Re: Missed Connections
Matilde Sofia Monti
The Craigslist Missed Connections page serves as a playground where the hopeless can anonymously confess their feelings. Whether you are actively looking for yourself, writing about a lost chance at love, or just scrolling through, the Missed Connections page is undoubtedly a source of entertainment for both the lonely and cuffed. Each post feels personal and almost sacred as the writer’s voice is so clear and decisions such as word choice, formatting, and spelling can make the experience of reading these feel like an overstep into a stranger’s personal life. However, this overstep is also what lends these posts to have a unique charm, pulling readers into daydreaming about moments in stranger’s lives for hours.
Given the current state of the world, our longing for human connection might be higher than usual and we find ourselves with more hesitation when put in social situations. These posts live on a platform that is under designed and stripped down to its most basic form. As a designer, I want to humanize these stories so they are presented in a way that reflects their content. I play with color and illustration to compliment the liveliness these stories possess. Additionally, I want to take these stories and turn them into something that can be physically posted in a community or shared through the web. Creating a series of colorful posters and digital animations, I hope to create something that brings life to these stories and helps strengthen human connection.