KYRA BALCH
The Blaze Co-Editor In Chief 25-26
JEA Wisconsin Journalist of the Year 2026
Design
Design is the first thing someone notices when they turn to a page. This is what creates the scene and vibe of the whole spread. In yearbook, we say "if you don't love it, you aren't done." With that being said, whenever I make a spread, I am determined to make it something I am proud of.
Before we began assigning spreads to staff members, I made eight different basic templates for people to follow for traditional spreads. This took me a lot of time as I had to think about many different aspects of making a spread: grids, eyelines, white space, folios and more.
When actually designing a spread, so many tiny details come with the process. Making sure everything is lined up perfectly with the grids/picas, picking the template/style that best suits your dominant photo, making sure photos are facing in, there is no trapped white space, no captions are trapped, secondaries, spacing between everything, dropcaps and more.
My Designs
Make sure to scroll through each gallery!
Traditional/Template
Choosing which template to use is based on the dominant photo, which way its facing and what shape it is. I aim for two secondaries per spread, depending on space and time. This has also been described as a magazine style layout.
Costa Rica - This spread was a bit more of a challenge because none of the templates would fit with my secondary package. I had to figure out my own layout, while keeping with the theme.
I changed this entire layout multiple times. I wouldn't stop until I was truly happy with the outcome. This is how it turned out and I am very happy with it.
Baseball & Softball - This was my favorite spread to design because of a few reasons. It was my first chance to control everything on the spread from the photos, to the secondary, to the story (though I took lots of feedback from the rest of the staff). Baseball is a huge part of my life as a die hard Brewers fan. The experience of learning more about it and being able to share that information in a creative way was amazing.
Costa Rica - This spread was a bit more of a challenge because none of the templates would fit with my secondary package. I had to figure out my own layout, while keeping with the theme.
Non-Traditional
I had a lot of freedom with this spread. I could've chosen to use a template, however, I really thought about the subject at hand. My school is made up of two sides. There is the general studies side, open to the public, and there is the academies side, a lottery style charter. With the loss of a referendum, this was the last year for incoming freshmen in the academy. By taking on the communications academy spread, I wanted to make sure each style of journalism was well represented and spoken for.
I made this from scrap with nothing but a vision. I'm very happy with how it turned out.
I made this from scrap with nothing but a vision. I'm very happy with how it turned out.
Showstoppers
Showstoppers can be a bit more difficult, but a lot more fun. There is so much freedom of creativity when it comes to showstoppers. None of my designs are the same.
Fall Trends - This spread was sort of like a puzzle. I wanted each box to be different but all come together. I love this spread because of how many different topics and people were able to be a part of it.
New Years Resolutions - I layed out and took the picture for the flatlay. It was a bit difficult figuring out where to put everything and making sure it wasn't crowded.
Halloween - This was the first flatlay I ever did. It was very frustrating finding the perfect placement of everything and figuring out the lighting.
Fall Trends - This spread was sort of like a puzzle. I wanted each box to be different but all come together. I love this spread because of how many different topics and people were able to be a part of it.
Theme Pages
Each year, yearbook staff members make a theme proposal for the next year. My theme was picked for the 25'-26' yearbook. To begin my theme, I thought about what makes Indian Trail High School & Academy unique. My mind immediately went to our diversity and chaos as one of the biggest schools in Wisconsin. I wanted to express our chaos in a way that would be able to reach everyone of our nearly 2,000 students. I came up with "Here, But All Over." The "Here" represents us as a school coming together, and the "All Over" represents how each of us are special and each student brings something to make our community the way it is.
The design aspects had to match the overall theme. I decided to go with pastel colors, so the students would be more emphasized and not overpowered by bright colors. I chose to use color boxes everywhere, representing the "organized chaos" that is Indian Trail. Each box, though somewhat random, has a purpose to the spread. I wanted to make the word "over" scrambled to match with is being all over. These aspects all carried through to the rest of the book.
With this design, I decided it was also okay to break a couple rules of design. With the theme being "all over," we decided to break the traditional eyeline of a design, and do mini eye lines instead. This added on to the idea of organized chaos.
I came up with many creative ideas to express this theme, as shown in the pictures below. My favorite is the end sheet, as we began doing partial cutouts with a somewhat transparent color box between the person(s) and the background.
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Style Guide
One Page Personality Profile
Cover