DAVIDSON, N.C. – Woodlawn School’s yearbook, the Mighty Oak, has been recognized for excellence and featured in the 2015 Jostens Look Book, celebrating the best-of-the-best in yearbook design and coverage. The Jostens Look Book is a collection of spreads and photos from outstanding yearbooks and their creative themes, cool covers, dazzling designs, relevant coverage, storytelling copy and action-packed photography. Along with design excellence, the annually published Look Book honors the important role well-crafted yearbooks play in helping schools chronicle the experiences, stories and achievements most relevant to students and that academic year. The Mighty Oak is currently in its 13th year of publication and has been nationally recognized eight times for its creative spread and/or cover designs.
This award-winning issue of the Mighty Oak was led by co-editors Sydney Bowman ’14 and Maisie Wills ’14, under the direction of Karen Bowman, Woodlawn yearbook adviser. Sydney Bowman now is a first-year student at Occidental College, and Wills is a first-year student at the Rhode Island School of Design.
“The Mighty Oak was a great creative outlet and helped me decide what I wanted to do in college,” says Wills. “Now I'm studying graphic design at Rhode Island School of Design, using skills I learned from my work on the yearbook. Sydney and I made a great team.”
“Working on the Mighty Oak was an invaluable experience that allowed me to not only work within tight deadlines and further develop a sense of responsibility, but also express myself creatively through writing stories and designing pages,” says Bowman. “I'm also glad that we were able to continue the strong legacy of our student publications program!"
"This was Sydney and Maisie's second year as editors and so they had a very good understanding of the year-long process,” says Karen Bowman. “The two were also a strong combination of diverse talents — Maisie was critical in the design phase of the book, being instrumental in developing the cover and theme concept while Sydney managed the content, schedule, and the editing process."
The Mighty Oak was one of only 476 yearbooks selected from approximately 3,000. The 2015 panel of judges, comprised of nationally recognized scholastic journalism professionals and award-winning yearbook advisers, selected the best examples of yearbook spreads and covers to make up the 344-page 2015 Look Book.
“Yearbooks are unique, limited edition books created by students to capture the stories and events for all of the school’s students and Jostens is proud to celebrate the yearbook tradition and the 476 yearbooks selected for the 2015 Jostens Look Book, said Gary Lundgren, editor. “Today’s yearbooks are very sophisticated in terms of visual presentation and the relevant and inclusive content that is featured.”
Woodlawn School received a copy of the 2015 Jostens Look Book and certificate from Jostens to recognize the yearbook team’s outstanding achievement.
PHOTO: (from left): Sydney Bowman and Maisie Wills, now first-year students at Occidental College and the Rhode Island School of Design, respectively.
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Woodlawn is an independent school founded in 2002 and located just north of Davidson, North Carolina. Enrolling students in grades K through 12, Woodlawn is accredited by both the Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and offers a challenging, project-based academic experience.
Minneapolis-based Jostens is a provider of products, programs and services that help people tell their stories, celebrate important traditions and recognize achievements. The company’s products include school yearbooks and other memory book products, scholastic products such as class rings and graduation products, and products for athletic champions and their fans. Jostens is a subsidiary of Visant Corporation, a marketing and publishing services enterprise servicing the school affinity, direct marketing, fragrance and cosmetics sampling and educational and trade publishing segments.
