From the Treering Design Studio comes the 2024 theme collection, guided by visual arts and technology trends. These ten theme packages infuse contemporary and stylish aesthetics through cover and layout designs, accompanying graphics, and color palettes. Use the inspo below to guide your yearbook’s visual theme elements, ensuring your school’s legacy is etched with your unique touch.
Trends from DIY Culture
At its core, the DIY ethos empowers individuals to believe they have the skills and resources to tell their stories. Treering’s software is the tool by which creators do just this. Unleash your artistic potential by engaging with these four looks.
Maximalist Yearbook Theme
Inspired by handicrafts, Treering’s Maximalist theme package features collage-style artwork with layers of color. It aligns with the DIY ethos and the desire to create and distribute art and ideas outside mainstream channels. In a world inundated with perfect pixels, a book that captures the spirit of handmade craftsmanship stands out.
It’s a little punk rock, a little pop art, and wholly versatile.
Tropical Chronicles
In the graphic design world, we’ve seen risograph art trend since its inception in 1960. Riso printers in Japan created their signature layered look, and its association with ‘zine culture, independent publishing, and grassroots creative efforts contributes to its continued popularity.
The riso aesthetic is distinct from other printing methods, and its retro and handmade feel can attract yearbook teams seeking something visually interesting and non-traditional.
Yearbook Theme Inspo from the Masters: Tied Together
Continuous line art is another classic look. Picasso did it. So did Matisse.
Because the line is unbroken, there is a sense of flow and movement with this look. This dynamic quality can draw the viewer’s eye along the line, creating an engaging visual experience throughout your yearbook. Its hand-drawn quality is organic: the intentional variations in each line give a sense of immediacy and authenticity–two things you want when telling the story of the year.
Continuous line art often highlights the essential features of an item, creating a focus on its defining elements. Using the included graphic elements–or even creating and uploading your own–define touchpoints throughout your yearbook. Lunchtime, Read Across America, and the 100th day of school each have distinct canvases.
Crafted
During the 2023 Editor’s Choice Design Contest, many submissions included a form of digital collage, adding depth to the stories and images across the spreads. Graphics such as hand-torn papers and transparent tapes adorn these modular layouts so you can pack pages with seasonal or quarterly content.
Crafting a digital book that looks handmade invites your school community into a world where thoughtfully placed captions and photographs tell your unique story. This intentional design choice ignites curiosity and captivates the senses. The scrapbook-like textures, imperfect lines, and off-the-grid layouts carry the essence of an artist’s hands at work.
Yearbook Theme Inspo from Tech-Inspired Design
Using tech-inspired elements in your yearbook theme can evoke a sense of nostalgia and celebrate progress. When you get design inspiration from social media, streaming services, or interfaces, your yearbook theme provides a physical, tactile experience that contrasts with the intangible nature of technology. (We won’t judge if you use that nugget in your theme pitch.)
In an Instant
Let’s face it, advisers, younger audiences who are deeply connected to technology may find these designs relatable. And when used with crowdsourcing efforts and a social media plan, they’re compiled in a relevant and memorable way. The familiarity of this double-tap-worthy yearbook theme is part of its appeal.
The included layouts are highly visual: photos, photos, and more photos with plenty of room for captions and the occasional hashtag. We’re just going to leave this here.
Y2K Yearbook Theme
Aesthetic blends that evoke both the past and the future remain popular. This theme package of vintage-inspired typography and futuristic elements creates nostalgia. The Y2K aesthetic draws inspiration from the anticipation of entering a new century. Seriously, who else was waiting for a flying car?
Y2K-inspired design commonly uses pixelated graphics as a nod to the digital origins of the era. And while your photography and body copy remain the focus of each spread, digital distortions, mosaic-like patterns, and geometric shapes create visually intricate sidebars and callouts.
As a yearbook theme, Y2K is both a playful and visually stimulating style that captures the anticipation, optimism, and technological innovation of the turn of the millennium.
How to Use a Treering Theme in Your Yearbook
In the Treering app, go to styles from the page designer. You can select any of the 300+ themes from the menu. (Here’s a secret an insider tip: even if you choose a Treering theme, you still have access to all the layouts, art, fonts, and color palettes in the catalog.)
Wherever you get your yearbook theme inspo, the finished product should reflect your school right now. Together, color, typography, and your theme story can evoke a profound emotional connection that resonates with authenticity for years to come. So, you do you.
