Have you ever wondered what craigslist would be like if advertising folks ran the place?  Probably a little more color, and a whole lot less spelling errors. I’ll take a regular run-of-the-mill craigslist ad and give my best shot at making it have a little more impact. Ads on craigslist are all too boring. Whose to say you can’t have a little fun with them?  Here’s an ad I picked at random off of craigslist for a 2002 Honda Civic SI: So, how can we improve on this ad?  Lets take a look at the basic elements first:

• What it is – ’02 Honda Civic Si. Easy!  You saw that as the subject on the link before you clicked it
• What’s in it – All kinds of options, including a few aftermarket upgrades. Lets make note of the most important and appealing ones..
• How to contact the seller – The seller included his/her phone number, and craigslist supplies a masked email address.
• Pictures – Present, but about 130 by 90px each.. that sucks!

Next.. lets take a look at trimming some of the fluff.  What’s assumed, not necessary, or can be communicated through design? Here are the elements I see being most important:

• Picture – Lets go with something a bit bigger, and a bit more fun.
• Price – Big and easy to find.
• Abridged options/mods list – We’ll cut this down to the 7-8 most important make-or-break items for a buyer to skim through
• Contact information – Along with the phone number, I’m going to include a (fake) name to make the ad more personable.

That gets the point across a little easier, but it looks a little bare, no?  Lets add a dash of design, and supply a catchy little by-line and we just might have a more interesting ad on our hands. (click for fullsize) I also decided to make the copy a little bit more relaxed.  In the original ad the seller sounds a bit defensive, and maybe even like he might be a pain. With the new ad, you see what you’re buying, you see how much it is, and if you’re interested in buying it, the contact info is easy enough to find. Where I feel the design helps out most is bringing some personality out in a car that was otherwise portrayed as a 4-wheeled bucket of bland. In the new ad, the car is a spunky little ride that’s always up for a good time.