All yearbooks have the same primary purpose—acknowledging and celebrating everything that the students and school have achieved in the past academic year. The content of a yearbook also tends to follow the same classic format. However, there’s ample opportunity for a school to express its unique character and culture through a yearbook’s editorial and design features.
For a private school or academy, yearbooks and other photo books reflect the community values, heritage, and prestige of the institution. These can be expressed through thoughtful design details that are cohesive with the school’s branding, plus editorial features highlighting standout events and achievements. You should also expect the highest quality printing, papers, and bindings.
If you’re in charge of crafting private school yearbooks or academy yearbooks, discover all the ways in which Mixbook can help. Our comprehensive collection of customizable yearbook themes includes options designed especially for private schools and academies. Further, our dedicated education support team is available to assist with all your needs, from a speedy quote and discounts to receiving your beautifully printed yearbook order.
Related: Mixbook’s ultimate Yearbook Planning Guide.
Yearbook customization features that private schools love
The question of how to design a yearbook for a private school might seem complex. There are seemingly endless decisions to be made, and tasks to be done, covering photography, editorial content, design ideas, and project management. Luckily, Mixbook makes all of this very straightforward, with:
- Easy-to-customize yearbook themes
- The intuitive suite of design tools in Mixbook Studio™
- Top-quality custom yearbook printing for academies and private schools
Professionally designed themes
Mixbook’s yearbook themes are ready-to-go templates that offer versatile design assets and content prompts that you can customize in endless ways. Browse the full collection, and be sure to check out these themes designed especially for private schools and academies:
These timeless and refined themes feature all the yearbook essentials, such as a letter from the head of the school, student headshots spreads for each grade or class, and pages for showcasing clubs, academics, and events. They also add prompts for pages that are pertinent to private schools and academies, such as a history of the school, mission statement, values, and alumni profiles.
Thoughtful text elements
Private schools can customize yearbook text options to communicate important messages about the institution’s heritage and traditions. Invite key faculty, alumni, or students to contribute written features for the yearbook. You can replace the text elements in your chosen theme, or add custom text boxes anywhere in the book. Use the “Text” panel in Mixbook Studio™ to customize the fonts, alignment, text size, color, and more.
Flexible layouts
Yearbook themes offer a carefully chosen layout for each page or two-page spread, but you can always browse and try out various other suggested layouts, or design your own from scratch. You might rearrange a spread spotlighting extracurriculars to accommodate all the different clubs at your school, or adjust the number of student headshots arranged across a page.
Flexible layout options are great for highlighting student life at your school in the best possible way. The best yearbook ideas for small private schools, for example, will look different to yearbook ideas for private schools with much larger student bodies. A small school has the opportunity to highlight individual achievements, whereas a bigger school might have a greater range of events to cover, requiring additional pages in the yearbook.
Intuitive design tools
When you’re choosing a theme, keep in mind that every element of the design is 100% customizable. Use the tools in Mixbook Studio™ to change the color palette to your school’s official colors. Switch up the typography to better reflect the school’s branding. Incorporate your school’s crest, logo, or motto. Create an eye-catching cover page that showcases the school’s most treasured visuals, such as a historic building, state-of-the-art facilities, or neatly uniformed student body.
Why private schools & academies choose Mixbook
Private schools and academies are trusted by parents, alumni, and donors to provide the best possible resources to their students—and this naturally extends to timeless annual traditions like yearbooks.
Total customization is key to creating a yearbook that reflects your unique institution. A faith-based private school might want to incorporate religious elements in their yearbook, for example. An international school will likewise want to represent its diverse global cultures. Private elementary school yearbooks will naturally have a different look to the yearbook for a collegiate school.
In addition to discriminating design, your yearbook should reflect the prestige of the school through premium quality photo book cover and paper options. Mixbook’s photo books are available in a choice of four book types (we recommend glossy or matte hardcover for yearbooks) and three unique photo paper finishes: semi-gloss, matte, or lustre. Our print technology and bindings are of the finest quality and craftsmanship.
Your yearbook team will also benefit from one-on-one dedicated support from our experts, throughout every step of the project.
Mixbook project ideas for private schools & academies
The most familiar way in which private schools and academies benefit from custom photo books is with the annual yearbook tradition. But there are other project ideas for your school to consider, too.
Donor gifts
Custom photo books are among the best private school donor gift ideas. Create a book that focuses on the history of the school, major milestones, its role in the community, and the achievements of alumni. Start with an introductory page that explicitly thanks donors for their contributions.
Related: Why photo books make the best donor gifts for nonprofits
Alumni reunion books
Mixbook’s Reunion Alumni Yearbooks theme makes it super easy to create a private school reunion photo album. Customize the photo book to match the school’s branding and alumni outreach efforts. Along with photos and memories of the event, include content ideas like a thank you letter to the reunion committee, a “then and now” feature, alumni profiles, and nods to the nostalgia of revisiting old school days.
Heritage books
If your private school or academy has a long history or especially notable heritage, commemorate it with a custom photo book. Invite select alumni or experts to write up the history, create a timeline feature, and gather archival photos and memorabilia. This project is a great way to celebrate a milestone.
Discounts & free shipping for schools
Ready to take the first step in your yearbook project? Head to Mixbook’s dedicated private school and academy page to complete the personalized offer request form. Completing the form only takes a minute or two, and you’ll get your personalized offer within just one business day.
You’lll also unlock an exclusive discount and free shipping when you order 10 or more photo books or calendars.
Questions? Your dedicated rep is ready to help!
Related: Yearbook Tutorial: Crafting Your First School Yearbook with Mixbook
