Horseshoe yearbook staff approaches first deadline

Picture this! This draft of the 2020-2021 yearbook cover shows the planning involved. Picture This is the theme the book will display Polaroids and photography most prominently.

Courtesy of Horseshoe staff

Picture this! This draft of the 2020-2021 yearbook cover shows the planning involved. Picture This is the theme the book will display Polaroids and photography most prominently.

Jocelyn Fetter

The Horseshoe yearbook has been working on production since September and has their first spread deadline due on Friday, Nov 6. 

This book will be what is called a chronological book. In the past the book was organized by sections. This year it will be done in the order of the school year from start to finish. Additionally, the staff has needed to get creative with spreads so students can look forward to themed spreads about social media, pets, masks and more,” yearbook adviser Wanda Vanish said. 

This year’s staff is using a chronological book to their advantage and adapting accordingly. 

“Working virtually is a challenge. Mostly seeking out photographs is different and getting to in-person events is crucial. But students can most look forward to interactivity. There is a new feature we can offer called Yearbook Plus. We will be rolling this out soon and students can submit ten pictures of their choosing. Clubs, sports and activities can also submit pictures. There will be a QR code to scan and then all the pics in the book with additional images will become viewable without needing any additional apps,” Vanish said. 

This year the theme is ”picture this” where the use of Polaroids and photography will be used most prominently. 

“I love the cover and the colors of the book that we are using this year. It has been hard getting things done for yearbook because communication has become more difficult and getting photos has been hard too. I just want to get back into school,” junior photography editor Madison Zimmerer said. 

With rules changing every day on limitations and accessibility to events, the yearbook staff has changed how they’re doing things and is still working to get a completed book put out this 2020-2021 school year. 

Deadlines are super important in the yearbook world. Missed deadlines mean not being able to pass out the book on time and can have financial implications as well.  The yearbook plant has people assigned to each job needed after pages are submitted. If the pages aren’t submitted on time then those people can’t do their jobs and it may be a long wait until they can return to work on our book,” Vanish said. 

Not only do yearbook deadlines have costly impacts, the student staff is completely self sufficient. The staff is responsible for selling ads that will bring the cost of the book down for the students. 

There’s a big change in ads due to the pandemic because of stores having to close down. A lot of local businesses are struggling to reopen to sustain and that makes it difficult for us to reach out and ask for them to advertise,” junior advertising editor Mia Destefano said. 

The yearbook will be turning in their first deadlines of spreads on Friday of this week and plan to work on their second deadline in the classroom of the high school on Nov. 16. 

“This year has not been easy for anyone. The seniors– (including myself–) are trying to find the good in everything that we can right now. We have had to adapt so many things this school year in order to begin production of this book but I wouldn’t want to have it any other way. We have had to jump hoops for so many things, but we are working our absolute hardest to make this book the best that it could possibly be. With everything going on in the world and all the uncertainty that we have faced recently we can tell you this: you will have a yearbook to leave your 2020-2021 school year, and we will make sure of it,” senior editor-in-chief Jocelyn Fetter said.