Lesson 9 – Making a Page Template
When working on your Calendria yearbook, part of the design process is selecting an appropriate template.
- What is a template?
- A grid that helps you organize your design
- Within this grid, you can add images and copy
- A template helps keeps everything in order and consistent across the whole yearbook
With hundreds of pre-designed templates on Calendria available through Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Canva, there are countless ways you can design and customize each page.
When selecting and customizing your template though, think about the following:
- What is the purpose of this page?
- What is the most important part of this page?
- Who is going to be most interested in reading this page?
Every design decision you make should be informed by the answers to these questions, while also being in keeping with the overall visual theme of the yearbook.
Organizing the Layout
Even with a pre-designed template, there is still a lot of room for customization.
Try creating different versions and experimenting with:
- Different colours, images and fonts
- Different arrangements of headers, copy and images
When evaluating your layout look out for:
- Balance – is content distributed evenly?
- White space – too much content can make a page feel cluttered and visually distracting. Try leaving some white or empty space.
Print out a Draft
- If you’re happy with how your layout looks, the next step is printing out and evaluating the hard copy. Things can look very different on a screen!
Check for:
- Sizing – does the layout make sense for the size of the page?
- Orientation – are images and copy oriented the right way for easy viewing and legibility?
- Colour – If you’re printing a high-quality draft, evaluate the colour of the images. Do they need to be adjusted?
