Craigslist is a US-based classified advertisements website. There are various sections, from “Jobs” and “Housing” to “Résumés” and discussion forums. The Craigslist logo perfectly fits the utterly minimalist website, where even Jakob Nielsen wouldn’t have found a single unnecessary element.
The history of Craigslist started in 1995. The founder, Craig Newmark, was inspired by the way people help one another connecting through such platforms as the WELL and MindVox. Also, he was a relative newcomer to San Francisco and was interested in getting to know the city and the people.
So, he started an email distribution list for friends. The majority of the first postings were made by Newmark himself. Most of them were telling about upcoming social events that could be interesting to local software and Internet developers.
The list grew popular, which meant a dramatic increase in the number of subscribers and postings. New categories were added, “jobs” being the first of them. Eventually, in 1996, the mailing list was replaced by a website. Initially, it bore the name of its founder.
From the fall of 1998 to the spring of 1999, the website was named “List Foundation.” Yet, the company had to drop this name due to the fact that other organizations with the same name existed.
Instead of developing an emblem of his own, the founder opted for the sign known as the Peace symbol. The symbol is used as a favicon, while the primary Craigslist logo as seen on the website doesn’t include it.
The Peace sign was designed by Gerald Holtom in 1958 for the British nuclear disarmament movement. There have been several sources of inspiration, including the flag semaphore for the characters “N” and “D” (“nuclear disarmament”) and Goya’s Peasant Before the Firing Squad.
The primary logo features nothing more than the name of the website. The type is Times New Roman.
If you analyze the very shape of the letters, you won’t say it’s a truly minimalist font. Note, for instance, the multiple serifs, the varying widths of the strokes (like in calligraphy), the decorative “drop” at the ends of the “a,” “c,” and “r.”
And yet, Times New Roman is known as a default type in popular word processors, which has made it immensely popular. So, in a way, the Craigslist logo looks more like a word in a default font rather than a real logo.
The color doesn’t help to make the design unique, too. The wordmark is either blue (the default color of internet links) or purple (the default color of visited links).
Both the color and the font of the Craigslist logo work for the same effect – simplicity and maximum usability.