Name Tag Yearbook Theme

The 2014 Crimson Tide yearbook used a name tag theme with the slogan "Hello, my name is." The cover was designed to look like a rugby shirt with black and red horizontal stripes. The school name and year are on the back cover.

The front cover included an image of a typical name badge. As students picked up their book, we had sharpie markers and made them sign their name directly on the cover. This helped with less lost books and everyone had a custom cover.

The theme kicked off on the table of contents page (Introductions) with an image of several iconic students in selected outfits. Name badges are one way of introduction, but we often identify ourselves based on interests and activities. The students were chosen to represent a cross section of the student body.

Student life section included chapel services, the musical and drama performances, senior leadership, homecoming, and work. Signature elements include cutout photos above a copy block made to look like a name badge. Layouts were almost identical with color changes to the name badge that matched elements on the page.

Sports pages carried the name badge look into the copy block without the background color and the subhead used a handwritten font. Instead of each spread focusing on a particular sport, an element of athletics was covered using elements from multiple teams.

Sports page themes included team unity, long hours/dedication, rivalries, coaches and managers, and fans. Each spread included a sidebar featuring an individual who exemplified the theme of the page.

Academic pages were similar to sports by covering different elements instead of particular classes, such as fine arts, electives, labs and presentations, test stress, homework and yearbook. The copy block continued the look from sports but added a solid color block behind the headline and moved to the opposite page. The lower left corner also featured line drawing clip art elements.

The second half of the book was filled with student profiles. Instead of placing all mugshots for a grade on a single spread, every student had a name badge style box. Students who purchased a book have a candid picture in addition to their name, mugshot and bio.

While a fun way to include more coverage of every student, it was a lot of work gathering usable information from everyone. Fortunately we had a dedicated staff who worked hard to see that everyone was fairly represented.

Sprinkled throughout the profiles section were the group shots for all teams and clubs. Any empty slots were filled with un-captioned candid photos. Students were grouped by grade and the color scheme for their name badges matched their class t-shirt colors.

We had fun with the teacher profiles too. Teachers listed their high school, year of graduation and the type of person they were in high school. The teachers were good sports and posed with fun objects representing their interests.

Other elements in the book include an index with a colophon. The title page has sixteen close-up images of objects around the school. "We see them everyday, but sometimes the details are lost in the monotony of routine. How many of these items can you recognize?"

Overall, the book has a good mix of coverage with reasons for readers to spend time on every page. The look is clean and uncluttered.