ISKL Yearbook

Co-Editor | High School Yearbook Team

Project Scope

The yearbook is a documentation of history. Our goal was to be as inclusive as we could be while also capturing the essence of the academic year to the best of our abilities. The yearbook was 100% student-designed and student-led, with the guidance of a faculty member.

Project Details

Year-long class to design the entire yearbook.
Program(s) used - InDesign, Photoshop, LightRoom
Skills developed - leadership, communication, layout design, photography, photo editing

Team

Minahil Khan - Co-editor

Everette Burk and Paul Ubl - Yearbook teachers/Mentors

Classmates - Designers and photographers

Academic Division Page 2014

As a freshman, beginner designer, I didn't have much confidence that I'd be able to create a successful division page for the "academics" section. This section is where we included photos of students in classes to highlight the academic aspect of the school year.

Winter Music Concert 2017

This layout wasn't significant for me in terms of participating in the event or having a large leadership role because of the layout. Instead, this layout forced me to challenge myself as a designer. This event involved over 100 students, so there was no way I would be able to include all of them in the layout. This actually wasn't the approved layout for the final yearbook, but this was the version that I liked best. The final version didn't have the graphic on the left, and instead had a large group photo of the participants. In a way, I failed as a designer to accommodate my "client's" needs. This taught me a lot about acceptance as a designer—my favorite design may not always be the right fit for the job.

Senior Section 2017

This section of the yearbook is dedicated to the seniors. Since our book was a square, we wanted to see how we could "revamp" the senior section to look more cohesive and less formal. This section was supposed to provide a space for seniors to include photos of friends and family and thank whomever they wanted to. Previously, the senior section was vertically oriented and wasn't very visually stimulating. My goal was to present this section in its true nature—playful and loving. Since there were about 150+ graduating seniors, this was an extremely large section to tackle. This was a test of my leadership skills. I split the section into 5 smaller sections alphabetically and assigned them to my colleagues. After everyone had inserted the elements I went in and edited the details and margins. The whole process required proofing of the text and images submitted by the seniors which meant this required communication and organizational skills. This proved difficult for some because we had to separate friendship from business.

IASAS Dance & Drama 2017

Since I was on the IASAS dance team, I had the pleasure of designing the layouts for the team in the yearbook. This was my 4th and final year on both the dance and yearbook team. Both the dance and drama pieces used color and geometry in the performances so I wanted to experiment with letting the photos design the page. I created a very simple grid of 3x3 and left two spaces for text allowing for a simplistic design. Since the square format actually allows for more area on each page, a spread dedicated to just dance and just drama would be too much. This gave me the opportunity to showcase the beauty of each performance in a mirrored design. In the previous layouts I designed, drama and dance each had their own spread.