During the first Legend Yearbook meeting of the school year, Mr. Juran and his three editors-in-chief, Riley Swart (18’), Hannah Peksa (‘18) and Mary Ellen Ritter (‘19), officially unveiled the highly-anticipated theme for the 2017-18 yearbook: Crossing Lines.

Soon after, Swart excitedly shared details about the process to generate the idea, the color scheme and even the name of the rather snappy new design. It all began simply as a final exam project idea for Swart’s imaging seminar class: “I came up with the design and picked the fonts, and only a few of my original colors were switched because they were a little too feminine. I just had no idea for the name of the theme.” She recalled some of the more ridiculous ideas and titles for other themes, such as “Declaration of Independence,” but eventually reached a final verdict on “Crossing the Finish Line,” mainly due to the simplistic use of lines as her element of design.

Over the summer, the trio spent some time refining and combining ideas, and finally generated a vision drastically different from last year’s design. “We didn’t pull colors before…[it was] mostly black and white, and it was also a serif font, sort of like Times New Roman,” Swart explained. “This year, the main font is more of a chaotic brush script; it’s kind of edgy and very trendy right now. The body text is a basic sans-serif font, so it doesn’t have the tails on the tops and bottoms of the letters.” Swart also described the layout as modular and less scattered, creating a sense of order on each two page spread of the publication. Finally, the likely most noticeable aspect within the book, is the element of design and how it will contain colored lines to outline the dominant features on each page. “It’s a contrast of super chaotic font with super clean, simple, seamless lines.”

Although the seemingly minimalistic complexity, attention to detail, and specific font choices may seem over the top, there is most definitely a reason for it. After winning national titles such as the “All-American with Distinction” last year and the “Scholastic Pacemaker” in 2016, this year’s team has quite a lot to live up to. However, the energetic group of editors, photographers, and journalists alike are all determined to keep up with the chaos and endeavors that the upcoming year brings – all while maintaining the fun, lively atmosphere of the innovative imaging lab.