CASE STUDIES
Introducing the unique and innovative treatments we offer for yearbooks or any printed publication! We picked a few yearbooks to showcase our unique features and customization options, as well as how we transform advisers’ ideas into reality through collaboration. United Yearbook excels in creating the yearbook of your dreams at the price you can afford!
Impact of pandemic holographic mask
The focal point of the yearbook is a lenticular, holographic mask. It perfectly symbolizes the events that took place during the pandemic. There are two images embedded within the hologram in the mask; The front side shows the school logo, while the back side displays the faces of the senior class. This printing technique (only available at United Yearbook) allows students to empathize with the range of events and emotions felt during the pandemic. The date of the school year and the title of the yearbook features a light blue drop shadow, with embossed letters. The embossing makes the text bold to exemplify the courage of the students who persevered during this season. The back of the book displays, in white, the crucial events that occurred during the school year. We highlighted these events using gloss lamination on the back cover case. We wanted to ensure that the students who persevered through such difficult times were able to commemorate their strength.
150 years encapsulating the LAPD’s history
This matte navy blue yearbook represents a sense of unity within the LAPD department. The logo is heavily laminated creating a gloss that shines under light. It also has an embossed signet—the police badge. This symbolizes the pride each officer feels in wearing their badge every day. On the spine, there are embossed silver edge letters with the LAPD’s service time. A way to mark the years that have passed and the strength risen during their time in service. On the back, their seal is debossed. Within the seal, we see different designs that encapsulate the meaning of the badge—authority and the rays of a setting West Coast sun. A navy blue ribbon bookmark is attached inside the book with silver-tipped pages. This piece is historical and memorializes 150 years of the LAPD’s history. Retired officers, officers from other countries and states, and more, sought out a copy because of its significance. It preserves the stories and hard work of many generations. 30 LAPD officers volunteered to work on these pride-filled pages, and United Yearbook used precise techniques to make this timeless piece come to life. The precision, care, courage, and skill we used within each page is only a fraction of the work they put in these past 150 years.
Xavier College Preparatory 2019-2022
Xavier College Preparatory’s yearbook is an example of a journal-style yearbook. The cover is matte black and has a spot UV mandala shape. The title of the book is written in an elegant script font. Gold foil is embedded into the bottom of the book and cascades to the back. Upon opening the magnetic journal flap, orange/gold flowers drape across the front two pages and into the back two end pages. Various gold foil flowers throughout the book add bright pops of color. The mandala figures vary across the yearbook, bridging the theme of “gracefully working with purpose.” There are 10 treatments performed on this yearbook. Each one is skillfully crafted so that the layers are not hidden but are actually emphasized. United Yearbook helped create this yearbook to honor the exceptional uniqueness of each student. We took the time and attentive care necessary to bring these students a yearbook they had always envisioned. An undeniable joy is evident among the team of students whose hard work and dedication produced a treasured piece.
Mesa Grande Academy 2020
This pop-up is significant because it is actually what attracted Grande Mesa Academy to United Yearbook. When the staff asked about including the airplane as a pop-up, the first and only yearbook company that yearbook adviser, Lynn Delinger, thought of was United Yearbook. One of her staff members initiated a conversation with us about the pop-up, and we were eager to help their vision come to life. The journal-style sky-blue, matte yearbook spells out adventure and travel. Upon opening up the magnetic journal flap, it reveals a quote from Jack Kerouac about travel, adventure, and living life to the fullest. There are two globes spread out on the cover. The words “Adventure Awaits” are embossed in glossy, elegant lettering. The inside front cover features stamps of different passport destinations and travel-themed pages. Hidden within the book is an airplane pop-up. Our yearbook representative attended their class and listened to the students’ ideas. United Yearbook helped walk them through solutions to bring their vision into existence. The final yearbook exudes a sense of wanderlust that is evident from cover to cover.
Mesa Grande Academy 2022
​This colorful yearbook portrays a lovely watercolor painting the staff helped create. Minimalistic silver butterflies are embossed onto the cover, creating the effect of an elegant and delicate feel. “A Year in Color” is printed on the front. The word “Color” is embossed, with each letter exhibiting its own unique shade of the rainbow. This special effect was a result of a visit in December 2021, when one of our yearbook representatives met the yearbook adviser at Grande Mesa Academy. During the visit, the student manager showed the representative a roll of rainbow wrapping paper she had purchased from a craft store. She asked our representative if there was a way to incorporate rainbow foil into the yearbook. We immediately agreed. We go beyond the typical gold, silver, or blue color foil that other yearbook companies provide. We offer rainbow, pantone colors, or metallic colors. The staff was extremely excited that we were going to add rainbow elements to the yearbook. On the spine, the school, the year, and the volume are printed in silver letters, for a consistent, refined feel. On the back, there are more silver butterflies and one silver caterpillar crawling across the yearbook. The yearbook adviser, Lynn Delinger, used the yearbook treatments as a learning opportunity. She walked through the treatments that we included in the yearbook with her staff. One of our yearbook representatives was present to help train the staff in yearbook terminology such as matte lamination, spot UV, embossing, and rainbow foil.
At United Yearbook we encourage students to think big and bring their ideas and inspiration to us. We encourage students not to limit themselves and find inspiration wherever they go.
St. Anne School 2020-2021
This unique yearbook has a yellow/blue gradient that goes vertically across the cover. The yearbook adviser, Eric Hartman, knew that the 2020-2021 school year was difficult for every student and staff member. Because of this, he wanted to incorporate the message of peace, relaxation, and progression. United Yearbook took this project to another level by getting our R&D team involved in this innovative yearbook. The team traced the shape of the surfboard prototype that Eric Hartman had created in our computer program. They created custom molds to extrude/cut the shape of the surfboard and fin for mass production and spent hours stacking and curving individual names of eighty 8th graders. The 8th graders graduated that year, and their names were placed inside the wave shape on the back cover. The involvement and the amount of preparation work required to bring this piece to life and to function exceeded our expectations. The spine contains the school’s name and year in white letters. On the back are two magnetic gradient flaps that resemble a surfboard when pulled out. Surfboard fin cutouts can be inserted on the back end of the surfboard. Within the yearbook, there is a three-panel gatefold that showcases the entire 8th-grade class. This keeps the students together amid the rolling waves they endured throughout their year. We ensured that the intentionality and symbolism of the yearbook was present from cover to cover to provide even the smallest bit of excitement to each student.
Garden Grove High School 2019-2020
​​This yearbook’s simplistic cover allows for creativity to flourish from page spread to page spread. By keeping the design of this yearbook simple, we were able to achieve a sleek look. This staff wanted to incorporate a binding called three-quarter binding, but they requested this kind of binding late in the game. We didn’t have time to order a separate cover case material. Typically, we have to place this kind of order in advance for this special fabric. United Yearbook came up with a solution for this staff by suggesting that they use a different color around the area where the three-quarter binding effect would be. We applied a white color and a thick layer of UV coding done with litho printing. It assimilates the initial effect that they wanted while respecting the yearbook’s deadline. The staff also made a last-minute decision to add a senior sunset portrait to the yearbook. They wanted to feature a panoramic shot of the complete graduating senior class. It is a larger school, yet we were able to accommodate the students who showed up to the senior sunset event within the gatefold. The gatefold is an extended page on the left and right. When opened on both sides it reveals a wide picture of the graduating class. That senior sunset panoramic shot was a huge success for the students, especially the graduating class!
Dolores Huerta Middle School​
The theme of this yearbook is change. The theme is significant because it represents the first year the students came back to school after the pandemic. Each student endured radical change during and after the pandemic. The staff and adviser wanted to recognize the change and look toward the new beginnings that their next school year would bring. The vibrant colors throughout the book are symbolic of the happiness found in reconnecting with one another and the excitement of new adventures to come. The Yearbook Adviser asked United Yearbook to include a feature that made the yearbook stand out even more. We decided to raise the typography to make the title and yearbook pop. We applied embossing to the word, “Change.” We created a piece of metal die using the shape of the word "change." (This can be done with any word selected.) After we printed the cover, we ran the press sheet over the metal die to create the effect that the title was raised. The result is a vibrant yearbook that carries excitement and joy in each page.
Saint Anne School 2021-2022
The yearbook staff from Saint Ann created this "straight out of Hollywood" yearbook with a movable director's clapper attached to the sleeve! The design idea came from the yearbook theme, Hall of Fame. As they passed around the freshly printed copy, they tested out the clapper by moving it back and forth. The last student who was handed the copy gently slid the yearbook out from the sleeve and showed it to his fellow staff members. Wrapped in a royal blue fabric, the book received illustrious gold-foil stamping applied to the school logo positioned on the front, the spine, and on a star on the back cover. The sleeve is divided into four different sections. On the front of the sleeve, the word “production” is placed at the very top in small letters followed by the words, “behind the scenes.” Resting below it in a separate section is the word “scene'.” The 3rd space is given to the word “director'' followed by the name of the school. In the final space is the word “take'' in small letters followed by the number 29 which represents 29 years since the school started. To the right is the word “date” in smaller letters followed by the numbers 2021-2022. We loved helping create such a unique and interactive yearbook.
Saint Anne School 2002-2003​
This is St. Anne’s 30th-anniversary celebratory yearbook! The school wanted to encapsulate the era of 30 years ago and carry it on into the present. The cassette tape was a perfect symbol of the past. Times may change and the way we listen to music may have changed, but the core of music is always there. Just like the school may have had many changes in students and time, but the core of the school still rings true. After the adviser provided United Yearbook with the cassette tape design without treatments, we studied a cassette tape to review the details and indents that a real tape has. We then helped the school come up with printing treatments to mimic a real cassette tape as much as possible. We used die-cut to assimilate the real effect of a cassette tape and the indents used to fast forward or go backward. We incorporated embossing and debossing where a real cassette tape would be raised up or not. The adviser provided original artwork with masking tape on it. We incorporated a spot matte finish around the “masking tape” to assimilate the touch and feel of the tape. It’s as if we really did stick tape on the cover of the yearbook! We also provided blue foil stamping. We decided on blue because it is the school's brand color. United Yearbook provided the additional effects such as embossing, debossing, die-cut, spot uv and foil-stamping to the yearbook for no extra charge to help them celebrate this huge milestone.
Saint Anne School Pre-School 2022-2023
​The peak-a-flap yearbook was produced for St. Anne’s preschool. It was meant for a younger audience and was created to be fun and interactive for all of the preschoolers there. The assistant director, Leslie Gibson, wanted something extraordinary because it was part of their 30th-year anniversary. Ms. Gibson wanted to incorporate a scavenger hunt element for the preschoolers to make it extra interactive. Her concept included having the kids open something and find the school mascot, “the St. Anne scuba diver warrior” throughout the book. That’s how the peak-a-flap effect came about. Ms. Gibson is a mother and actually brought her young children’s books as an example for United Yearbook to review. She showed us and asked if we could do something similar. We said yes! Given that the yearbook was part of a 30-year anniversary celebration, we wanted to help them create this unique book. The process of creating a peak-a-flap is intricate. We have to create several layers. First, we created a layer of the page that has the hidden image. In this case, it was the page with the school mascot. We printed it through litho printing on our offset press. There are 16 mascots throughout the book. The second file we created is the image on the flap. We created a die cut around the original image that is on top of the hidden image and then we created an outline. We used the outline to create a metal die mold, almost like a cutter and cut out the area where the flap would be. On the flap, there was an extra piece of tape that was part of the printing piece. We applied glue to that printing piece on the additional attachment and manually glued it on the book. We had to glue every single flap manually one-by-one. We used a premade guide so that the flap was placed in the same position throughout the book. This yearbook will be treasured for years to come. Even though it was a paperback publication, we were still able to incorporate innovative treatments. United Yearbook is one of the very few yearbook companies that would take the extra time and care to create the files required for the peak-a-flap effect. We were happy to make this yearbook adviser's dreams come true!
Mesa Grande Academy 2022-2023​
The theme and concept of this book is beautiful. It shows deep roots, life, and growth by utilizing a tree as the symbol. With a tree, we think of time going forward and the growth that comes as time goes on. This school has a religious background and branches are often symbolic of being connected with the source which (in this case) is the tree. The school specifically asked for cross-grain embossing throughout the book. This was the 4th yearbook we did with Mesa Grande, and they had grown accustomed to the many innovative yearbooks we have helped bring to life. The staff remembered seeing one of Garden Grove High School’s yearbook samples with cross-grain embossing. The yearbook sample became an inspiration for the staff members. This was the first time this school did the cross-grain embossing and we were happy to bring this part of their vision to life. We also felt pride that our yearbook family is inspired by one another. The title “Taking Root'' was originally placed too close to the spine and ended up on the hinge. The hinge is the area where the spine and cover case connect. Given that United Yearbook is very precise, we notified the staff of the error and helped them to move it away from the hinge by 0.25 inches. After printing and applying embossing, the title stands up. If the title were still on the hinge, the embossing effect would be diminished. This is the type of precision that United Yearbook ensures and small details we help our advisers and staff members work through. We want each yearbook to be a product of excellence because we understand that each one is a collectible that will be treasured for many years to come.
Xavier College Preparatory High School 2022-2023
This yearbook is a wonderful example of how an adviser’s care and precision goes a long way for the staff members and the final yearbook. When we received the files for this yearbook, one of our yearbook representatives needed to call yearbook adviser, Chris Botello, and let him know how impressed we were by the yearbook’s professionalism. Chris expressed that he wanted to keep the yearbook very simple without a clutter of pictures. Throughout the school year, he had to educate and train his yearbook staff that less is better. He taught them to pick key photos that were professionally done. Chris is a graphic designer and Adobe expert, so it is no wonder he wanted to hold his staff to such a high standard. Although there were only two treatments done to the yearbook, matte lamination, and Spot UV, the yearbook is exceptional. United Yearbook admired the sleek white cover, but we were concerned that it would get scuffed or dirty. We Investigated and researched, suggesting that they add matte lamination so that the white would be preserved and stay scuff-free. We thought beyond merely the yearbook printing but also into the user experience and how we could help best protect it. The image on the front is a continuation of the image on the title page. Chris wanted the effect to be as if the image was expanding when the yearbook was opened. We had to make sure that it stayed at the same exact location on the cover as it is on the title page. In order for us to achieve that we had to align that image to the exact position of the front cover case, which required precision and tests to make sure it was as close as possible. Not only will we help you transform your ideas into reality, but we will also help you create a product of excellence that lasts for a lifetime. The care we put into the yearbook made all the difference to Chris Botello. He expressed, “At all times, I felt that the people at United knew me, they knew my school, they knew what we are about, and they knew my yearbook. I felt throughout the process that they were as committed as I was to our producing a great book for our kids. We were in it together.”