Key Design Ideas
On Yearbook Avenue,
see some great design ideas under “Educate, Design Ideas, YearTech Online Designs”. Also watch the demos in class.
The book is one unit, not a
collection of individual pages. This is
divided into sections (e.g. Student Life, Staff, Ads). Sections consist of single or double-page
“Spreads”.
Look at the online examples, and also the “Look Books” to see examples
of the points below:
- Consistency – similar “look and
feel” throughout the book and within each section
- Dominant image – build the spread
around one large photo – the first thing the reader will look at; should
represent the main idea of the spread
- White space – empty areas that give
the eye a rest, making the content more appealing. Also important between photos (borders)
- Graphic elements such as lines
and boxes add accents, tie the spread together
- Using shaded backgrounds, borders, boxes
etc. around some text is effective
- Align elements vertically and
horizontally. Are there tools to
help within YearTech and PhotoShop?
- Consistent fonts throughout
the book; use very few
- Using (but
modifying) the Yeartech page templates can often
help you get a good professional looking spread.
Assignment
- Choose two
different pages that you really like from the YearTech
Online Designs. Try to choose
different ones from your classmates – maybe start looking in the middle –
there are over 40 pages.
- Do a quick
written analysis of what’s good about each page (be sure to tell me what
page # it is). Include some of the
points above and anything else that you see that you think makes it a
great page. This should only be
about a half page in Word. Save it
in a folder with your name under Shared/Assts/Page
Design Analysis
- Choose ONE
of the pages and try to duplicate it in YearTech
online. Use one of the pages that’s been assigned to you. Don’t mess with anyone else’s page –
some have already been started for real.
Experiment with the graphic elements tools to produce lines
etc. Use any photos from our
collection that are suitable for your spread.
- Put the page
# from our yearbook that you used for this in your Word document so I’ll
know where to look.