Remember this post from September?
I've had a number of people coming in to the site following "kindergarten memory book" links. There's big interest in the subject and I hope this project -- as it comes together -- might be of some value to others.
One of the considerations in putting this together is that I want to create a personalized book for my daughter, while at the same time, I need to make something that can easily be duplicated for 27 students in the class. Yes -- that's a big class.
For my oldest daughter's class, we accomplished this with ring binders and clear sleeves, so that each child's pages could be slipped into the pockets. That had been sort of the traditional format in years past and I didn't change it at the time.
We used a different colored spine of folded cardstock for each month, included a pocket for a disk with slideshow with more images, and added the scanned signature of each child.
A few more sample pages:
While I was happy with the results at the time, it was a big undertaking. We printed them from our home printers. The books were big, time-consuming to layout, and expensive to produce. I did it ... I learned ... we'll do it differently this time.
Somewhere between the dog-earred group class photo of my childhood and the enormous binder [documenting their every song] there is a happy medium.
Another consideration was that I am working as part of a team. I don't usually design by committee so it was with some trepidation that I attended our first meeting last week. On the way over in the car I considered my options. Would I use my advertising Account Executive approach to 'pitch' my ideas? In the end I decided to mentally back-up, be completely open, and not even concern myself with whether I be assigned the design responsibilities. I let go. Honestly, It felt good.
The meeting went really well. The women were so nice. We all made specific contributions and decided on a format that will work -- with a focus exclusively for the class group.
This year's books will be 8.5 x 11, horizontal, digitally printed with a spiral binding. (None of us were crazy about the plastic coils and I may look into metal binding options.) After those decisions were finalized, it was then that I decided how to incorporate the customized aspects for my own daughter.
So... where do we stand now?
- Year-end kindergarten celebrations (all requiring photos) are taking place this month.
- We've set a submission deadline (for parents to provide input) of May 15.
- I have a format in mind and a template on my computer ready to go.
- I've ordered 8.5 x 11 cardstock covers and a few little special Heidi swapp clear elements for the books (The class theme is butterflies).
- I've lined up press time with our digital printer who is ready to go with 100#, matte stock, plus spiral binding.
- As for that box of papers piled high? That is the custom part for my daughter, and I plan to share that here as well. Soon, I promise.
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Until next time, I wanted to remind you of the two beautiful projects that I referenced earlier, both of which were created exclusively for individual children: Noel's is here and Lisa McGarvey's, here.
Do you have a fun sample of a school memory book to share? If so, please add a link in the comments. I'd love to see it.
