Two weeks ago, our Heritage High School journalism class hosted the 2019-2020 yearbook workshop, which is brought to us yearly by Jostens. Many other schools in the area attended as well, hoping to learn the same things as we were. We learned how to be a cultured staff, along with how to bring some fun and unique ideas to the yearbook for our classes of 20, 21, 22, and 23.

It may seem like a yearbook is pretty easy to put together, but it actually is quite elaborate in design, layout, purpose, and ideas. One thing I feel like there is not enough of in yearbooks is different perspectives. For example, you usually read about a football game from a viewer’s perspective. One thing that could be interesting is taking a long quote or a few short quotes from a player on the field. That offers a different view. Another thing that was discussed during the presentation was QR Codes. QR Codes are a great addition because it allows students to access photos digitally. Most of our students are heavily involved with social media, so if they’re able to access a digital copy of the photos, they can post them if they choose. That could even increase our sales. There are many ideas you could incorporate into a yearbook, those are only a few.

As was mentioned above, yearbooks can actually take much longer than you would think. There is a lot of planning involved, along with loads of brainstorming. You obviously need the whole school year, and that time is definitely not wasted. Though Jostens Yearbook Company is a big help for us, we do have to do the work as well. We have to gather photos from every memorable event, gather information for stories, and then write that information down. Plus adding the class pages and making sure every student is included. There are many unique things in your class’s yearbook if you think about the time and effort put into each one of them.