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