DESIGN.
If you could not tell by now - design is kinda my thing.
As designers, we constantly face the challenge of how to bring nuance to each of our designs, causing us to sometimes start from step one or scrap all our ideas together. While often discouraging, this is what pushes us to create with a purpose. In design, there is always a way to pioneer contemporary ideas and new ways to innovate our skills. Each time I sit down at my cluttered desk covered in sticky notes of ideas, I hope with each new spread, timeline, infographic, or theme package I make, it will be nothing like the last.
Designing WITH A
PURPOSE
Design is where I felt I really succeeded as a journalist. Being able to communicate others stories through layouts and graphics is where I found joy. Whether its through the font, colors, or illustrations I strive to make sure each spread I publish has a meaning and story behind it.
“The World on Hold” was one of the first times I realized the impact design could have as it not only helped define events in a century but it can also could inform people on social issues. I designed this spread a week into lock down as a 14 year old who missed her junior high graduation. I had complete creative freedom with the only requirement being a explaining what was happening in the world at the time.
The Barbie movie was a love letter to women and when my advisor green-lit my feature about a student’s experience coming to terms with being a woman, I knew the design had to pay homage to Barbie. This spread was collaboration between me and two other designers — with Jane who did the headlines, Toby who did the illustration, and me who did the layout.
VIEW : HERE
End-sheets are some of my favorite things to design as it’s a place in a yearbook that is so theme-y, the design possibilities are endless. This was a collaboration between me and my co EIC and even though we butt heads sometimes regarding design, I love how you can see both of are styles on this spread with my love of typography and her love for structure.
VIEW : HERE
EVIT is a trade school my district gives Juniors and Seniors the opportunity to attend and learn about career opportunities. These programs offended harbor passionate students in their career fields and my publication created a spread to highlight their talents. It was eye opening to create illustrations of each of these students and explore what each of their hobbies entailed.
VIEW : HERE
There are many unknowns with AI software and after writing a story about how these software’s are disrupting classrooms, I wanted this design to communicate the same fears the subjects felt as they were amazed and terrified at the power of AI.
MY
VIEW : HERE
Favorite DESIGNS
First week back to school are AC went out in most of our buildings and living in Arizona meant that the 117 degree weather could be fatal. As we have an older school, they reopened older buildings that were used as storage for classrooms. This was one of my first times illustrating a whole spread as I felt it was the only way to accurately display a map of our school. To me this design wasn’t just me having to come out of my comfort zone and explore new programs but I think it also helped my yearbook staffers realize yearbook is a place of experimentation and to try new things.
VIEW : HERE
This spread is a collection of student experiences in learning in English when they only spoke Spanish. I felt inspired by each of their stories and I wanted to communicate their struggles to other students who never had to learn in a different langue. This enter spread was written in Spanish with no translations and I used type a mix of fonts to make sure each word stood out.
VIEW : HERE
This was a collaboration between me and one of our designers. I was responsible for all of the illustrations and layouts and I loved creating this spread as it felt like a true snapshot of the year as the spread represented many historical events from the year.
VIEW : HERE
“The World on Hold” was one of the first times I realized the impact design could have as it not only helped define significant events in this century but it can also could inform people on social issues. I designed this spread a week into lock down as a 14 year old who missed her junior high graduation. I had complete creative freedom with the only requirement being able to explaining what was happening in the world at the time and how it was affecting our small town.
Fifth Place in Design of the Year “The World on Hold” - National Scholastic press Association Nov. 2020
Superior for Student Life Spread “The World on Hold” Design - Arizona Interscholastic Press Association Oct. 2020
VIEW : HERE
As a fellow theater kid I also love the performing arts spread and after writing Kathrine’s story about her healing from grief through theater I wanted to highlight the feeling she described as when she is on stage she feels like she is the only one up there. Inspired by this, I blacked out the whole spread and cut out a photo of her to communicate her feelings of solitary through design.
Superior for Student Life Spread - Arizona Interscholastic Press Association Oct. 2023
First Place in Performing Arts Spread Design - Quill and Scroll Honors Society Dec.2023
VIEW : HERE
VIEW : HERE
Again, I’m a sucker for a good performing arts spread and when choosing the layout, I wanted to highlight the amazing photos of this performance we had, so I used any negative space within the photos to add quotes, sidebars, or headlines.
I love to experiment with what people think a traditional yearbook layout should look like. We had minimal content for this spread so I had the job of making the minimal look maximal as I experimented with photo size and layering of elements like text and graphics.
Excellent for Student Life Spread Design - Arizona Interscholastic Press Association Oct. 2023
VIEW : HERE
These were the end-sheets for my 22-23 yearbook which design wise was a very grungy, maximal book; therefore, I wanted the end-sheets to still have a grungy vibe but not feel too busy as to act like a breather between the cover and the rest of the book.
VIEW : HERE
I think one of the things that makes a good designer is when they know to let the photo do most of the work. This photo held so many emotions I didn’t want to design on top of it so instead I used a simple headline package to compliment the emotions being expressed and found room for theme copy.
Excellent for Sports Spread Design - Arizona Interscholastic Press Association Oct. 2023
VIEW : HERE
VIEW : HERE
This was the people divider for my 8th grade yearbook. Looking back at this divider from almost 5 year ago I love everything about this spread. It not only a great representation of my schools community but the simple design is still impact as it begged the big question we asked our school: What if they like us?
VIEW : HERE
In design, I love to experiment with hierarchy especially with photos. This was one of the first spreads I designed for my 2022-23 yearbook, in which I started to reshape the way I think of a standard gut spread.
VIEW : HERE
Q and A style writing was a new edition to my 8th-grade book; therefore, I had the fun task of designing a set of mods to use interchangeably for coverage, such as on our athletics Wow page. Looking back, I loved the simplicity of this page, but admire its ability to stand out. Spreads like these always remind me as designers, we don't have to create the most avant-garde spreads for them to be impactful.
As much as I love standout pages, standard gut spreads are still required within a yearbook, but I will find any way to make them stand out. This spread was a different experiment as I played around with layering and text, but spreads like these are essential in making a yearbook.
Superior for Clubs Spread Design - Arizona Interscholastic Press Association Oct.2023
VIEW : HERE
VIEW : HERE
It may have been because I created this spread while watching the Hunger Games, but I remember wanting readers to open this spread, and it takes on a grungy/gritty feeling. The story revolves around a foreign exchange student's 'America Dream' and what is more American than grit. Whether through the typography or the abstract scribbles in the background, to me this page resembled what Teen Spirit by Nirvana would look like.
DesignSOCIAL MEDIA
Old
DesigningADVERTISEMENTS
In all of yearbook we are trying to sell a product, so through the years I have designed a few advisements that help push students to buy our book
With building a new publication, social media was vital in communicating to our school the work yearbook was doing and the new direction we were trying to take the program. An increase in pushing out social media content coincided with the building of our new program.
Even though all of The Prospector social media accounts are only 2 years old, they have undergone a redesign as we learned students were stealing content from our page and publishing it as there own.
This pushed us to brand our posts better, whether it was through watermarks, titles, or creating more identifiable content.
I edited this short video to not only showcase some of my staff’s photography but to also allude to the theme of the book for that year and get students excited for it.
I created this small set of advertisements that could be used interchangeably on Instagram stories or reels that highlighted the beginning of the year sale on the yearbook
Occasionally our publication will have small announcements we need to communicate; therefore, will use platforms like Instagram to make these announcements. Above are two different Instagram posts I designed that make comments to our student body
NewDESIGN
DESIGN
FOR
DesignBROADCAST
With yearbook being a print publication we still have to find ways to digitally connect with our audience. We started what we called The Prospector Pod in which we utilized instagram reels’ platform to post short form video essays that gave students a sneak peak into some of the stories they will find in their yearbook.
The design for these short form video essays needed to fit The Prospector aesthetic, yet still help tell the story. I took inspiration from how news outlets like CNN, BBC, and CBS package their content and made my own template we were able to use across multiple stories.
MyILLUSTRATIONS
After I picked up design in 8th grade, I fell in love with it, but then COVID hit and I no longer had a space where I could design spreads; therefore, I learned how to navigate illustrator and adobe illustrate. Now I use the skills I learned over COVID to help design layouts or for other creative endeavors.
In my 2024 book illustrations quickly became a common design element for my publication that year, so I started looking for any way I could include them like portraits. These series of drawings were of a collection of students we wrote features on and used the illustrations to display their talents. VIEW HERE
To make sure our yearbook truly feels like a time capsule of the year, I wanted to include a current events spread that highlighted cultural events from the year. It was fun being able to look back on all the historical moments that really defined the year. VIEW HERE
In my senior year yearbook we wanted to include more art drawn by students in the yearbook, so I started to incorporate more illustration in my designs. These illustrations were for a variety of stories including the fears surrounding Artificial Intelligence and a map of our school.
EVIT is a trade school my district gives Juniors and Seniors the opportunity to attend and learn about career opportunities. These programs offended harbor passionate students in their career fields and my publication created a spread to highlight their talents. It was eye opening to create illustrations of each of these students and explore what each of their hobbies entailed. VIEW HERE
My theater department was hosting a coffee house performance which including a costume fashion show. To help promote the show, I drew these illustrations of some of the costumes which were used to create advisement for the show.
THE
DesignPROCESS
A factor I believe that sets a yearbook apart from any other media publication, is each year a yearbook has to reinvent itself. We have to find a new story for the year and a brand new look to complement that story.
Each time we submit a book, I’m already brainstorming the next one through Pinterest boards, taking photos of any font I see, looking at political companies for color schemes, and watching ted talks after ted talks to find the theme for next year, I’m always thinking how can we out do what we just completed.
STILL HERE
2023 - 2024
Still Here is a book which takes pride in our small town and school. We have this moto that AJ kids may not be the classiest or richest but we have grit. I wanted to communicate that through our design with structured fonts and large graphic elements like quotations.
Of course our colors were our schools colors, black and gold, but I added my own twist by throwing in pops of blues and light yellow to add contrast.
The main design theme through the layouts of the spreads is structure. Every element aligns, all the text is compact and fits together like a game of Tetris, and the spreads look clean but are still loud with large graphic elements.
Still here concept board
BUT WHY?
2022 - 2023
“But Why?” was a book that explored students reasoning. We asked our school the big question, ‘why?’ and in response we learned there’s never a straight answer to why we do things.
This concept was the catapults for design. I wanted a book that felt messy, like when someones thoughts are jumbled. Within headline packages and mod designs, I wanted nothing to feel clean and neat. We found a scripty font called lunchbox that had a grungy vibe to it and found anther font, Function pro, to act a structured secondary font.
The end product was a book that felt reminiscent of a messy journal and explained perfectly the rapid messiness that is trying to discover your reasoning and identity.
WHAT WILL THEY THINK?
2019 - 2020
What Will They Think was a book I started planing for 7 months before school started. I was trying to encapsulate the feeling many student experience as they navigate middle school constantly thinking about how they are viewed by their peers.
My goal with the design of the book was to emulate a persons thought process as thoughts are never organized. Through the use of fonts like Reenie Beanie and Function Pro, we made each headline look as if it was a messy diary entry.
Also through the usage of darker and lighter colors like navy blue and bright scarlet red I wanted to show the contrast between darker more fearful thoughts verses the excited optimistic stories.
CreatingSTYLE
GUIDES
Style guides have been essential in maintaining a cohesive look throughout all of my yearbooks. They are a great communication tool I use between my designers to ensure we all have a similar aesthetic across all of our layouts. In any Prospector style guide, one can find body and copy fonts, color codes, graphic elements, and any specified style decisions we are making for that year.
AS A
MY
EVOLUTION
DesignerI have been designing since I was 13 years old and after designing for over 6 years, there has been an evolution within my work as I have developed my own style. I went from not knowing how to use Walsworth’s design platform, to teaching other students to navigate programs like Adobe Illustrate. Design has truly became of of my favorite parts about being a journalist.
2019 - 2020
If anyone asked me which spread I was most proud of, it would be this one. I designed this at a time when the world felt like it was shutting down. A 2 week break turned into 4 which turned into almost a whole year, and within those undermined weeks off, I sat at my kitchen table and finished designing my yearbook by myself. Looking back I had learned so much about design within one year and I feel this spread is an embodiment of how within that year I have progressed as a designer but also a journalist.
2020 - 2021
At the time I designed this timeline I was not working for any publication due to COVID, but I didn’t want to lose the design skills I had learned from the past 2 years. So any chance I got, I tried to design. This was a timeline for my photography class that walks through popular themes in photography through the decades.
2022 - 2023
These end-sheets are one of the first spreads I designed after COVID working in a publication again. It took me a minute to pick design back up but I’ll never forget when I showed my advisor this layout and he said “You still got it”. This was a tuning point in my career as I finally felt confident in my work.
2023 - 2024
After designing close to 300-ish spreads, I’ve made my fair share of mistakes and successes. Entering my senior year, this was the first spread I designed for the year and it felt bitter-sweet as it was a testament to everything I’ve learned about design over these past 6 years.