HIGHANDER YEARBOOK
During my senior year of high school, I was the editor-in-chief of The Highlander, Highland Park high school's yearbook. While many students enjoyed a laid back senior year, I was immersed in the busiest year of my life.
I worked with other members of senior staff to design spreads using Adobe InDesign and further develop the theme of the book. Once the school year started, I managed a class of over 20 members of staff. I taught them how to use the software, edited their spreads, coordinated lesson plans and spent many hours outside of the school day ensuring that the finished product was just as incredible as I had envisoned it to be.
Outstanding Photo Spreads
We thought it was important to not only showcase the work of our staff, but also include the work of other talented student photographers. Each month, I would search through at least three different social media platforms to find outstanding photos taken by students. These divider pages turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the book because it gave us a way to visually represent the month in photos through a non-traditional medium.
Weekly Spreads
We developed a new approach to designing weekly spreads. We designed over 30 infographics in a variety of sizes so that staffers could choose which ones to include on the page. This allowed us to ensure that the week's events were covered in the best way possible. It also meant that no two spreads had identical layouts. This was challenging, but in the end it was extremely rewarding.
Dividers
Since our theme was "The Journey," we felt that it was important to carry the eyeline throughout the entire book to create a sense of continuity. Designing divider spreads that featured a large dominant photo while keeping this in mind was a challenge. We ultimately decided to use a black background to echo the eyeline, suggesting that each section represented a spot on the timeline of the year.
Specialty Sports Spreads
I felt that it was important to spotlight students who not only excelled in sports, but also excelled in other dimensions as well. I enjoyed desiging these pages and giving students a chance to tell their stories.
Sports Spreads
I wanted to make sure we covered as many members of each team as possible. I also wanted to make sure that the sports spreads gave the reader insight into what it was really like to be a part of each team. For this reason, I designed an infographic for the lower third of the page that included highlights from the season in the athletes own words, spotlights on two players, and a list of the music, food and routine of the team.
Specialty Spreads
Designing the specialty spreads for the people pages was a lot of fun. We adapted many of the original infographics and elements from the other spreads to fill space at the end of each grade's portrait section.