This is an article from Before & After Magazine

Consistency:

Unless you’re designing a video game, consistency matters. Not to make things dull, but to keep attention focused on the good stuff. It’s like driving; because every stop sign looks alike, you can get where you’re going and carry on a good conversation while you get there. If, instead, stop signs all looked different — like, whatever; you know, creative — you’d spend the whole drive worried about whether you should stop, or where, or when, or how, trying to figure things out. You’d lose your good conversation and your peace, and it would be scary besides. That’s what consistency in design is about. Get the routine, navigational stuff consistent so your audience can settle in, then you can have fun with the real stuff.

(From the awesome ybklove)

LMAY <3 DOWNLOADS!

Incase you haven’t noticed, a lot of the posts have download links. Here’s the skinny.

To make lives easier, I’ll be putting download links on appropriate posts. These will link to templates of designs, or layouts, or sidebars, et cetera. This way you don’t have to redesign something that’s already been designed!

Files are all securely zip’d up and securely hosted on a secure server in some secure country. Securely. No need to worry about viruses or any of that fun stuff.

Files are (typically) made in Adobe CS5 apps, and therefore exported and saved as such. If you don’t have CS5, and would like a compatible file, please don’t hesitate to drop something in the ask and ask for a conversion. Please. Don’t worry. No fears.

Also, please submit your own files by e-mailing them to letsmakeayearbook {at-a-rookski} gmail {toshka} com!

Finding good secondary coverage can be the biggest pain… so here’s a list of ideas to help get you started!

Any new ideas will be tagged with #sidebars. Submit away!

• Coaches’ Corner
• Player Profile
• Student Profile
• Personality Profile (Capture what makes, say, a cello player a cello player: instrument, inspiration, backstory, memorable moment, final thought)
• Who’s Who
• Teacher Spotlight
• Look Alikes
• List of top moments by members (Such as top game moments or best concert moments)
• Emotions while out according to members (Such as while on the court/field or on stage, or any other event)
• Different moves (For on the court/field, or violin fingerings)
• Tools of the trade
• By the #s (Money, polls, statistics, people count, et cetera)
• Info graphics (Based on anything, especially numbers [like above], poll a large group of people… pie, bar, line, table, map, diagram)
• Definitions/terms
• Data from polls and surveys
• Q & A
• Quotes
• Advice
• How-to Fun Facts/FYI Box (Did you know?)
• Do-It-Yourself Box
• Checklists Schedules/Calendar
• Current Events (What major basketball event happened in 2013? What major fashion trend occurred this year? Remember: you’re going to want to remember that year when you open the book in three decades!)
• Timelines
• Scoreboard
• Quizzes
• Opposites Attract (For sure/No way; Calm/Crazy)
• Pros & Cons
• Five Ws & H
• Map
• Reactions/Personal Accounts (From members and/or from bystanders/audience)
• Round Table (Student views of outside issues)
• A-Z