mario garcia
Classifieds Classifieds usually appear at the end of the day’s edition, a mass of small type that nobody pays much attention to—except readers. They eagerly await the classifieds to find that precious new job, house, car, new pet, or soul mate. It used to be rare to be asked to even look at the classified section during a redesign. However, these days, no project is complete without making efforts to improve the section.Where does one start?
Make sure that the typography of the section harmonizes with (or is identical to) that of the rest the newspaper. Section headers should match the rest of the paper. It is useless to create a new “section header” for classifieds, when it appears between business and sports. Why create typographic cacophony? There must be a complete and easy to read navigator, an index that describes each content section of the classifieds and where to locate it, either by letter, number, or page number. Icons help make locating each area easier, but are not the only way to achieve this. Sometimes clear use of type—words—does as well. Allow white space between categories. Readers search for information here and there, and do not read an entire page. Select a font for the text of small ads that is very easy to read, since the reader will have to struggle enough to get to the information. 98
pure design
A place for every category: Indexing is the key to a successfully designed classified page. Our work with The Las Vegas Review Journal, our designer, Ed Hashey, evaluated how the section was presented, looking for the best possible font to make the small type legible. The result is a vastly successful section that sells well, and still looks attractive.
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