Even though it’s my first year putting together the yearbook, and already, I’ve had enough! I quit! You take over!

OK, OK, you’re not going to get rid of me that easily, but you are going to design and layout your own yearbook to practice for the actual one! You’ll put your InDesign skills to the test by laying out your own version of the St. James Collegiate Yearbook.

You’ll use your photos you’ve taken of school events to fill up the magazine. OK, OK, I’m a joker, I know you haven’t actually TAKEN ANY PHOTOS, so you can use some of the ones I’ve taken/collected.

The first step is to decide on some content. This is going to be very important, because you’ll be marked on how realistic/interesting your yearbook is. It should look like something that someone might actually buy.

You have a fair bit of creative freedom here, but you have to make sure that your content is appropriate and that it makes a good yearbook. You also of course have to use all of the tools you’ve learned in InDesign to create this properly.

Start by going into Robson213Files/DIDP/YearbookPages. Inside that folder are the page templates that you should start with, along with different layout templates that you could use, as well as some clip art that you might want to consider.

• Use the page template supplied by our yearbook maker
• Come up with your own page design template FIRST!
• There are some guides on the templates, but ADD YOUR OWN! Keep things lined up by using guides!
• Use approved fonts! The fonts on the poster under the clock are the safest ones, so use them if you can!
• Make your pages colourful and interesting!
• Use the yearbook cover that you created earlier in the year or the actual cover that we chose to use.
• Come up with the major sections that you think should appear in our actual yearbook. Look at some of our previous books or the other school books under the windows for tips.
• Include actual school photos from my collection (I’ll share my iPhoto library)
• All photos should be fixed in Photoshop first
• All photos need to be 300 dpi! Important! (remember how to resize photos? If a photo is lower resolution, you will need to do this!)
• All photos need to be “placed,” which means that the actual photo file must be alongside your InDesign file (create a photos folder and put all of your original or fixed photos in that folder, place them from there!)
• Include some write-ups about clubs/activities (although those can be faked/copied/silly)
• Pages must be numbered! No page number on the front or back cover! You can decide whether there’s a separately numbered table of contents page or index. InDesign must do the numbering for you! (ie you can’t just add a text box on each page and write in your own number – CHEATING!) If you did the previous assignment where you created a book layout, this should be easy.

This will take some time and effort to complete. You won’t get it done in one day, so take your time and do a good job. This is a MAJOR assignment this semester, so please do a good job. Ask for help as necessary. Start planning/designing or at least thinking about it ASAP!

Congratulations on your new position! I look forward to looking over your yearbook!