AbiHive Journal
Everything for the best
yearbook.
23 guides from practice — from the first committee meeting to the leftover copies after prom.
Organisation
Timeline, roles, deadlines — how to set the project up at all.
Schedule for a new year group: one school year, twelve stages
When do you start the yearbook, and what is due when? The process across a whole school year — with the dates that follow backwards from the leavers' ball.
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Setting up the committee: who does what
How big does a yearbook committee need to be, which roles do you actually need, and how do you stop two people ending up doing everything? Roles, division, handovers.
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Handing over to the next year group
Every year a committee starts from zero — even though the knowledge is already in the building. What to pass on, in what form, and the one hour that saves the next year group weeks.
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How to get the year group to take part
“Nobody fills anything in” is the most common problem of any yearbook — and almost always a design problem, not a motivation problem. What actually produces responses.
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Yearbook: digital or printed?
An honest comparison — including the arguments against the printed book. When a PDF edition is the better decision, and when it isn't.
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The last two weeks before the print deadline
Day by day: what has to happen in the fourteen days before you hand over the print files, what must not happen any more, and the three things that always still turn up.
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Leavers' hoodies: sizes, colours, deadlines
How many sizes to offer, which colour always works, and why the order deadline is the most important part. The process from the vote to handing them out.
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Distributing, selling, leftover copies
What comes after printing and usually gets forgotten: organising the handover, late orders, closing the books — and what happens to the copies that are left.
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Planning the leavers' ball — alongside the book
Two projects, one committee, one date. How to organise the ball without the yearbook stalling — with the deadlines that cannot be moved.
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Planning a yearbook: the relaxed guide for your committee
From the first meeting to the print handover — a realistic process, clear roles and the steps most year groups get stuck on.
Read onIdeas
Mottos, questions, categories, one-liners: material for the pages.
Designing free pages: 12 ideas that actually work
The page everybody may design themselves is often the emptiest. Twelve concrete concepts with structure — from the timeline to the phone-screenshot layout to the excuse statistics.
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Farewell lines & quotes for the yearbook: 90 ideas
Lines for the cover, for the last page, for the dedication — from serious to silly, with the one criterion that decides between cheesy and good.
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100 motto ideas: the big collection for your year group
From puns through film titles to honest and self-deprecating: 100 curated motto ideas — plus tips on how to find the right motto for your year group.
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100 profile questions for your yearbook
From the classics through either-or to the deep ones: 100 profile questions that make your yearbook pages come alive — ready to use.
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100 yearbook awards & ranking ideas for your year group
Class clown, dream couple, “most likely to be famous”: 100 ideas for your yearbook rankings — from the classics to couple categories to affectionately cheeky.
Read onCraft
Photos, layout, proofreading, print files — so it looks good in the end.
Layout that doesn't look like Word
Six rules that make a yearbook look designed rather than shoved together — without a design degree and without expensive software.
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Handing over print files properly: bleed, resolution, colour space
The three terms every print handover hangs on — explained plainly, with the concrete numbers a printer wants to hear from you.
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Good leavers' photos without a photographer
Light, background, resolution: how to get photos from phone cameras that look good in the printed book — and which pictures you shouldn't collect at all.
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Proofreading: the process that actually holds
Two rounds, fixed roles, one log — how to find the mistakes you can't correct after printing. With a checklist.
Read onLaw & money
Costs, sponsors, data protection, consent.
What does a yearbook cost? How to work it out
Why there is no fixed price, which items really drive the cost per copy — and how to have a calculation that holds up in ten minutes.
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Finding sponsors for your yearbook
Who to ask, what an advert may cost, and what a letter looks like that doesn't end up in the bin — including a template and a price ladder.
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Collecting teacher quotes — without the trouble
Teacher quotes are the most-read page of the yearbook and the most common cause of arguments. Where the line is, how to get approvals, and what is better left out.
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Data protection in the yearbook: what you really have to watch
Photos, quotes, profiles — with under-18s, special rules apply. A practical overview without a law degree: consent, deadlines, and what is still possible after printing.
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