50 Creative and Inspiring Left-Aligned Web Designs
Tweet It’s no secret that all of us here at SpyreStudios like left aligned website designs (I mean, look at SpyreStudios :)). Yes, at one point in time the left aligned websites were all we had, but then people found out about CSS and the centered websites dominated. This post is our attempt to show that left aligning your website is not dead and can definitely be used in creative and useful ways.
Below you’ll find a group of left aligned websites that I feel showcase how cool the left aligning of websites can actually be. Let us know in the comments if you have a left aligned website or if you know of one that isn’t on the list.
Kiwi Bank ↓
Subtraction ↓
This is Aarons Life ↓
Dojo Design Studio ↓
84 Colors ↓
Area 17 ↓
Jason Santa Maria ↓
Jeff Finley ↓
30 elm ↓
Cabedge ↓
Ser-vice ↓
Colourpixel ↓
Duoh ↓
Momono ↓
Jon Malkemus ↓
Ronnie Morales ↓
Thomas Fals ↓
Parabolic Playground ↓
Disconnect ↓
Josh Sender ↓
Jonathan Olsen ↓
The Kabro ↓
Red Velvet Art ↓
Lucky Stars Tattoo Studio ↓
Marie Julien ↓
Red Panda Creative ↓
Rock Beats Paper ↓
Ricardo Turchini ↓
The Amanda Project ↓
Roman Pittner ↓
Duplo Studio ↓
A Brief Message ↓
Oink Fu! ↓
Font Book ↓
Jayphen ↓
Jeremy Charles ↓
Behind the Websites ↓
Jason Schuller ↓
Best Of Video Sites ↓
aeroom ↓
Anjan Shrestha ↓
Squid Ink Restaurant ↓
Photo Comma ↓
eGrace Creative ↓
Andy Thomas Photography ↓
Coke Studio ↓
fntnhrl ↓
Orange Label Design Studio ↓
David Arias ↓
Fellow Creative ↓
Your Turn To Talk
Do you prefer left aligned or centered website designs? And why? Please let us know your thoughts in the comment section below! :P
About the author:
Mike Smith releases wordpress themes on a regular basis and is also a blog designer at Guerrilla.
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August 15th, 2009
And one more: my blog: http://wolnyzawodowiec.pl (Polish)
August 15th, 2009
The selection couldn’t be better, the perfect showcase of left aligned websites :)
It sure is a different approach that far from dead is simply a great alternative if you are creative enough and know what you are doing.
August 15th, 2009
Very nice collection! Thanks very much. ;-)
August 15th, 2009
Great designs, but I’m not sure that left-aligned should return.
August 15th, 2009
hey, some nice designs you showcased here.. only suggestion is full width screen shots would be better so i don’t have to click 50 links to get a better feel for the designs!
August 15th, 2009
Wow, humbled to be included! I do notice that my screenshot is the one broken image link on the page though. Very nice list.
August 15th, 2009
Wow! thanks for the include… great list some amazing talent on here.
~ Aaron I
August 16th, 2009
Ok…so there are some GREAT designs here. However, having a 24″ widescreen monitor running 1920×1200 screen resolution there’s not a single design that I wouldn’t prefer to be centered, in this entire list.
Center-aligned designs cut this whitespace in half and it adds to the appeal. just my .02
August 16th, 2009
Nice selection, but you’ve forgotten your own blog !
I agree with Fernandaland and Cory, except a few website (with large photo background for example), I prefer centered layout.
August 16th, 2009
Wonderful list! These are very inspiring and well designed sites.
August 16th, 2009
Dat was awesome………..
Loved it!!!!!! :)
August 16th, 2009
I’m left aligning over at http://www.marybethcryan.com .
I have a wide screen too. But I definitely prefer the left align. The center align seems all-over-the-place when I try to adjust my window size. Don’t even get me started on liquid layouts. They drive me crazy!
August 16th, 2009
Thanks Jon for including us here with such amazing company. Truly honored!
August 17th, 2009
A lot of these designs are great, but like Cory said above in the comments, with a large monitor and high resolution , left aligned websites are hard on the eyes to move that far to the left of your monitor.
The average monitors are only getting bigger, and with higher resolution, so this is going to become more common as months go by.
I wrote a post about website alignment back in December 08, and a poll of my visitors shows that out of 121 people, 107 preferred center aligned websites. These are mainly designers as well.
However, that being said, your site is probably one of my favortie left aligned sites I’ve seen. Clean, simple but with the perfect touch of design flair.
August 17th, 2009
Wow, I really, really adore the alignments and symmetry. :) Thanks for letting us peak through such wonderful collections.
August 17th, 2009
Nice collection, left align can certainly be easier when position and is still a useful option.
I wonder how much difference it makes – split testing anyone?
August 17th, 2009
Excellent list of sites.
I chose to make my site ( http://www.fridgeworks.com ) left aligned to try to break from the norm and to be a little “retro” in that all sites used to be aligned that way.
August 18th, 2009
Jonathan Olsen’s is my favorite.
August 18th, 2009
this is an exhaustive list! I’ve got to say though, I agree with other posters about larger screens and centering layouts. It’s just an appearance thing. I have a high resolution screen too, and having left-aligned sites just leaves so much white space! (Although sometimes white space is good, not this time )
Text, however, should be left-aligned 99.9% of the time!
August 19th, 2009
Awesome list!
Some real great work there.
Since I’m on a 1440 widescreen I don’t suffer that much from left aligned. But I can however understand why people with wider screens prefer center aligned! =)
Anywho, thanks for putting this together. Great source of inspiration!
August 22nd, 2009
Great collection! Thx.
August 22nd, 2009
I remember when left-alignment seemed to be the only alignment :P These are great examples of how to do left-alignment the right way.
September 1st, 2009
RCC is a lefty =)
http://www.redcanarycreative.com
I could argue the pros and cos of left vs centered….but hey…it all comes down to preference and i love the way my site looks =)
September 10th, 2009
Normally I prefer centre aligned, however sometimes (especially with more minimal designs) the content can look a little lost and it is actually easier to read left aligned as the browser edge provides some sort of border.
Thinking it about my preference for centre aligned can’t be very strong I don’t notice or regard it as a problem that I primarily look left when using dreamweaver or photoshop, nor for that matter when I use google.
October 30th, 2009
Glad some wonderful sites are being recognized for not going centered! http://riptapparel.com we chose to as well :) Great post!
November 3rd, 2009
Wow….These look really great!
Love it!
Keep up the great work! ;)
Ovi Dogar
AbsoluteCovers.com
November 24th, 2009
Found you while looking for left-aligned inspiration for a new project, glad I did!
I think part of the key to making a left-aligned design work is what you do with the whitespace on the right. I think Dojo and Ser-vice are particularly successful in this selection, and my creative juices are definitely starting to flow.
Thanks for the post.
January 12th, 2010
Thank you for this list! I think that both centered and left-aligned layouts work well, and I’m glad to see such a nice collection of the latter.
May 27th, 2010
it all depends on the design like everything else. talk about large displays, try using a centered website on a multi-display setup…fail?
excellent post
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