Jostens Yearbook Contests
Our yearbook and design contests are a great way to help yearbook staff members develop their skills and grow confidence in their talents. Aside from great prizes, the winning designs and photos are also featured in Jostens Adviser & Staff magazine and our acclaimed Gotcha Covered Look Book, which serves as a mode of inspiration for yearbook staffs across the country.
Contest Judges
Our contest judges include former and current yearbook advisers, industry instructors and professionals, as well as Jostens Yearbook experts.
More than 6,000 entries were received and 114 photographs were selected as award winners. Thousands of unique and talented student photographers from across the country submitted amazing photography.
Judges for this year's Photo Contest were:
Sam Effinger, yearbook adviser and photography instructor, Casady School, Oklahoma City, OK, and contributing editor of the Jostens Get the Picture photojournalism curriculum.
Steve Herder,, an accomplished professional photographer and operates Herder Photography in Minneapolis.
Dale Schwalm, yearbook adviser and photography instructor, Daniel J. Gross Catholic High School, Omaha, NE, and contributing editor of the Jostens Get the Picture photojournalism curriculum.
Jostens United States Photo Contest Call for Entries 2013 (PDF)
It's time to start preparing your entries for the Yearbook Design contest. Don't miss out on your change to be recognized by submitting your best yearbook layout created using Adobe® InDesign. Grand prize winner has their choice of a Macintosh or Dell laptop and the current version of Adobe Creative Suite. And it doesn't matter what yearbook company you work with — all students age 13 and older are eligible.
The winning entry should display an awareness of accepted design standards while effectively presenting visual and verbal content in a creative, reader-friendly way. The winning designs will be featured in the fall issue of Jostens Adviser & Staff magazine and the 2013 Gotcha Covered Look Book.
The entries will be judged according to the following criteria:
- The design is reader-friendly, shows an awareness of accepted yearbook design standards and effectively presents visual and verbal content to the reader.
- The design employs a creative and contemporary graphic style that is appropriate for the content and appealing to a school audience.
- The design is an original creation and does not include content that is plagiarized or violates copyright law.
The contest runs through April 26, 2013 so don't miss out. 2013 entry form
Judges carefully studied the approximately 2,500 entries in the 2010 YearTech® Online Yearbook Design Contest before recognizing 19 middle school and high school students for their creativity.
With an increasing number of staffs creating yearbook pages using Jostens YearTech® Online, a contest was launched to recognize outstanding spreads created online. In its second year, 2,500 entries were submitted, a significant increase from the 1,600 entries submitted in the contest's inaugural year.
The winning entries displayed an awareness of accepted design standards while effectively presenting visual and verbal content in a creative, reader-friendly way.
The winning designs will be featured in the fall issue of Jostens Adviser & Staff magazine and the 2011 Gotcha Covered Look Book.
Contest judges
The contest was judged by a team of three current high school yearbook advisers who students use Jostens YearTech Online to create their yearbooks:
- Christine Brandell, Highland High School, Gilbert, AZ
- John Dent, Dos Pueblos High School, Goleta, CA
- KaTrina Wentzel, Mounds Park Academy, St. Paul, MN
Congratulations to the winning entries in our 2012 Photo Contest!
