Design

COVERS

Options

School advisers can choose from one of the following cover design options:

1. School advisers can choose from a variety of stock covers available in Pictavo.

2. Either Dorian Yearbook Specialists or the school adviser can create a custom design cover.

3. School advisers can run a Cover Design Contest to feature original student artwork on the cover.

All cover designs must be submitted and approved before winter break.

Deadlines

All Walter’s published book covers must be submitted by the first week of February. All Dorian published book covers must be submitted by the second week of January. It’s highly suggested that all covers are submitted prior to each school’s winter break. This gives us some flexibility before the hard deadlines. 

Custom Cover

With a custom cover, you have the full creative license to design it using any backgrounds, art or photos you wish to use - you’re only limited by your imagination! Pictavo offers a wide selection of custom cover backgrounds to choose from, or you can upload your own design. Pictavo includes a Custom Cover Instruction Guide in the Welcome Kit providing details on setup and where to find custom cover templates.

Stock Cover

There are a variety of professionally designed stock covers that are available to any school who wishes to use them.  With a stock cover, you simply drag and drop the stock cover onto the cover designer and then double-click on the text box to add your school's name.  Keep in mind that no additional elements (such as clip art or other images) can be added to the cover, and the font style and color can not be altered.  The text box can be adjusted slightly to ensure it is properly centered within the stock design. For more information on using Pictavo Stock Covers click here. 

Cover Design Contests

Cover Design Contests are a very popular option for elementary yearbook covers. If a school adviser wants to run a design contest, be sure it’s organized in the fall so you’re not running up against your cover deadline. A rough timeline for Cover Design Contests is:

• Advertise the contest for 2-3 days

• Collect all entries after 1 week

• Allow 1-2 days school advisers to judge

Dorian Published

Dorian custom covers are a great option for a yearbook. Some common directions for a custom cover include:

• Binding: saddle-stapled, square-backed, perfect-bound

• A photo of the school building

• A school logo spotlight

• A graphic design custom made to fit the book theme

• Cover contest that features the winning student’s art

• Personalization

• A mosaic of student portraits 

Walter’s Published

Here are just a few of the design options offered by Walter’s Publishing:

1. Binding: the process of assembling and securing written or printed pages within a cover. Some types of binding include: saddle-stapled, perfect-bound, standard hardcover or smyth sewn hardcover, etc.

2. Leatherette Covers: a synthetic leather cover  available in a variety of colors.

3. Foil Stamping: a versatile printing technique that involves applying a metallic or pigmented foil to a surface in order to create a decorative finish. 

4. Embossing and Debossing: the processes of creating either raised or recessed relief images and designs in paper and other materials. An embossed pattern is raised against the background, while a debossed pattern is sunken into the surface of the material.

5. Lenticular Covers: used to produce printed images with an illusion of depth or the ability to change or move as the image is viewed from different angles.

6. Spot UV: a great treatment for schools to use if there are specific areas (or spots) on their cover that they would like to highlight by either deepening the color of the area for a shine effect or flattening for a matte finish.

7. Custom or Stock Die Options: schools can either provide their own custom artwork or choose from a large variety of stock designs.

8. Endsheets: the pages at the beginning and end of hardcover books that are used to glue the inside pages (known as the “book block”) to the hardcover. 

Personalizations

• OPTION 1: Student’s name printed in ink on front cover (choose one of six colors) 

• OPTION 2: Student’s photo and name printed in ink on front cover (choose one of six colors)

• OPTION 3: Student’s name imprinted on front cover in foil (choose one of four colors) 

• OPTION 4: Student’s name and up to four icons imprinted on front cover in foil (choose one of four colors) 

• OPTION 5: Student’s name engraved on a gold or silver name plate to be placed anywhere on cover

You will need to have the school adviser fill in the required information on the Personalization Template spreadsheet. Specialists should share this spreadsheet with the school adviser at the beginning of the school year as it is an added cost to the student and make sure it is completed upon book submission. This spreadsheet will then be sent to the lab for processing. 

LAYOUT

CANDIDS

Candid Photo Days

Dorian offers 1-3 complimentary Candid Photo Days: 1 for Dorian published, 2-3 for Walters. Ideally, we try to schedule this during our off-season between November and February to avoid scheduling conflicts and ensure photographer availability. Once a date has been chosen by an adviser, put it on your branch calendar so that a photographer can be scheduled. Remember to confirm a week before the event!

We also encourage school advisers to take their own candids. Below are some tips to guide advisers through the candid photography process. 

1. Candid Pages

Keep in mind how big you want your candids when choosing them. A good number is 10-30 candids per page. The more you add to a page, the smaller the photos must be. Before uploading your pictures to Pictavo, eliminate any duplicated, blurry or unwanted images.

2. Location

Choose a variety of events. Various events will feature different people and this will add variety to your book. Some great events to capture might be back to school night, concerts, sports, auctions, or any other annualized event.

3. Variety

Pick photos where there are 2-6 different people. A lot of large group shots make it hard to see everyone and having lots of pictures of individuals makes for an uninteresting yearbook. Also, determine who can and cannot be pictured in the yearbook and do not use candids of students that CANNOT be pictured.

For more information on candid photography, visit the Candids Sites page. 

Image Quality

The children within a candid photo should be clearly visible.

• Images must be 300 DPI and at least 700KB. Photos that are 1,000+KB are perfect because it allows us to make the picture bigger if necessary. 

• Images should not be larger than 10MB for candid images and 15MB for background images. 

• Smartphone settings need to be checked before heading to an event. Many smartphones are set to take low-resolution photos which will appear pixelated in your yearbook. We recommend smartphones with at least 6 megapixels for good-quality printing.

  • 3MP - maximum 5x7 photo (okay if it’s kept small)

  • 6MP - maximum 6.5x10 photo (fine for candids)

  • 10MP - maximum 8.5x14 photo (perfect for full page)

  • 12MP - maximum 9.7x14.5 photo (full spread size)

• Social media photos are too small. It may seem convenient to download social media pictures, but all social media sites have filters that only allow low-resolution downloads. Instead, have them ask the photo’s owner if they can get the original picture.

Selecting Candids

Candids are all about capturing moments. When choosing candids for a yearbook, make sure to choose images that encompass a wide variety of school activities. You want to show students at work and at play. Try to find those candids that represent the school and its students well.

The number of candids you will need for an elementary book will usually depend on how many classes there are plus a few more for lunch and recess fun. About 15-20 images per class is sufficient.

We color correct and adjust for exposure all selected Dorian candids in Lightroom before adding them to the yearbook page. 

It’s important to keep images organized so they are easy to locate when you start placing them in a book. Create a separate folder for each classroom and name it after the teacher’s last name then upload them to Pictavo.