Last Post?! Brace Yourselves

Yearbooks are coming.

Today all 300 copies of the book came in at 11:30. I finished off my final duties as editor in chief by distributing books to seniors first. We spent a while stacking all the boxes and putting them in order by house so that people could come into the MPR and get them during lunch. Can't believe it's all coming to an end... Bittersweet moment! Aside from how proud I am of yearbook elective members, there were still some flaws that could have been fixed and I kind of wish I had a time machine to go back. Nonetheless, a lot of people worked really hard on this yearbook, and I'm so glad I was able to produce my fourth and final book here at iPoly.

WRAP PARTY!

The yearbook is being printed at the Herff Jones headquarters in Indiana as we speak! All 128 pages and the COVER! I'm so excited for when they come in late May. In the meantime, yearbook is having a "wrap party" right now to celebrate the end of a great book and a great year. Once the book comes I'll definitely take some photos for you guys. Next week, we're planning on doing interviews for potential editors, as well as looking for a new editor in chief. The staff is currently working on something called Fakeline, which is just producing a fake mini-yearbook in hopes of coming up with next year's theme, and they'll be working on it until near the end of the year. Anyways, we have piles of food and a movie (Mean Girls) to watch :)

THE YEARBOOK IS TECHNICALLY DONE WOW (and other updates)

TECHNICALLY as in we just turned in our final deadline last Tuesday... THE LAST DEADLINE. THERE IS A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. Well actually we aren't completely, totally done until we turn in the fixed proofs of those 32 pages, which should be coming in the mail pretty soon.

I can't believe the book is finished this early in the year. That leaves us with a good month and a half or so of getting it printed, a few weeks to have it bound and shipped, and arrive right on time at the end of May. It's certain things like this that makes me realize how quickly senior year has passed. I mean, looking at the spreads on a computer is completely different from seeing it in an actual, beautiful, physical form. I might be a little too excited.

As for my senior project, I've been working on my powerpoint for my second independent component, which is a lesson I'll be teaching to future editors and returning staff members on the basics of yearbook design, photography, and copy writing. I'm in the works of securing a classroom during a lunch period hopefully in a couple of weeks. I'm hoping that what I'll be going over will benefit next year's yearbook team.

Well those are some quick updates on what's been going on. Other than that, I'm seriously ready for spring break...

Continuing Research for Second Answer

Hey all, just a quick update on how my second answer is coming along. So my second answer is: utilize best photography practices to capture peak moments that happened during the year. The wording is kind of in progress with my presentation teacher right now. Anyways, after interviewing Rebecca Chai and hearing her stress the importance of "photography first, then everything else," I was inspired to look up the ingredients as to what makes for quality photographs that can be used in the yearbook. That lead me to search up the basic techniques of photography. Here's a video explaining the rule-of-thirds, which to Rebecca and fellow yearbook photographer/pro Symphony Moreno (and pretty much every photographer), is essential in any sort of photography.

Rule-of-Thirds

Other than the rule-of-thirds, other techniques that should be used while taking photos are leading lines and cropping. Below are some videos that explain them.

Leading Lines

Cropping

One Deadline Kind of Done. Three to Go.

That's right, the first 32 pages of the yearbook are DONE. Sort of. Unfortunately, as every yearbook publication goes through, we are still in the process of making editing adjustments to our spreads. Our "proof" files are here; the large printouts of what we've turned in to Herff Jones, where we make corrections online and resend it back to the processing plant. In the midst of this all, deadline 2 has creeped up on us, leaving a rush to get things done. I mostly spent today's elective planning out the NEXT deadline, which is in three weeks. Ridiculous right... But that's what yearbook is! Deadline 3 has a lot of spaces to fill, since we don't know what will be happening on campus for the next month. I also spent a lot of time helping each team leader with their assignments. The designers are working hard at and after school. We've had 3 Skype "work" meetings from home, so not every second is wasted. We also got some more new students, so we took a good chunk of elective time to teach them the basics. As I was working in the back, I saw that main issues I've come across lately is the lack of content due to the winter break, as well as there being not much happening at iPoly lately. So I'm going to be busy trying to plan out the content that we will be needing, as well as the two other deadlines that are on our backs. Oh boy.

Anyways, here are some updates regarding Yearbook.

A profile that will be going into the senior portraits. I've revamped the photo to become a cut out of the person, so it's not as boring, as well as a better headline.

Elijah and his spread. He's working on the "all coverage device", which covers what happened during the week in photos and caption, much like Instagram. 

A proof file we got back, of the senior class and the best and most winners... We fixed it, big time! Nathan is in the works of it.

Nitjasin and his layout of a spread. This is honestly the hardest part of creating a spread, because you don't have any content to work off of yet. You've just gotta visualize.

Panorama of the room, busy with deadlines.

Bryan editing some copy writing, which will go into a spread about Model Assembly.

Strand paused the class today to teach a crash course to the newbies. They need to improve their interview skills, so they did an activity.

Hannah, a photo editor, going through each and every spread to mark down people in photos, so that each photo has a different person.

Bryan and I had to go over Hannah's list of people to see who's been in the book too much, versus who hasn't. 

Deadline 3 planning! Still in the works as well.

New Year, New Research

Hey guys, just trying to squeeze in a quick update about my senior project. So far during my break I've slept in, ate tons, and found some useful articles that kind of help me figure out my EQ (which reminds me, I need to update my header EQ). I checked out this book from the library called The Editor in Chief: A Management Guide for Magazine Editors. Long title. So the first few chapters talked about organization, but then I got to the middle of the book where it covers staff treatment and management. There was a chart/quiz kind of thing that was outlined to determine what kind of leading personality you have, and how you can utilize your strengths to help your staff. In my case, following the chart I found that I am a hands-on type of leader, meaning that I like to do and learn by example. So ways that I can help, say, the designing department, is by showing and creating an example of my own, explaining the process along the way. That way they can see how I did something and do it themselves (give or take a few changes to make it their own designs). I found that really interesting, and it kind of makes more sense now that I think about it. When I get back from break, I'll definitely try to lead like this in Yearbook. Anyways, that was a piece of research I really liked, and I thought I'd share it here.

First Deadline: Hard Work x1000

Hey guys! Man, November has been such a busy month. Like, the busiest month in yearbook so far. Our first deadline was yesterday, November 18th. Unfortunately not everything has gone smoothly, so we're racing to get everything turned in. Even if we are a few days late, it's important to remember that everything has to be good quality and not just a bunch of photos and text thrown together. It's the content that has to be fine-combed to perfection. Despite some setbacks on deadline, we only have a few pages left to turn in! My mentor Mimi Orth also visited today and look at everything we had. She was quite impressed with how things we're coming out, so that's awesome. It's great to get feedback and advice from some one who's an expert at design and publication. Anyways, my goal is to get all of the first deadline spreads to be turned in before Thanksgiving Break.

Also, to give you guys the gist of how much work these spreads are: the design team and myself have spent 4 out of 5 days of our weeks cooped up in Strand's back corner, going almost blind from staring at the screens so often. ...Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit, but it is a huge time commitment and it's so worth it when we look at the final pages.

May be unrelated, but we reorganized our little "cave" in the back corner. We have a bunch of yearbooks from other schools to get inspiration from (no, we do not steal ideas :P).

The proof file of our cover. A proof file is a file that the printing company sends back a few weeks after you turn in the original file. It's how our printing company, Herff Jones, says, "Is this really how you want this to look?"

The cover is by far my favorite part of the book that we've worked on. I think it really exemplifies iPoly's little "moments."

The ladder. A ladder is like a calendar/planner hybrid. It just shows where pages go in order in the yearbook.

I spent a full day helping design editor Mira and copy editor Posada collaborate on a spread, called a division. A division is like a mini-table-of-contents in certain sections of the yearbook. We decided on doing a fun little story on a few select seniors (they may know who they are...).

On a final note, I will hopefully finish up my independent component before January! And don't forget to keep Instagram-ing your photos to go into the yearbook!

Prepping for Design Clinic: The Gathering of Yearbook Gurus

Hey guys, big event happening on Saturday. Every yearbook publication is to take part in an event called Design Clinic. What is that even?

Design Clinic is an event where schools from the area send their yearbook publications to present the progress of their respective yearbooks. This is a big deal, because many experts on graphic design, copy writing, and photographers gather to critique the progress. Basically, the yearbook gods are judging us. It's pretty scary, but exciting and really helpful. The event will be coordinated by my mentor, Mimi, and... IS IN THE MPR. HERE. It's awesome that Design Clinic is happening at our campus. It's never happened to us before!

Of course, as nerve-wracking as it is, it also requires a lot of work. So the past few classes, the staff and editors have been rushing to finish up spreads. Last Tuesday and Friday were particularly busy for me. I've been occupied with helping the designers fix up and improve their assignments, and assigning staff members to take photos and interview students. Most importantly though, our cover (who isn't excited for the cover, seriously.), is 98% done. Also, this post is photo heavy, but hey, you guys are behind-the-scenes with us.

From @ipolyyearbook on Instagram. We usually have quick 10 minute meetings before class to discuss what needs to get done. Here, we were looking at the layout of the first 8 pages of the yearbook, and discussing what would go after them.

Cesar and Nathan working together to create their second spread. I've assigned Nathan to teach Cesar basic graphic design skills. A lot of progress has been made by our newest designer. His spreads will definitely be seen in the yearbook.

Our coverage and business editors, Malorie and Alexis. They're making flyers for advertising our Instagram.

Nitjasin and Bryan are looking over a staff member's story. A lot of times, copy must be edited and re-edited, by both a designer and a copy editor. The designer needs to know what the copy is about in order to create his layout, while the copy editor checks mistakes and accuracy.

Elijah in the process of designing another spread. It's tough making new spreads when most of them start to look similar. I took some time after class to help him by comparing his earlier one, to this one. Visualizing the similarities in a designer's spreads helps them design their next one, making it a bit more different each time.

Emmely was going through photos from Hot Dog Day. We've got a lot of great shots of people (mostly stuffing their faces with hot dogs).

Selfies are mandatory.

I helped the designers with Photoshopping cut outs. Basically, we have to outline the person or object and separate it from the background. It's time consuming, but adds a lot of interest to the spreads. Also, that's Richard throwing a bowling ball in the background. A great cut out opportunity!

Cover Madness: We Can Afford Color?!

Hey guys! So my mentor, Mimi, came in to visit during elective today, and I was able to talk to her about the yearbook's progress. She was there to critique our cover design and suggested we keep up the improvements in our production, which we definitely needed advice on. The cover has totally evolved from what we originally had in mind, but for the better. Unfortunately, it's not completely finished, but it will be done hopefully by next week, just in time for our first deadline. Oh man. As an editor, the cover is a big deal. A. Big. Deal. So we often spend a lot of time on it, mocking it up and scrapping it, revising and then deleting. This year is going to be a challenge since it's so different than what we usually do, and it's going to be in full color. COLOR. WE CAN AFFORD IT. Anyways, it was a relief that Mimi was able to come in and give great advice on how to organize the book, as well as the staff's duties. What would we do without Mimi. So after her quick visit, the groups continued working on their stories and spreads. I was particularly focused on helping the designers, checking over some copy with the copy editor, and conversing with the photo team about getting a lot of good pictures to go on the cover.

Elijah and his amazing cover mock up. Be excited.

Hung up some more inspiration from magazines onto the walls for reference.

The Design Corner, E. Garcia and B. Trang. Half of the Fantastic Four.

Some other staff members working on their weekly spread. Cesar is our newest edition to the Design team, and we're starting him off with his very own spread.

Old work from yearbook camp (also my mentorship). The entire feel of the book has definitely changed since summer. A lot of work to do with these revisions... But we're on it. And no, this is not what will be in the actual book. I can't spoil it yet, sorry.

Working with the Copy and Design Editors, B. Posada and N.Q. Phyakul. The progress we've made today is outstanding.

So that was pretty much what happened today. Subliminal advertising time: we need photos for our cover, guys! If you can take some pictures with Instagram or your own camera, send them in to the iPoly Yearbook Gmail. It would be awesome if your photo made it onto the cover. That is all. :)

Finally Chose a Senior Topic!

I think the biggest problem I had entering this year was what to do for my senior project. I was so sure of one thing, then all of a sudden something else seemed better, then somehow after changing my mind, I was back to square one. A main reason why this seemed like such a struggle was that this year, both Stacy and I are Editors-In-Chiefs of Yearbook. That's never happened before, and it kind of made that requirement of "the Editor-In-Chief's topic is yearbook" change; how were we going to do the same topic? Another reason was that I personally didn't really know where my interests were focused on. I hate to say it, but I really didn't know what I wanted to do, and I was just frantically running in a giant circle.

About a week ago it pretty much dawned on me. Process of elimination. I know. And researching on the Internet for related terms and topics. I went through, "I don't like that," to "I can do that," to "I should do this," and on and on until I narrowed it down. Obviously, I knew I had to incorporate Yearbook. I also really wanted to do Graphic Design, because last year, I was Design Editor. However, we have a new Design Editor, so I figured doing Graphic Design wouldn't be a good choice. But, I liked the idea of incorporating my new position in Yearbook, and the elective as a publication itself.

Yearbook -> Publication -> (Co) Editor-in-Chief -> In charge of publishing the book -> Editorial Publishing.

I may or may not have patted myself on the back.