It’s 2019 and you’re back at school, probably with thoughts about how the summer break seemed to fly by. However, the school year can also move at bewildering speed, to the extent that getting the yearbook ready can be a last-minute scramble.
During February and March, your school is enjoying warm summer days, and the yearbook is a dim and distant thought. But before you know it, term four has arrived, and preparations are being made for end of year events, including the school yearbook of course. So how are you tracking?
Getting the yearbook done needn’t be a last-minute scramble if you work to a timeline. Most school calendars are well mapped out in advance, so adding yearbook-specific tasks to this schedule will ensure you capture good content throughout the year and make the yearbook creation process more enjoyable.
WORK BACKWARDS
It pays to work backward from your final deadline. Are you handing out the yearbooks at a specific event or a final assembly? If so, make sure your deadline for yearbook delivery is a good week or so in advance, to allow for any hiccups or delays.
Your timeline should diarise significant school events and include a plan for capturing images and written content when they happen. For example:
- Who will be taking photos?
- Can you assign students and teachers to write about their experiences?
- Who will be gathering and storing the content?
Apart from the ongoing need to capture content, the months from April to September are a good time to create a project plan and begin the design process. This includes:
- Assigning roles (e.g. editor, proof-reader, photographer, archiver etc.)
- Making decisions about colour, fonts and overall style
- Working out a budget and choosing a format (print, digital or both)
Between October and December, things get busy with rounding up all the content, laying out the pages, editing photos and text, submitting sections for review and gaining approvals and sign-offs.
Yearbook production can be hectic, but with planning and a pre-planned timeline, you’ll have more time to make your yearbook the best it can be.
