Middle-schoolers are at the prime age for embracing the latest trends, but there’s one timeless tradition they still love – yearbooks! The end-of-year ritual of sharing and signing middle school yearbooks is something kids, teachers, and parents all look forward to. This is especially true for those who were part of the yearbook team. From photography to editing, middle-school students are more than capable of assisting with the varied tasks that go into a successful yearbook project.
As a middle school yearbook project manager, overseeing student volunteers is a pretty big job. Designing the yearbook, however, is remarkably quick and easy when you use the Mixbook Studio™, our free online design platform. With over 75 yearbook themes to use as fully customizable templates, your project will be complete in no time.
Here are our top tips for creating a middle school yearbook. For more guidance, check out our guide, How to Make a Yearbook with Mixbook, and get in touch with a yearbook rep today.
Choose your yearbook team
A typical yearbook team requires an adult manager who will oversee the entire project, make sure all deadlines are met, and handle the logistics of payment and distribution. If your project will include student volunteers, the manager also needs to supervise their contributions. This person might be a teacher, faculty member, or parent volunteer.
The rest of your yearbook team could be just a few students or a whole multigenerational crew. An amazing finished product is achievable no matter the size of your team. Between your team members, assign the following key roles:
- Photography: To take new photos, collect existing ones, organize image files, and edit photos.
- Editorial: To oversee the written contents of the yearbook, conduct interviews, and check spelling and grammar.
- Design: To oversee the visuals of the book, choose layouts, colors, design accents etc.
All three of these “departments” are absolutely within the skillsets of middle-schoolers. Today’s tweens and young teens are remarkably savvy with technology and aesthetics. Your yearbook project will greatly benefit from tapping into their abundant creativity. The kids will benefit, too, from learning the principles of design, editing, and photography, as well as the importance of meeting deadlines. The Mixbook Studio™ has an intuitive interface that makes it easy for students and adults alike to develop those skills.
The Mixbook platform allows for direct collaboration between team members. You can even assign “view only” or “invite to edit” access depending on their roles. For more about collaboration, check out How to Collaborate on School Yearbooks in Real Time.
Pick a yearbook theme
It’s smart to browse Mixbook’s various yearbook themes even before you’re ready to start your own project. We also have themes that are specifically designed for Middle Schools, check them out here. Look through the different design styles and content prompts, and you’ll start to get an idea about which themes might be the best fit for your school.
Here are our bestselling middle school themes:
All themes are 100% customizable, so don’t rule out other yearbook categories while picking one for your middle school. Some other great options that might suit your school include:
Customize your middle school yearbook
Every element of a yearbook theme is customizable, including all text, photo layouts, backgrounds, and stickers. Keep some elements of a theme and replace others to create your own unique yearbook.
Here are the basic steps for creating your yearbook using a theme:
Gather and upload photos
Go through all the photos shared using your school’s parent communication app. Send emails to the students, staff, and parents requesting photo submissions for the yearbook.
Gather all the photos together in one master file. It’s a good idea to use a photo management app or service like Google Photos. Then, organize the files into sub-folders according to the particular yearbook page/spread categories. These categories should include:
- Portraits/headshots of every student, organized by classroom or grade. Candid shots of day-to-day happenings throughout the school year.
- Photos representing:
- Academics, including special projects, awards, honor roll, and valedictorian
- Extracurriculars, including sports, clubs, music, and art
- Events, such as dances, field trips, and holiday celebrations
Once your photo collection is complete, upload it to Mixbook and your project page. Drag and drop the images into place, or speed things up using Auto-Create.
Tip: Upload, then drag and drop, one sub-folder of images to your project at a time to help keep things organized.
Include custom pages and spreads
Middle school yearbooks should include plenty of autograph pages, ready for collecting signatures and special messages at the end of the school year. Other optional page ideas include:
- A message from the principal
- Meet the faculty
- Miscellaneous photo collages
- The year’s trends, highlights, or world events
- First day of school photos
- School information such as a mission statement, history, or statistics.
Add text, backgrounds, and stickers
Text, backgrounds, and stickers are all easily customized in the Mixbook Studio™ using the panels to the left of the work space. The studio allows for custom colors, so you can use your school’s official colors in the design palette. You might also upload images of your school mascot, logo, or crest to incorporate into the yearbook design.
Related: How to Create Your Own Custom Stickers and Backgrounds for Free
Finalize the yearbook
When your yearbook is finished, be sure to thoroughly check for errors. Check the spelling, names, and grammar of the text elements, and make sure the photos are all correctly positioned. Look out for common mistakes like placing important images in the gutter, or accidentally leaving blank pages in the middle of the book.
Finally, get approval from the appropriate person at the school, and place your bulk order. Your beautiful middle school yearbooks will be in your hands in no time!
Celebrate with a signing event
With your yearbooks in hand, your team will be thrilled to see the results of all their hard work. And, the rest of the school will be excited to receive their own copies and collect signatures. Why not turn the celebration into a fun, end-of-year event?
Ask for help
We know that the yearbook process can be overwhelming but what makes us different is that we work to make it easy for you! Our dedicated Yearbook Team is on standby to offer you one-on-one support throughout the process. Don’t hesitate to reach out to them at sales@mixbook.com for any questions along the way.
