some hoot euphorically

Design by Michael Tank and Dustin O'Hara

When I suggested to Dustin that we think "outside the box" on the 2007 Yearbook, he immediately responded by asking: why don't we put it in a box? Immediately, this opened up possibilities for a fluid and unbound document - a do-it-yourself yearbook with an international flair, much like IKEA furniture.

The title, Some Hoot Euphorically, is a perfect anagram for "The Co-op Is Our Home, Y'all." The anagram reflects our intent on empowering our fellow co-opers to enact change in the institution, and is conscious of the acts of placemaking that co-opers engage in. We provided all the materials for each individual to personalize their yearbook into "something worth lugging with you for the rest of your days," opening the door for a multitude of interpretations of time and place at the Co-op, and celebrating "the amazing absurdity of existence through the cutting and pasting of paper." In this way, Some Hoot Euphorically had an activist intent, highlighting the methods by which individual actions help create the co-operative experience, and freeing the yearbook from its conventional jock-and-cheerleader fantasy world.

The yearbook included cardboard packaging, instructions for assembly in a dozen languages, loosely bound portraits, a small color-by-number booklet to cut and paste photos into, and a zine - How to Give the Co-op Your Sweet Sweet Lovin' - directly highlighting ways to improve the co-op life.