Theme Gallery

A good yearbook strives to tell the story of the year. A great yearbook strives to tell individual stories. It’s all too easy to slip into the stereotype labels – the jocks, the preps, the band kids, the homecoming queen, etc., but was that all there is to the student? Was there anything else to them? The Le Flambeau staff knew the answer was yes, there was so much more to them than meets the eye. They were "also known as"… well, a lot.

The school (aka their “second home for 10 months”) was full of diverse and fascinating individuals and stories. To implement this somewhat abstract theme, they treated subheads as aka’s. So on the chemistry spread, the headline was “burn baby burn” and the subhead was “aka students mix chemistry and disco with a lab during spirit week.” They used the same formula for headlines and subheads for modular packages. Along the bottom of every spread ran a strip of students who each listed three “aka” descriptors of themselves, like Emma who was a photographer, swimmer and environmentalist and Katherine who was a baker, athlete and writer. The students at Notre Dame de Sion are multidimensional characters, and the yearbook didn’t want you to forget. Chronological dividers reminded us each month had its own aka’s as well, like how January was also known as the month that hometown NFL team the Chiefs made it to the AFC Championship.

They kept a cohesive look throughout the book even with a variety of colors by putting a strong emphasis on typography and using lines around modular packages. Another graphic unifying element was the torn page graphic that seemed to peel back the projected image of what you saw – reminding you that students and photos could be seen. We saw an example on the swim and dive page that previewed that Olivia, aka dance team member, and more dance team photos could be found on page 78-79. This subtle theme had a big impact on the successful execution of the yearbook.