Time-honored High School Keepsake Gets Major Makeover

VICTORIA, Sept. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ - School yearbooks are coveted keepsakes for generations of students. An iconic piece of North American culture, students will spend between $40-80 for average quality books with textbook-like binding unable to withstand wear and tear, and sometimes even still containing black and white pages. Disappointed by the quality and high profit margins of typical yearbooks, a top yearbook expert with 40 years of yearbook printing experience is offering students something better. For eight years, the time-honored high school yearbook has been getting a major makeover and wowing students with innovations never before seen.

FutureBook Yearbooks—based in Washington and British Columbia—made waves in the yearbook industry by offering lusciously thick paper and binding; 200-line full-color printing; choices of ribbons; full color different front and back endsheets—all at no extra cost. Not stopping there, FutureBook introduced the GradBox: a magnetic, burnished leather-like case to encapsulate graduating yearbooks. Now, FutureBook is advancing us into the future by upgrading the traditional high school yearbook to a video-plus-book format. The new MovieBook blends a thin video player into the front or back covers of yearbooks, offering three different channels for schools to upload their own video productions.

"Today's students are raised in a visual society so photographs are not enough anymore," said yearbook advisor Jeanette Germany of Van High in Texas. "We searched for several years for a company that had a video yearbook concept available. All of the publishers that we had worked with in the past were limited as to what they had available for showcasing video work. FutureBook was a perfect fit. When I held the ProofBook in my hand for the first time and turned on the movie player, I couldn't help but tear up. This book will be one of my greatest accomplishments in my over 22-year career as an advisor."

When asked if FutureBook is worried that major competitors will hone in on their innovations, FutureBook Vice President Dana Felske replied, "Our MovieBook is just one of many innovations that is causing schools to leave their traditional yearbook printer and enter into an exciting partnership with FutureBook. This past year, we even embedded a hook into the cover of a yearbook, so it could be hung like a calendar. We say no to very few creative ideas from schools. Other companies attempt to imitate the MovieBook in time, but we are confident that we offer a package that is more complete, more in tune with a school's needs, and we will continue to develop new innovations to keep school yearbooks relevant and coveted."

A traditional yearbook printer with non-traditional quality and policies, FutureBook Yearbooks just might be the yearbook publisher of the future.

For photos and video of the MovieBook, visit http://bit.ly/videoyearbooks.

SOURCE FutureBook Yearbooks