Talon staff members distributed the 2014 to 2015 yearbook, “But Wait…there’s more,” yesterday afternoon and this morning during first period, towing the yearbooks to advisors’ classrooms from Nichols to Shah Hall in time for advisory this morning.

This year, the books were delivered earlier in a bid to expedite the process; in previous years, Talon staff members distributed the yearbook to advisories during the approximately twenty-minute time slot allocated for advisory.

Talon copy editor Kathy Duan commented on seeing the staff’s visions come to fruition. Kathy will serve as Student Life Editor for the 2015-2016 school year.

“This year the editors really revamped the process of creating the yearbook,” Kathy said. “[The] design was really different, and it felt like everyone understood what they were responsible for; it turned out great.”

When the yearbooks first materialized on campus, the period four yearbook class then in session waited until the entire staff had the chance to gather in the journalism room before unboxing the books.

“When the books arrived during fourth period everyone was so excited; I feel like it’s something you wouldn’t completely understand if you weren’t in journalism,” Kathy said. “We hugged each other and there was so much pride, satisfaction and screaming. Later, the entire yearbook staff gathered together to open the books at the same time. It was such a “team bonding moment.”

Editor-in-chief Jacqui Villarreal (12) recounted the moment she first laid eyes on “But Wait…there’s more,” after months spent photographing, writing and editing.

“I was so amazed at what was before my eyes,” Jacqui said. “Receiving the yearbook [is] always exciting, but the feeling I had this year as we unboxed the books was nothing compared to what I have felt in years past. I may have felt a bigger sense of ownership because of the position that I held this year, or maybe the fact that we changed so much about the design of the book made it more exciting.”

Jacqui commented on the breadth of the yearbook program’s changes in the past two years and how the changes have been reflected in this year’s book.

“This year we changed the design of the book from traditional, [or] only on level of spacing, to modular, [or] three levels of spacing, which has enabled us to cover more stories and more people,” Jacqui said. “The cover is honestly my favorite part, which is funny because it completely goes against the theme of But Wait There’s More. It was the biggest gamble that we made this year; we didn’t truly know what it would look like until we unboxed it.”

In accordance with tradition, the upper school’s seniors received their copies of the yearbook during their four-day stay in Laguna Beach for the annual senior class trip.

The staff of Talon has been using Aurasma, an HP-owned augmented reality platform, to share supplemental digital content with students. Aurasma superimposes 3D charts and graphs, animations, clips and even web pages onto real-world images, and uses image recognition technology to identify the hidden content.

“I liked the personalized cover; the overall quality of [this] year was splendid,” Rahul Shukla (10) said. “My entire advisory loved the addition of the ios application [Aurasma].”

By downloading the Aurasma app from the app store and pointing the app’s viewfinder at a photograph from the yearbook, or any real-world image, users are able to view Talon’s augmented reality experiences.

Talon’s editors and reporters have spent the past week handling the distribution’s logistics, opening boxes, making corrections, sorting the yearbooks by class and advisory and delivering the books, among other tasks.

The publication of the yearbook is long-observed, time-honored tradition at the Upper School, tracing its roots to the founding of the Upper school in 1998.

Come next fall, students will receive “Spring Supplement,” which is the second installment of Talon’s yearbook. Talon will mail copies of the book to the Class of 2015 alumni. Referred to as “Spring Sup” by students, the book will include spring sports and events such as senior showcase, senior trip, prom, baccalaureate and graduation.