkins High School, Minnetonka, MN

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| first place winners

First Place | Academics and Community Service: “Water Lab” Casey Simmons, photographer; Cindy Todd, adviser Westlake High School, Austin, TX

First Place | Graduation: “Salutatorian” Sidney Hollingsworth, photographer; Deanne Brown, adviser Westlake High School, Austin, TX

First Place | Sports: Sidelines and School Spirit: “Pumped Up” Nathan Kallison, photographer; Deanne Brown, adviser Westlake High School, Austin, TX

First Place | Sports: Athletes in Action: “Freestyle” Alyssa Muraoka, photographer; Michelle Knoetgen, adviser Iolani School, Honolulu, HI

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First Place | Illustration: “Scorched—With Missing Pieces” Leah Rachel Von Essen, photographer; George Mazzeo, adviser Holmdel High School, Holmdel, NJ

First Place | Portrait: “Piano Man” Tessa Ostvig, photographer; Sarah Cole, adviser Orono High School, Long Lake, MN

First Place | Junior High/Middle School: “Soul Grate” Amethyst Ortega, photographer; Marsha Lott, adviser Ebenezer Middle School, Rincon, GA

First Place | Student Life/Activities: “On Conrad” Bril Flint, photographer; Cindy Todd, adviser Westlake High School, Austin, TX

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2011 Design Contests

✐

Grand Prize Design: MALIA ELLIOTT | Julie Goldstein, adviser Green Valley High School, Henderson, NV Prize: Laptop computer

first place Design: JESSICA CHALFANT | John Dent, adviser Dos Pueblos High School, Goleta, CA Prize: Digital camera

2011 YearTech Online Design Contest winners Judges carefully studied the thousands of entries in the 2011 YearTech® Online Yearbook Design Contest before recognizing 19 middle school and high school students for their creativity.

With an increasing number of staffs creating yearbook pages using Jostens YearTech Online, a contest was launched to recognize outstanding spreads created online. In its third year, 2,500 entries were submitted, a significant increase from the 1,600 entries submitted in the contest’s inaugural year.

The winning entries displayed an awareness of accepted design standards while effectively presenting visual and verbal content in a creative, reader-friendly way.

The contest was judged by a team of three middle school and high school yearbook advisers:

Second place Design: CORRIE VAN TUYL | Shannon Sybirski, adviser Tesoro High School, Las Flores, CA Prize: Apple iPod Touch

• KRISTEN BANKERS, yearbook adviser Eden Prairie High School [MN] • KATE REECE, yearbook adviser Komachin Middle School [WA] • MARGIE WATTERS, yearbook adviser Westmoore High School [OK] In addition to the four winning designs displayed on this page, honorable mention designs are displayed at jostensyearbooks.com and will be featured in the 2012 Gotcha Covered Look Book.

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third place Design: JULIA MILLIKEN | Susan Pavelka, adviser Palos Verdes High School, Palos Verdes Estates, CA Prize: Camcorder

Grand Prize: CHAD PAPINEAU | C. Dow Tate, adviser Shawnee Mission East High School, Prairie Village, KS Prize: Laptop computer with Adobe Creative Suite software

First Place: HAYDEN WOLF | Ray Westbrook, adviser St. Mark’s School of Texas, Dallas, TX Prize: Adobe Creative Suite software

2011 Jostens/Adobe Design Contest winners Judges carefully studied the hundreds of entries in the 2011 Yearbook Design Contest before recognizing 16 middle and high school students for their creativity.

The contest, in its seventh year, is jointly sponsored by Jostens and Adobe. Each participant submitted a complete yearbook spread.

The winning entries displayed an awareness of accepted design standards while effectively presenting visual and verbal content in a creative, reader-friendly way.

The contest was judged by a team of three current and former high school yearbook advisers: • TRAVIS FEIL, yearbook adviser, Sterling High School [KS]

Second Place: TUCKER LOVE | Becky Tate, adviser Shawnee Mission North High School, Overland Park, KS Prize: Adobe InDesign software

• BRENDA FIELD, yearbook adviser, Glenbrook South High School [IL] • WAYNA POLK, yearbook consultant and retired adviser from Abilene High School [TX] In addition to the four winning designs displayed on this page, honorable mention designs are displayed at jostensyearbooks.com and will be featured in the 2012 Gotcha Covered Look Book.

Third Place: MADELINE FRANZ | Sara Ringe, Cara Foster, advisers Whitfield School, St. Louis, MO Prize: Digital camera

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One-minute workshops Jostens Creative Accounts Managers share the latest in yearbooking.

Tina

Cleavelin

John

Cutsinger

Shannon Williams

Curiosity: A must for the Teams are the key to student journalist looking chronological staff for relevant stories management

Effective storytelling “triggers” personal experiences

When I think of the most interesting people in my life, those who are curious come to mind. Curious people gather interesting facts and ideas and they capture the attention of friends or any audience.

As a yearbook journalist, you should provide the same depth of intrigue to keep your readers’ attention.

According to The Kaiser Family Foundation, 8– to 18–year olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes to using entertainment media across a typical day.

The amount of exposure to graphics and interactive media forces the yearbook staff to push the limits and go beyond just reporting who was involved and what happened.

Consequently, yearbook journalists who pay close attention to their surroundings find the stories and catch the photographs their buyers want to see and read.

Long gone are the days when the Homecoming spread is devoted to the court and the football game. Curious reporters find the unknown facts behind the obvious.

He/she finds the story behind the story— the facts, figures and feelings readers want to know.

The best journalists ask, “Why and how did it happen?” They look and listen and then probe participants for the “wow” stories that will keep the reader on the page.

Have you ever had an aha moment where you suddenly just get it? How about an “Oh yeah, now I remember” moment?

Many of these experiences are brought about by what psychologists call “triggers.”

For some it could be a smell that triggers a moment or a sense of déjà vu. For others it might be a song or sound.

For journalists it’s a visual connection through photography or our storytelling.

When building the perfect yearbook spread, every photo or story should provide a trigger for the person looking at the page.

For those in attendance at the covered event, the memories should flood back.

For those who didn’t attend that particular event, a trigger should take them to a personal experience relating to the spread.

If the photos aren’t storytelling and are simply filling space, a reader will grow bored quickly. A poorly written rehash is a waste of ink on paper whereas a story capturing the personalities and moments will draw a reader in. The most important question to answer when covering an event is not the “who” or “when” but the “WHY.” Focus on answering the why and you’ll find the interesting angle of a story.

Storytellers have only a split-second to create a trigger or a link.

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It’s about time.

Chronological coverage is not just a book structure and is certainly not a theme fad.

It’s a yearbook staff culture shift that leads to a more collaborative effort. The culture shift to chronological reporting, however, can eliminate much of the “down” time in some yearbook programs. Everyone can report all the time. Chronological reporting empowers the staff to not only improve coverage but also to more effectively and efficiently make deadlines.

The chronological approach inspires staff members to transform into daily reporters and photographers who constantly look for the stories that date and document the year. In the truest sense, they become journalists. While this can happen with the traditional approach to yearbook organization, it most often doesn’t inspire that sense of urgency and immediacy.

Yearbooks have traditionally lacked the spontaneity of the moment and with chronological reporting and a complimentary modular approach to design, those special moments are captured for a lifetime. It’s those little things that count where coverage is concerned.

Even if a staff is doing traditional sections, today’s youth culture demands we serve as chronological reporters. Meaning: staffs can and should do more whole staff reporting of the everyday things instead of simply focusing on “big” stories as they happen.

Yearbooks—more than ever—capture the times of your life!

A three-peat performance.

No one prints a better yearbook than Jostens— and we have the “Benny” awards from the Printing Industries of America to prove it. For a third consecutive year, Jostens has earned the Best of Category “Benny” award in the School Yearbook category for the Dartmouth College Aegis.

In all, Jostens swept 11 of the 16 awards presented in the School Yearbook category in 2011.

BEST OF CATEGORY (SCHOOL YEARBOOK): Jostens AWARD OF RECOGNITION: Jostens: 1 award Friesens: 1 award CERTIFICATE OF MERIT: Jostens: 9 awards Friesens: 2 awards Herff Jones: 2 awards

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Presorted First-Class Mail U.S. Postage Paid Owatonna, MN Permit No. 110

3601 Minnesota Drive Suite 400 Minneapolis, MN 55435

ATTN: YEARBOOK ADVISER

The yearbook is Award-Winning Technology now their yearbook with Personal Yearbook Pages.

With Personal Yearbook Pages students can tell their own personal stories along with the story of the school year— increasing yearbook relevancy and student inclusion.

• 4

pages added to the yearbook, with their own photos and design • Students

can upload photos of themselves, friends and family

• Pages

are printed only in their copy of the yearbook

Their family, their friends and even their tuba! It’s their year—make it their yearbook.

Learn more at jostensyearbook.com.

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