Well, I would say that vertically centering a thumbnail to the left of a block of text would certainly be easier with flex box. My previous solution would have

Well, I would say that vertically centering a thumbnail to the left of a block of text would certainly be easier with flex box. My previous solution would have been: .container { position: relative; } .thumbnail { position: absolute; margin: auto 0; width: w; height: h; margin: auto 0; top: 0; right: 0; bottom: 0; left: 0; } .summary { padding-left: w; min-height: h; } With flexbox that becomes: .container { display: flex; } .thumbnail { align-self: center; } There are a lot fewer traps and design is a lot more scalable in that you don't have to worry per se about width and height.