The deadline to purchase a yearbook is approaching fast. The Guardian yearbook staff only has 43 more books available for order as of this afternoon, and the deadline to purchase is this Sunday.
“People should buy their yearbooks ASAP because we have been selling like crazy,” Guardian Co-Editor-in-Chief, sophomore Macy Plummer, said. “We already have sold more than we did last year, and, spoiler alert, we have a super cool cover this year that you’re gonna want to see.”
That cover is part of the yearbook staff’s innovative theme and design concept that pushes the bounds and takes risks that haven’t been seen before. One of those risks the yearbook staff came up with is the cover design and application technique.
“Once we had the idea, I called our yearbook rep, who has been with Walsworth for over 30 years, to see if it was even possible,” yearbook adviser Ranae Duncan said. “He honestly didn’t know. He couldn’t answer me before talking with his people at the plant. Luckily for us, it was.”
However, that idea didn’t come to them right away. First, they had to decide on a theme for the book that would encapsulate the school’s events, students, struggles and triumphs. Going into this year with that in mind, the staff knew they wanted to represent as many different people in the yearbook as they could, not just the same people over and over. The group spent weeks brainstorming, debating and deliberating what the official theme of the book should be. Eventually, they all agreed on “From our P.O.V.”.
“We wanted a theme that represented different groups of people within our school that maybe don’t always get featured,” Plummer said. “I hope that it resonates with the people who don’t always feel like their viewpoints are seen.”
The theme came unexpectedly to the staff while they were at a photography workshop that was hosted at Bellevue East High School on Aug. 28.
“We were just bouncing off random words back and forth, just trying to come up with something,” Editor-in-Chief, senior Brayden Hansen said. “Then Paige [Segobia] said ‘P.O.V.,’ and the idea continued from there. It’s a perfect theme to represent those underrepresented P.O.V.s in our school. Every student’s view of the year tells a story. I think people will really like this concept, especially learning new things about their peers they may not have known before.”
The yearbook staff built off of that theme and the unique cover in the page designs throughout the book.
“Our storytelling definitely stands out, but our layout and designs are my absolute favorite things,” Hansen said. “Most people just look at the pictures and design anyway, so we wanted it to really stand out. We made things bold and colorful while still being sleek and cohesive.”
Aside from design, the staff is also being innovative when it comes to their writing. They chose to tell the stories of students and staff in a style that doesn’t follow traditional yearbook copywriting structure, but rather, one that was inspired by Humans of New York.
“This year, we took a big risk with our storytelling,” Hansen said. “Our stories on the pages are strictly quotes from the interviewee, having them share their P.O.V. instead of us telling it for them. This is unheard of when it comes to yearbook, so it was definitely nerve-racking but also exciting. The feedback we have gotten so far on it has been very positive, and it’s exciting to know we are trendsetting.”
While the feedback has been positive, that ‘big risk’ has prevented the yearbook staff from earning some writing awards already this year.
“I think this story fits beautifully in with the theme P.O.V. and is such a fun way to approach stories, really getting students invested,” a Yearbook Feature Writing judge for the Journalism Education Association’s Nebraska Winter Contest said about one entry from this year’s book. “However, it leaves little opportunity to judge the writing when everything is a direct quote. The angle is unique, the quotes are good, and it truly does feel like a Humans of New York type story, but there just was not enough of the author’s voice to judge.”
In addition to those changes, the staff has also decided to change up the delivery of them. Once the books come in, yearbook distribution will be set up the same as last year, with an after-school distribution and signing party in the commons; however, unlike last year, the spring supplements (32-page, bound inserts with a peel-and-stick adhesive strip that gets added to the yearbook to cover events that happen between March and the end of the school year) will be mailed to everyone who purchased a yearbook online, later this summer. Those who purchase during distribution will have to pick one up from the journalism room once school starts again in the fall.
“When weighing our options, it just seemed the best way to ensure everyone gets the supplement they paid for, because we still have a lot leftover from last year that didn’t get picked up,” Hansen said. “That’s a part of the yearbook they are still missing, and we want everyone to enjoy the entire book.”
Distribution day will be announced in April, but for now, the yearbook staff encourages everyone to order their book. In January, they had to give Walsworth a final book order count. At that time, they had only sold 566 books, so after discussing it with their adviser and yearbook rep, the editors decided to order a total of 650 books.
“It’s really challenging to give that final number to the yearbook company in January because we can only go off of how many students have ordered their yearbook at that point in the year and make an educated guess as to how many we might sell above that,” Duncan said. “ It’s always a risk because if the “extra” books don’t sell, we still have to pay for them, and we don’t want to be out that money, but it’s also a risk to order too few because once they’ve been printed, we can’t get any more–that’s it, and we don’t want people in that situation again like last year.“
Any of the 650 books that aren’t ordered by Sunday will be sold along with any extras they receive, including over-run copies for $80 cash only during distribution, but that’s only if the full 650 don’t sell in advance and if Walsworth sends them over-run copies.
To order a yearbook before Sunday’s deadline, click here. Search for and select Gretna East High School, not Gretna High School, as they are not interchangeable.
