We've got our theme...or have we?

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Theme is the most difficult part of the process in my opinion. At least it is if you really want a relevant theme that can be seen cover to cover. There are lists of thousands of themes your staff can select, but none of these lists show you how to develop them out across the book. I thought I might share some of my useful tips and tricks to select a phrase the can easily be adapted across the sections and into a solid theme.

I put our theme ideas through a "theme test" process to ensure staff that they have a relevant and adaptable theme that can be translated and defined, put into visuals, expanded on through spread topics and mods, and be recognizable and relevant to your audience. I have included the process in detail here to help you navigate the theme building process.

The theme you see pictured below across our opening and dividers was one such theme that we were able to do this with.

Step 1: Finding the Tagline

Advisers in the industry will tell you that there are over ten categories of theme types. (If you want a look at all theme areas and a guide to building theme with activities and resources, you can purchase my theme masterclass resource at TpT.) I focus on these areas with my staff and put it to the group, what does the year feel like? What is our tone? How do we want to come off based on the feeling of the year and this time and place?

Be boastful, brag

Take notes

Made you look

You know the name

Admit it, you love it

We make this look good (or easy)

Our way. No highway.

We make the rules

Been there. Done that.

Life upgraded

Be quirky, playful or trendy.

Bigger, better, boujeer

So extra

Check the receipts

Breakfast of champions

Say What!?

Be real (also relates to the trendy snapchat trend)

6-7 (trending meme)

Eating it

VIP Vibes

Be traditional, classic

Legends in the making

Welcome to _______

This is Us

In focus or Through the lens

Picture Perfect

All about us

Be nostalgic

Play it back

Looking Back, Moving Forward

Shades of Us

Rewind

Unity or United

One for the books

The Silver (or gold) lining

Be changing

New nest, same rep

New year, same tradition

Seasons of change

Try not to blink

Bigger, better, big ____

Uncaged

Other sources of inspiration can include...

Famous Phrases

Consider idioms or famous phrases that might relate to your school, location, landscape. The "grass is greener" or "out of the woods" (landscape) or "home is where the heart is" (famous phrase)

This phrase "where the heart is" can be universally adapted to any school, has a clear connection to visual icons (location marker, heart, etc.) and graphics, and can easily be adapted for spin-offs by simply replacing the word heart with another word. This is exactly what you want!

Spin-offs

Where the spirit is (student life)

Where the passion is (clubs)

Where the tradition is (academic)

Where the grit is (sports)

Where the rizz is (students)

Allusions

Film, music and literature can offer trendy and quirky themes, like Adventure is out there! (UP) or We're gonna need a bigger boat (Jaws) Here comes the sun (Beatles) It's a love story (Taylor Swift).

Whatever you select, make sure it can be built on. Look for pieces of the phrase that could be adjusted or has associations. For the Jaws allusion, explore boating phrases that could be brought for the section spin offs, like "set sail" or "anchors away" for the opening and "Rock the boat" or "Smooth Sailing" and "All Hands on Deck" or "Take the helm"

School Branding

Consider your mascot, inside jokes, school-related numbers, or phrases used, and school colors: what phrases or sayings are associated with these? For example, colors can offer a wealth of sayings:

Gold: Gold standard, the Midas touch, gold lining, 24 karat, pure gold

Red: Red carpet treatment, paint the town red, seeing red

Blue: Out of the blue, blue blood, shades of blue

Explore some theme examples found here to see a fully developed theme across the opening spreads and divider spin-offs.

Step 2: Building Section Spin-Offs or The Spin-Off Formula

Look for theme phrases with a wide range of associations, or that have a formula that can be used to create spin-offs

Spin-offs can be based two things- on repetition, repeating a phrase but slightly changing it to align with the section it introduces, or through the use of associated phrases/words and/or structure.

Say your theme the "Gold Standard". Your section spin-offs could repeat that phrase, substituting "gold" for another word, like The Spirit Standard (student life) or Learning Standards (academics). Your other option could be to use phrases relating to gold as the spin-offs, like The Midas Touch (sports), 24 karat (academics), 100% Pure Gold (student life), Gold Mine (students), Golden Rule (clubs)

For You Know the Name, our spin-off used the repeating structure formula, changing "know" to a verb that related to each section. You envy the name (SL), You respect the name (academics), You praise the name (clubs), You fear the name (sports), You make the name (students).

We built the theme out further on the dividers by noting all the names we go by in relation to the section at the start of the divider copy, like trendsetters and influencers here.

Step 3: Defining Theme

If you have gotten to this point in your theme test, it's time to try and put the theme into words. How does this theme connect to the year or time exactly? Aim for 4 good sentences. This should reference the year and feeling, as well as how the phrase celebrates this or conveys this.

For a theme like You Know the Name pictured above, the theme was defined by staff.

"We don't need an introduction. Everyone already knows our name from our championships sports teams and their famous All-Americans or D1 commits, from the ground-breaking academic programs and club projects impacting the community, or from the media attention from the student protests that have frequently erupted over the new controversial athletic and academic policies and bans enacted by our district. We are a big deal. We are kind of infamous"

These were not the exact words we used to define the theme in the opening pages, but this was enough to ensure our staff we had a strong theme that students would recognize and see as relevant. We knew we would have no issue connecting it to topics over the year.

Pictured below is our definition from the opening spread.

You want to be able to say the same thing with your theme. You don't want to think for hours every spread cycle as to how you can connect spread content and coverage to your theme.

Step 3: Can You Visualize it?

Your getting closer now! After you've found a potential theme, try to visualize it. Brainstorm and find graphics that connect to and reflect it. Note: you won't be using a ton of clip art graphics if you are a high school publication, but you will want graphics to use on your dividers and behind or near a mod heading or mod package to create those visual entry points around the spread to move your reader's eye to the packages and content.

"The Gold Standard" could bring in gold glitter, gold paint strokes, gold surfaces, etc.

"Home is Where the Heart is" could use hearts, location marker icons, maps, or even home icons near your headings and titles

"Out of the Woods" could use trees or forests, paths or trails graphics, or even map icons, location markers or trail signs near headings

If you find it very difficult to visualize the theme, you might want to toss it and start again.

Step 4: Coverage (Spread and Mod Level Theme)

If you've checked all the above boxes, the last question to ask is how the theme might be conveyed through your ladder topics. Not every spread topics will reflect and build on theme (since this can become repetitive and hinder coverage), but hopefully there is some nod to theme on at least a small package on most spreads.

This is when relevant themes matter. Cliché or generic themes will struggle here, like Big Moments. Beyond big things that happened, there isn't much to reflect and branch out on.

You Know the Name had spread topics like

• You Know these Names → Trendy names in the school

• Call us Champions → Title winning volleyball team

• You Know the Lingo → Trendy words and phrases of the year defined by students

• We know romance → A teen dating spread asking students for best rom coms, what women want, and this or that topics on dating dos and don'ts

• You Know the Answer → Students who excelled in an academic course via an outstanding project, In the Know tournament win, and more

• You Know our Feed → Insta famous students at school and the challenges they face, social media trends, and other digital life topics

• Repeating thematic mod: "Hello my name is" → These mods showed up on lots of pages. They introduced a student who is known by another name/talent. For example, we featured a student who was a "stylist" and used her talents in the drama program on the drama spread. Her name tag read "hello my name is stylist"

This is a spread topic from the You Know the Name volume that connected directly to names and the names we are known by and for. In this case, we selected popular names in school. Student voice defined their name's personality and research on name meaning and popularity was offered. Photos of all students with the name were taken too. This did a great job of capturing what students were like in this time and place and it was a fun way to play on the book's theme.

This football spread in our "You Know the Name" volume introduced the athletic section and borrowed the section spin-off "Fear the Name" as its title to convey to our audience why we titled our athletics section with this phrase.

If your theme is "The Gold Standard", some of your spread topics might include standards set or gold-related topics

• "Standard in Innovation" → A new academic course that raised the bar for innovative, career-focused learning

• "Standard in Comfort" → A standard in comfort that was set in fashion, featuring hoodies and sweat pants

• "Gold things" → golden rules, golden hair, gold trophy winners, a club raising gold

• "Making Gold" → student jobs, student CEOs, professional gamers/performer and how students make money in general

• "Golden Glory" →a team or organization that won a championship

• Repeating thematic mod: Setting Gold Standards. These mods featured a student who broke the mold and raised the bar in some way, like being named All-Ohio in Football, or volunteering to manage and fly the drones to film football games.

If your theme is Out of the Woods, spread topics might include

• “Finding Our Path” → Highlight students overcoming challenges, club achievements, or unique projects

• “Stepping Into the Light” → Seniors reflecting on growth or underclassmen developing new

• “Trailblazers” → Focus on athletes who set records or led by example.

• “Gathering at the Clearing” → Events, traditions, assemblies, and school-wide celebrations.

• “Guiding Lights” → Staff, mentors, and coaches who help students navigate their journey.

• “Helping Hands” → Community service, volunteer projects, or peer support programs.

Hopefully some of this wisdom and the detailed examples I have shared will help you and your staff find an awesome theme this year! Happy yearbooking underpaid advisers....

If you want a guide to building theme with activities and resources, you can purchase my theme masterclass resource at TpT.