Yearbooks Shows Off New Logo & Website

Posted by: admin In: Press Release, Yearbooks Desktop 01 Oct 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: design, fusion creative, harbour city seo, logo, website, yearbook

This year we are excited to show off the new edition of Yearbooks, which a fresh look with a brand new logo and website.

Visit Fusion Creative’s Website

Our new logo was designed by the very talented Annika Sibert of Fusion Creative in Victoria, BC. (From their website) Fusion Creative is a cross-platform design and marketing agency, helping local businesses and global corporations reach new clientele and earn brand loyalty through multi-faceted strategies in design and communication. You can see a gallery of their previous work here.

We are extremely pleased with the results! Designing a Yearbook that you are going to enjoy for years to come is a FUN process, and our new logo captures those feelings while showing off a young and professional attitude. The ‘Book’ image even has a ‘soft cover’ look to it, which we know is quite a popular style of publishing your Yearbook.

Our previous logo (the famous Schoolhouse) was a derivative of the original logo from the first version of the software in 2000, and was created in 2007 by another local graphic artist, Andy Clequin. Andy also designed our current corporate website (www.nwsp.ca) as well as many other graphic projects with NWSP.

Visit Harbour City SEO’s Website

Sean Enns of Harbour City SEO is the creative mind behind our new website. We have been working with Sean to improve our internet presence throughout the past two years. Sean is a highly skilled marketing strategist out of Nanaimo, BC, and you can read his marketing blog here. According to Sean, “Winning is everything. If you’re ranked #1, then you’ve already won. Everything else is last place”.

What do you think of our new logo and website? Please leave us a comment below.

See Ryan Reynold’s Yearbook Photo – Yearbooks Desktop

Posted by: admin In: Celebrities, Yearbook Photos 27 Sep 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: celebrities, photo, photography, year book, yearbook

Actor Ryan Reynolds is one of Canada’s most well-known young celebrities. Born in Vancouver and beginning his career on TV on programs such as “Hillside”, “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place” he made the transition to movies and has landed a handful of superhero roles including Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity, Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and the Green Lantern. He’s also starred or co-starred in over 25 different Hollywood films including 2013’s “R.I.P.D” with actors Jeff Bridges and Kevin Bacon. Ryan has two older brothers in Vancouver, both of whom are employed as police officers for the RCMP.

Here’s Ryan Reynold’s tenth grade Yearbook photo from the 1992 Kitsilano Secondary School Yearbook.

Ryan Reynolds’ 1992 Yearbook Photo

Check out the rest of our Celebrity Yearbook Photos.

Yearbooks Desktop Help Videos – New Content Coming Soon

Posted by: admin In: Help and Tips, Tech Support, Tutorials, Videos 24 Sep 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: help, import, playlist, PSPA, tutorial, video, year book, yearbook, youtube

If you are brand new to our software and are looking for some instruction on how to get started, or an overview of the major features of the program, you should definitely visit our YouTube channel. We’ve created tutorial videos of how to Import Students from your PSPA File, Generate PDF files, Auto-Flow your Panels, and over a dozen more helpful videos for Yearbooks Desktop.

Each year we review our video archives to share new best practices, highlight new features and promote our software around the net. This year we have decided to create some new videos, and the production will start immediately! Dave and Simon are setting up the recording studio space and will be adding new videos to our channel very soon. We don’t have a voice actor this year, so it’s likely we’ll hear one of their voices on the audio track. This year we are recording the videos with CamStudio and editing them with Sony Vegas Pro and Photoshop (our previous videos were mostly created with CamTasia).

Do you have any suggestions or topics you’d like discussed or demonstrated in a video ? Leave us a comment below. Here is our current Yearbooks Desktop YouTube playlist, which you can also get to by clicking the ‘Videos’ button on the Registration Screen.

See Martha Stewart’s Yearbook Photo – Yearbooks Desktop

Posted by: admin In: Celebrities, Yearbook Photos 23 Sep 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: candids, celebrities, year book, yearbook

In 2013, Martha Stewart is a household name, business magnate, author, television personality, publisher, and an industry unto herself. But back in the mid 50’s when she was known as Martha Kostrya, she was far from your average New Jersey high school student. She was a babysitter for such famous Baseball players as Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, she was a model at age 15, and appeared in many commercials throughout her teenage and college career.

Here’s Martha Stewart’s high school photo, from the 1957 Nutley High School Yearbook in Nutley, New Jersey.

Martha Stewart’s 1957 Yearbook Photo

Check out the rest of our Celebrity Yearbook Photos.

Valentine’s Day Clipart

Posted by: admin In: Help and Tips 14 Feb 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: book, books, clipart, desktop, NWSP, software, valentine, valentine's, year, yearbook, yearbooks

There are lots of great places to get Valentines Day clipart on the web, and you can import these directly into Yearbooks Desktop for use in your school’s yearbook.

All the valentine clip art images are free but make sure you check out the copyright information for each image. Some images are limited to personal use only.

1. Free Valentine Clip Art at Valentine-Clipart.com

There are over 100 free valentine clip art images here.

Just scroll through and click on the image you’d like to download to see more details.

2. Pastiche Family Portal Free Valentine Clip Art

There are some great free valentine clip art images at this website!

Be sure to check out the valentine love stamp clip art as well.

3. Vintage Valentine Clip Art From Vintage Holiday Crafts

You’ll love the free vintage valentine clip art over here.

These are truly some unique images that might be just what you’re looking for.

4. Kids’ Turn Central Valentine Clip Art

Use the links at the bottom of the page to view the valentine teddy bears, hippos, devils, hearts, candy hearts, or valentine moose.

I just love some of the unique valentine clip art they have here!

5. Free Valentine Clip Art From Ace Clipart

Free valentine clip art of bears, hearts, flowers, and more await you at Ace Clipart

These free valentine clip art images will bring some new life to whatever project you are working on this year.

6. Lady Anne’s Free Valentine Clip Art

There are lots of heart clip art over here by Lady Anne.

Right-click on top of one of the images you like to save it to your computer.

7. Free Valentine’s Day Clip Art From School Clip Art

There are only a few valentine clip art images here but they are so cute I had to include them on the list.

Follow the directions at the top of the page to save the valentine clip art to your computer.

All about PSPA

Posted by: admin In: Tutorials 06 Dec 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: 2013, desktop, import, PSPA, support, year book, yearbook

The Professional School Photographers Association (PSPA) has been defining the industry standard for photo CD’s in the yearbook industry for many years. Obviously, our program is built to work based on this standard, so we’re dedicating today’s blog post to all things PSPA.

For a look at the PSPA website, click here.

We have posted all of our PSPA related help documents and tech notes to our support site. Check them out here! This page includes instructions for importing PSPA and non PSPA CD’s into our Yearbooks program as well.

A Shout Out to Bill Nye

Posted by: admin In: Uncategorized 05 Dec 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: 2013, bill, nye, photo, year book, yearbook

Last week, Bill Nye, best known as “the science guy” turned 57! What better way for us to give a shout out to Bill than to post his old yearbook photo in our blog!

Nye began his professional entertainment career as an actor on a local sketch comedy television show in Seattle,Washington Almost Live!; he attempted to correct the show host’s pronunciation of “gigawatt” as “jigowatt.” The host responded, “Who do you think you are—Bill Nye the Science Guy?” and thus his on screen persona was born.

Soon after, Nye hosted an educational television program, Bill Nye the Science Guy, from 1993 to 1998. Each of the 100 episodes aimed to teach a specific topic in science to a preteen audience, yet it garnered a wide adult audience as well.With it’s comedic overtones, the show became very popular as a teaching aid in schools. Nye continues to educate children and adult audiences today.

Thanks Bill! You are one of the greats!

John Wayne’s Senior Year High School Yearbook Was Bought For A Dollar On ‘Pawn Stars’

Posted by: admin In: Press Release 14 Nov 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: candids, john, john wayne, pawn, pawn stars, photography, stars, wayne, year book, yearbook

Following our recent trend of reporting on celebrity yearbook photos, we came across a story about a man who made a real find at an estate sale.

Man Bought John Wayne’s Senior Year High School Yearbook For One Dollar

A lucky man who picked up John Wayne’s high school yearbook for only a dollar brought it into the “Pawn Stars” to see what they thought of the rare item.

Wayne’s name was Marion Morrison back then, and the guys at the shop quickly discovered that he was all over that yearbook. The yearbook was from Morrison’s senior year, and he played football, was class president and was very active in the arts. And each photo of him throughout the yearbook made it a better and better find.

The shop was thrilled with the yearbook and made a deal with the customer to buy it for $800. Considering he’d spent $1, that turned out to be a great purchase for him. And he got to see a fun piece of a movie legend’s history.

Bob Dylan’s signed yearbook is for sale

Posted by: admin In: Press Release 07 Nov 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: bob, desktop, dylan, photography, student, students, year book, yearbook

Christie’s is hosting an exciting entertainment memorabilia auction this month, including rare items such as a smashed bass guitar from Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ music video, Indiana Jones’ whip, Mick Jagger’s performance outfit, and Bob Dylan’s signed yearbook with some advice to a fellow musician.

Dylan’s 1958 yearbook features a photo of then 17-year-old Robert Zimmerman, with a handwritten message to a friend reading, “Dear Jerry. Well the year’s almost over now huh. Remember the ‘sessions’ down at Collier. Keep practicing the guitar and maybe someday you’ll be great. A friend, Bob Zimmerman.”

The yearbook is expected to go for up to £6,000.(approx. $10,000US).

Nirvana’s Zen-On bass guitar was purchased by Krist Novoselic at a pawn shop for a nominal fee, knowing that it would be smashed to bits in the music video. Some of the guitar pieces were saved by an extra on set, and are now expected to fetch upwards of £25,000 (approx. $40,000US).

Mick Jagger’s flashy sleeveless white velour jumpsuit with silver metal details, designed by Ossie Clark, was worn by the singer at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on his 29^th birthday, and is expected to sell for between £8,000 and £12,000 (approx. $13,000-$19,000US).

Keeping up with the times – QR Codes in Yearbooks!

Posted by: admin In: Help and Tips 02 Nov 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: 2013, candids, desktop, import, page editor, photography, QR, QR Code, video, year book, yearbook

Our team was inspired this morning, after reading a story about a Texas high school bringing their yearbooks a leap forward using modern technology.

The changes sparked by new Apple mobile devices on campuses can already be seen in a long-cherished print product, the McAllen High School Yearbook. The first page of the 2012 edition sports a QR code — a kind of barcode that can be scanned with a cellphone, often to pick up website URLs.

Each QR code in the yearbook takes readers to a video of a different club or sports team, all shot with iPads distributed last year.

Check out the full story here!

So, interested in using this innovative idea for your own yearbook? We thought so, so we put together a short tech note outlining the whole process, from shooting the video to adding the QR code to your yearbook.