1. Alternatives to
Traditional Story Presentation
Lizabeth A. Walsh, MJE

2. Ideas are everywhere
Keep your eyes open for sidebar design &
treatment ideas.
oBillboards
oPosters
oFliers
oBrochures
oAds
oMagazines
oInternet pages
oOther schools’ yearbooks

3. Create a wall
(or window, or door, or ceiling)
 Everyone gets to bring in ideas
 Post them during school time
 Then create an idea file for summer camp time
 Don’t be afraid to design them differently
when you make them your own
 R&D DOESN’T stand for Rip & Duplicate.
 It means research and develop- on your own

4. A few examples from RHS
 We scoured magazines all year
 Wehad a plan for design elements- not
complete designs or templates
 We changed ideas to fit our needs
 We have brainstorming & assignment
sheets we use to gather ideas in a concrete
manner (for grades & communication).

13. Alternative Copy Ideas
Almost all the letters from A-W
because I couldn’t find ideas that began with J, K, R, U, X, Y or Z

14. A, B, C or 1,2,3 captions together
 Quite often you can group photos in a
montage, mark them with letters, and
caption the entire group together in a single
caption space.

16. Advice box
 You can provide suggestions or advice in a
small box that leads reader to other
resources on the topic.

18. Bullet Entry Points
 Rather than having a very long block of
copy, break it into smaller ideas with
bullets or dingbats

20. Charts
 Tocompare, contract, or quickly list
similar characteristics of dissimilar things,
charts work quickly and are easily
understood.

22. Cut out backgrounds with wrapped
text or cutlines
A COB’ed photo can illustrate or
demonstrate without taking the space of a
regularly placed photo. The text can wrap
around the picture, creating a novel look.

24. Dramatic quotes
 If you have a quote that really creates an
emotional impact on its own, use it to
either caption the photo, or overprint it on
a dominant photo.

26. Entry point subheadlines
 You can easily break up a large copy block
with subheadlines that catch the reader’s
attention.

28. Faces in the crowd
 Selecting
a few students who stand out for
some reason and highlighting them with a
news brief is a nice incorporation of
additional people.

30. Fast Facts
 When you have a longer story, the basic
facts may be harder to find, so add a fact
box to the layout and make things easier on
the quick-read audience.

32. Good news / Bad news
 Covering news events in a news brief,
rather than developed stories provides
information quickly and efficiently.

34. He (or she) said it
 Doing a “they said it” or a “he said / she
said” contrast are both good ways to
capture ideas, moments, and random
quotes.

36. Identification only
 Atthe very least, each person should be
identified, but not every photo requires a
complete caption in some circumstances.

38. Inside information
A “gossip” style column of random
information about people (with their names
colored or bolded) gets more people
included in your publication.

40. List with montage
 Close-up photos of brand names or styles,
along with the list of all fashionable things
gives a time-capsule snapshot of the year.

42. Logo with fast facts
 Creating a logo for an event and then
listing the brief facts about the event can
provide information quickly and easily.

44. Meters and measuring
devices
 Any kind of device that is used to measure
things can also show an amount for your
desired information.

46. Montage with captions
 Doing a photo montage with overprinted
captions or overprinted ID bars can include
more faces in your publication.

48. Numbers
 Using numbers to introduce ideas or
statistics in a creative way can add interest.

50. Overprinting
 Eitherfading out a photo or reversing type
to use some of the photo space can free up
layout space and still provide vital photo
information and a part of the story.

52. Photo essay
 Although you can simply use photos with a
headline (or headline package), you should
probably consider captioning each photo
for maximum impact.

54. Q&A (verbatim transcript)
 Providing the original transcript, unedited,
or edited very little, along with a headline
package can be effective and easy.

56. Quiz
 To get readers to interact with the material,
include quizzes and score charts.

58. Quotes as captions
 Ifwhat the person has said explains the
picture and its importance effectively, just
use it, and nothing else.

60. Quotes around the border
 Using a series of quotes and attributions
around the border of a layout is an
interesting way to add information.

62. Schedule
 Providethe schedule in an easy-to-read
informational box.

64. Short story, great photo
 Sometimes the photo is award-winning,
but the back story is boring. Just do a short
story and let the picture do the talking.

66. Storytelling caption
 Anexpanded caption (instead of a cutline
summary caption) can provide the 5Ws
and H in three sentences with a headline.

68. Top 10 list
 Or
whatever kind of numbered list you
want to create can give lots of info quickly.

70. Vertical design w/ popouts
 Breaking up your page into both vertical
and horizontal modules can give you more
space for related information.

72. Who’s who or What’s
what
 Running a vertical or horizontal module
that lists names in the news or participants
in an event, or equipment used, or
whatever you want is easy and fun.

74. Words to live by
 Usingeither famous quotes or student
quotes on a given topic can include more
people and give your publication a “wise”
feel.

76. All materials presented…
 Remain the property and copyright of the various
owners of the original works.
 These yearbook samples were presented at BALFOUR
workshops for the benefit of their clients and
customers.
 Please do not alter these presentations.
 Use of these shows is intended only for individual
adviser-to-staff classroom teaching, not for publication
or reproduction in any form for any type of
presentation at a conference, camp, convention, or
gathering of multiple schools’ staffs.