The commitment for providing quality yearbooks
began when Cooke Publishing Company was the first yearbook firm to staff
and maintain a professional art and design department. Experienced and trained
artists were available for the first time to help editors and staffs prepare
covers, develop themes and to design dividers and special pages. Our artists
are still engaged in this service. They bring a professional touch to a
customer’s ideas and often provide a special way to depict hard-to-visualize
concepts. Together with the representatives, our design personnel add a
personal touch to every yearbook.
Cooke Publishing Company has been producing award-winning
yearbooks for more than fifty years, but our experience and expertise go
back to our founders’ roots in the industry some 75 years ago. Our
size and proximity to our customers allow us to learn about their individual
needs and to work directly with each school’s yearbook staff and adviser,
personally. Our trained representatives and graphic artists work personally
with advisers, editors and staff in all phases of planning, layout, design,
and publication. We take the time to provide training and help you properly
plan and design the yearbook that you want at a price you can afford. With
Cooke, there are no 1-800 hotlines or mail-in deadlines; we do everything
personally to make your job easier and your yearbook better.
Layout and Design: From its
inception, Cooke has been a leader in providing layout consultation and
guidance. The training, skills, and experience of our graphic artists and
representatives enable us to convert your ideas into creative individualized
layout and design options. With Cooke, there are no stock layouts, designs,
covers, or themes. We work closely, in a joint effort, with each yearbook
staff to develop a unique book that reflects the singularity of each school,
each school year and each staff’s vision.
Training: Our representatives
go to all of our schools to work directly with student staffs and advisers
to brainstorm for theme ideas, develop a pagination plan, and provide a
comprehensive training program that covers layout design, writing yearbook
copy, using publishing software applications, cropping, photography, staff
organization and action planning. We are right there with you from concept
to completion.
Technology: Our history is one
thing that makes Cooke special. Founded in 1952 and preceded by Mr. Cooke’s
position in the industry since 1928, we stand with those first few companies
destined to change the face of yearbook publication. We are among the first
to combine letterpress and offset printing; to convert to computerized typography;
to provide artistic assistance on theme planning and layout design; and
to provide yearbook people to represent yearbook people. More than 95% of
Cooke’s customers use some aspect of desktop publishing to prepare
manuscripts or pages. As technology continues to grow, so will our efforts
to make the process efficient and productive, both for our customers and
our personnel.
Accuracy: A yearbook is a living
history book. Complete and thorough proofing is the key to accuracy. You
personally sign off on the accuracy of all type and illustration before
your book goes to print. A Cooke representative personally picks up all
deadlines and reviews your deadline material right there with you and your
staff to proof for initial errors and problems in layout and copy. This
personal service helps prevent senseless and costly errors in advance of
printing.
Craftsmanship: Printing and
binding excellence is a given with Cooke Publishing Company. We pride ourselves
in the excellence of your finished book. We understand that a record of
history should be made to stand the test of time. That is why we focus on
quality both inside and outside of your yearbook.
Cover Design and Manufacture:
We offer a comprehensive array of cover types: Lithograph, silk-screened,
stamped, embossed, metallay dies, color laminate, and others. Our experienced
art staff custom-designs personalized covers based on your theme or other
ideas. All designs are pre-approved by the staff and adviser before manufacture.
At Cooke we understand that technological advances
are meaningless without employees who understand procedures and features
that can make them work to the benefit of our customers. Our representatives
are experts in the industry. Cooke representatives handle your training,
questions, and problems personally.
Today our equipment is state of the art, and
we will continue to change as technology changes. Equipment and procedures
will be the obvious indicators of our technological changes, but service
and integrity will remain the cornerstone of who we are and what we do.
