24 CSS Timeline Layouts 18 / 24

Brutalist Grid

Raw borders, offset shadows, and a rigid year-column grid.

Pure CSS MIT licensed
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The code

<div class="tl18-scene">
  <div class="tl18-grid">
    <div class="tl18-row">
      <div class="tl18-year-cell"><span class="tl18-yr">1995</span></div>
      <div class="tl18-content-cell">
        <div class="tl18-event tl18-highlight">
          <p class="tl18-cat">Foundation</p>
          <h3 class="tl18-ev-title">Company Founded</h3>
          <p class="tl18-ev-body">Three engineers left to build what they believed the industry was missing. Bootstrapped, no external capital.</p>
        </div>
        <div class="tl18-event">
          <p class="tl18-cat">Product</p>
          <h3 class="tl18-ev-title">First Beta Released</h3>
          <p class="tl18-ev-body">200 early access users signed on in the first week. Feedback was brutal. It improved everything.</p>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>

    <div class="tl18-row">
      <div class="tl18-year-cell"><span class="tl18-yr">2002</span></div>
      <div class="tl18-content-cell">
        <div class="tl18-event">
          <p class="tl18-cat">Finance</p>
          <h3 class="tl18-ev-title">Series B Raised</h3>
          <p class="tl18-ev-body">$22M from Sequoia and Index Ventures. Valuation crossed $100M for the first time.</p>
        </div>
        <div class="tl18-event tl18-accent">
          <p class="tl18-cat">Crisis</p>
          <h3 class="tl18-ev-title">CEO Replaced</h3>
          <p class="tl18-ev-body">Board-led transition. Incoming leadership brought an operations background that proved transformative.</p>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>

    <div class="tl18-row">
      <div class="tl18-year-cell"><span class="tl18-yr">2011</span></div>
      <div class="tl18-content-cell">
        <div class="tl18-event">
          <p class="tl18-cat">Milestone</p>
          <h3 class="tl18-ev-title">1M Users</h3>
          <p class="tl18-ev-body">The platform crossed one million active accounts. A full-page ad in the New York Times marked the occasion.</p>
        </div>
        <div class="tl18-event">
          <p class="tl18-cat">Tech</p>
          <h3 class="tl18-ev-title">V4 Architecture</h3>
          <p class="tl18-ev-body">Complete rewrite of the core engine. Moved to a distributed microservices model running on commodity hardware.</p>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>

    <div class="tl18-row tl18-last">
      <div class="tl18-year-cell"><span class="tl18-yr">2026</span></div>
      <div class="tl18-content-cell">
        <div class="tl18-event tl18-highlight">
          <p class="tl18-cat">Now</p>
          <h3 class="tl18-ev-title">Market Leader</h3>
          <p class="tl18-ev-body">42% category share. $340M ARR. Operations in 58 countries. The original engineers are still writing code.</p>
        </div>
        <div class="tl18-event">
          <p class="tl18-cat">Future</p>
          <h3 class="tl18-ev-title">What's Next</h3>
          <p class="tl18-ev-body">Autonomous workflows, embedded AI, and a marketplace launching later this year. The best chapter hasn't been written yet.</p>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>
.tl18-scene {
  --tl18-paper: #f5f0e8;
  --tl18-ink:   #0d0d0d;
  --tl18-red:   #c8423a;
  background: var(--tl18-paper);
  padding: 3rem 1.5rem;
  font-family: 'Inter', system-ui, sans-serif;
}
.tl18-grid {
  max-width: 1000px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 100px 1fr;
  gap: 0;
  border-top: 3px solid var(--tl18-ink);
  border-bottom: 3px solid var(--tl18-ink);
}
.tl18-row {
  display: contents;
}
.tl18-year-cell {
  padding: 1.5rem 1rem 1.5rem 0;
  border-right: 3px solid var(--tl18-ink);
  border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(13,13,13,0.12);
  display: flex;
  align-items: flex-start;
  justify-content: flex-end;
}
.tl18-last .tl18-year-cell { border-bottom: 0; }
.tl18-yr {
  font-family: 'Inter Tight', 'Inter', sans-serif;
  font-weight: 800;
  font-size: 1.8rem;
  letter-spacing: 2px;
  color: var(--tl18-ink);
  writing-mode: vertical-rl;
  text-orientation: mixed;
  transform: rotate(180deg);
  line-height: 1;
}
.tl18-content-cell {
  padding: 1.5rem 0 1.5rem 1.5rem;
  border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(13,13,13,0.12);
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr;
  gap: 1.25rem;
}
.tl18-last .tl18-content-cell { border-bottom: 0; }
/* Brutalist offset shadow is intentionally hard-edged — no blur, just
   a solid ink-colored block peeking out behind the card. Built with
   box-shadow rather than a ::before pseudo because pseudos with
   z-index: -1 get hidden behind the parent's background when the
   parent gets its own stacking context (any transform creates one),
   making the card's text invisible on hover. */
.tl18-event {
  position: relative;
  padding: 1rem;
  border: 1.5px solid var(--tl18-ink);
  background: #fff;
  box-shadow: 4px 4px 0 0 var(--tl18-ink);
  transition: transform 0.2s, box-shadow 0.2s;
}
.tl18-event:hover {
  transform: translate(-2px, -2px);
  box-shadow: 6px 6px 0 0 var(--tl18-ink);
}
.tl18-cat {
  font-family: ui-monospace, monospace;
  font-size: 10px;
  letter-spacing: 1.5px;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  color: rgba(13,13,13,0.45);
  margin: 0 0 0.5rem;
}
.tl18-ev-title {
  font-family: 'Inter Tight', 'Inter', sans-serif;
  font-size: 15px;
  font-weight: 700;
  color: var(--tl18-ink);
  margin: 0 0 0.35rem;
  line-height: 1.2;
}
.tl18-ev-body {
  font-size: 12.5px;
  color: rgba(13,13,13,0.55);
  line-height: 1.55;
  margin: 0;
}
.tl18-highlight { background: var(--tl18-ink); }
.tl18-highlight .tl18-cat       { color: rgba(255,255,255,0.4); }
.tl18-highlight .tl18-ev-title  { color: #fff; }
.tl18-highlight .tl18-ev-body   { color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5); }
.tl18-highlight::before         { background: rgba(255,255,255,0.3); }
.tl18-accent                    { border-color: var(--tl18-red); }
.tl18-accent::before            { background: var(--tl18-red); }
.tl18-accent .tl18-ev-title     { color: var(--tl18-red); }
@media (max-width: 700px) {
  .tl18-grid { grid-template-columns: 60px 1fr; }
  .tl18-yr { font-size: 1.4rem; }
  .tl18-content-cell { grid-template-columns: 1fr; padding-left: 1rem; }
}

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