Blog #13: Answer 1

1.) What is answer 1 to your EQ? Be specific in your answer and write it like a thesis statement.

Consistency makes a successful yearbook - consistency in design, in copy, and even in photo.

2.) What possible evidence do you have to support this answer?

I think one of the biggest pieces of evidence I have is my current experience in yearbook. Last year, as design editor, I noticed that one of the most challenging things in making a yearbook is making sure everything looks the same. The captions all have to have the same format, bylines need to have the exact same tint, font size, and weight, and the spacing between pictures needs to be perfect. Things like that. Messing up any of the little things will be a glaring sign of unprofessionalism to other designers. As Editor-in-Chief this year, I've realized that consistency goes much farther than design. As the theme executor, I must make sure that the theme shows throughout the book.

This is harder than it sounds - a theme is conceptual, and certainly left to interpretation. There is no way that you can sit down and write a list of theme-related material and say, "These things make up our theme. We will stick within these boundaries, and so our theme will be perfect." Since the theme is an idea, and a broad idea at that, it is impossible to assign a list of characteristics to it. You really have to know your theme inside and out, and have an artistic vision for it.

That's where the consistency comes in. The voice must be consistent in every single aspect of the book. The tone of the writing, if it is short, snappy, and playful, must stay that way, but must also be varied to show all sides of the theme. The design must be solidified so that the book fits together visually, but also malleable enough that you aren't looking at the same thing over and over again. Even the photos must be consistent - every single year, you basically have to re-train the photographers to get full-body photos, or lots of peoples' profiles, or pictures with exactly two people in them, or especially long pictures, or no, wait, this year it's long-shots. All of these things contribute to the voice of a book, and that voice cannot waver. It must stay strong and steady. That is definitely the most challenging part of the yearbook so far, and certainly one of the most important aspects of a successful yearbook.

3.) What source(s) did you find this evidence and/or answer?

Kazmierski, Crystal. "What makes theme copy work." School Yearbook Publisher - Walsworth Yearbooks. 1999. Walsworth Yearbooks. 09 Sept. 2011 . Personal experience

Blog #12: Service Learning

1.) Where are you working for your service learning?

I am currently working on the iPoly Globe yearbook for 2011-2012.

2.) Who is your service learning contact?

My service learning contact is Mimi Orth, who is our Herff Jones yearbook representative. I can provide contact information if it has not been received. She has worked with us for many years - certainly as long as I have been on staff - and has helped us grow to become the book we are today.

3.) Summarize the services you have performed to complete the 10 hour requirement

Whenever we get a visit from Mimi, all of the editors come together to look over all of our current spreads and critique them. We ask her whatever questions we need answered and generally improve on any content that we have. Afterwards, there is usually a time where Mimi and I, or Mimi, Strand, and I, can talk together to go over any extra questions we might have. I have also stopped by her house on a few occasions to check colors or clear up minor (but still worrying) issues.

4.) How many hours have you worked?

Mimi Orth has visited for approximately two hours on these days: 9/20, 10/14, 10/28, 11/10, 11/29, 12/9. For the less math-inclined, this comes out to ten hours.

Blog #11: Third Interview Questions

1.) What is the most important component in an award-winning yearbook?

2.) What is the most difficult thing to accomplish in a yearbook?

3.) What sets apart award-winning staffs from regular staffs?

4.) What qualities do you think make a good editor?

5.) What is the best way to strengthen a yearbook's theme?

6.) What are the most common problems yearbook staffs face? How can staffs overcome these problems?

7.) What makes a good designer/photographer/writer?

8.) How can we improve yearbook design/photography/copy (depending on the interviewee's specialty)?

9.) How can I, as an EiC, get the staff more involved?

10.) What are the most striking books/themes you have come across in your yearbook career? What made them stand out?

11.) What role should the EiC play, exactly?

12.) What are common EiC mistakes?

13.) It has been mentioned to me by several people that the most difficult part of becoming an EiC is learning to leave your old editorship behind. Can you verify this? How do you suggest that EiCs get past this?

14.) What are group bonding activities that you suggest staffs do together?

15.) Is there anything you would like to add? (Standard interview ending question).