By Payton Bayes and Mia Warren
Ever wonder what it’s like to be in a yearbook class for your school? Instead of just choosing that and going into it unexpectedly, learning more about it in advance will help you strive even more. When it comes to making the yearbook, it’s much more detailed than you’d think. Everyone needs to contribute to their part in order for it all to come together.
There are two departments in making the yearbook that consist of design/copy and photography. Each department has their own leaders and roles that make sure everyone is contributing and putting their part in. These are the editors of design making sure flaws and errors are all gone.
The head editors in chief are the top main “leaders” of both departments in charge of everything in total who run the whole thing making sure the yearbook is carefully crafted. Making sure the staff are in line doing their assigned work, the head editors are also assigned their own work having double duty responsibility.
The staff on the other hand will go take photos, inspirations, ect… to ensure their creativity for the yearbook is impressive and unique. Having this bond of working in a team is extremely important in making sure you do your job so that it doesn’t set everyone behind.
Not only do you work for things that will go into the yearbook, but you will also have assignments related to that in order to make sure you are paying attention/ learning new elements to design/ photography.
It’s always important to include as many people into the yearbook who attend your school. Variety is always the best choice because really, who wants to see the same person on every page? After a while being unique will pay off on your page making it stand out. Remember though, there will always be a theme pre-selected for you to follow so stay in touch with the theme colors, fonts, and any patterns that your teacher insists on adding.
However, the most common assumption about yearbook is that it is just a ¨fun¨ class. Although yearbook definitely can be a fun and creative class, it takes great responsibility and dedication to create the yearbook for the school year. Students have to commit time and effort inside and outside the classroom to make something creative that students will love.
Fellow BHS Editor in Chief Camryn Wittry says, ¨As an Editor in Chief I am responsible for seeing the entire book as one big picture instead of just smaller deadlines. I’m constantly checking pages. Deadlines, helping to solve problems, managing communication and stepping in if somebody needs support. A big challenge is balancing hard leadership and creativity.¨
The whole point of the class is so our students can have detailed yearbooks filled with years of our high school memories. This class can be very overlooked and many are unaware of the time it takes to make our school yearbook. Some people even assume the class is only about taking photos. The staff needs to be further recognized for their extreme effort to give our students pages and pages of their memories.
The yearlong process of developing the yearbook starts in August and ends when school gets out, staff has countless deadlines of creating a book everyone will enjoy and want to purchase. The staff has many different departments in the class that work together to merge their creativity into one huge book of our lives. Us students typically just flip through the pages, skimming over the years worth of photos and quotes. But the staff has sat with our memories all year and arranged them perfectly until everyone was happy with the outcome.
Just like with any other deadline, students missing their deadlines has an effect on everyone else but especially the editors in chief. They have to review all the work by the other groups, train new students, and fix every error. When a student misses a deadline it becomes their responsibility to give up their time to complete it, although this role can come with stress, seeing the yearbook when it is completed makes everyone remember why they chose to be part of the team.
Editor in Chief Camryn Witty also adds, ¨I recommend yearbook for students who want to be involved and tell a story of our school culture. It’s a class for people who care about teamwork and creativity, whatever that’s through photography, writing or design. If you want to build stronger friendships and be a part of something that lasts, the yearbook is definitely a place for you.¨
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