The festival evaluates entries by points. The jury assigns a score to each work, and that score determines whether a project makes the shortlist or wins a medal. The studio submitted seven works to KIAF, and for 'Last Supper. New Version' the score was 44. The shortlist began at 60 points, bronze at 63, so the work fell 16 points short of the shortlist and 19 short of bronze. In the end, none of the bureau's entries received awards.
The subject was not chosen by chance. Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper has long been one of the most reinterpreted subjects in European painting, and artists, illustrators and advertisers turn to it again and again. The title 'New Version' denotes a reading, not a copy: the studio presented the familiar composition through its own vision, and that was stated in the entry as the work's main idea.
A dark line and the bureau's reputation
By 2014, Sponge already had a notable reputation in the online sphere. The company was founded in 2009: CSS Winner records the exact date, 22 November 2009, and before that, in 2007, the studio was called Layner. The bureau's founder remains Bogdan Gnatyuk, under whose leadership the studio made its name in web design and illustration.
The first recognitions came from the world of websites. On 5 December 2013, the bureau's website received an Honorable Mention on Awwwards, an international platform where professionals evaluate sites for design, presentation and technical implementation. In the same year, 2013, a project for the Chkalov school received an award from Ukrainian Design, one of Ukraine's main design competitions, and a Best of mark in the 'Web Design' category.
The dark aesthetic was noticed too. On 9 February 2014, the website Splashnology published the collection '30 Dark Web Designs for Inspiration', in which Sponge ranked 23rd out of 30 works. For a studio that in 2014 worked with dense, moody compositions, such a collection confirmed the chosen direction. The illustration on the Last Supper theme fit the same logic: a familiar painting translated into the language of the modern screen and poster.
Summer and autumn 2014
After the festival, the bureau continued working in several directions at once. In 2014, Ukrainian Design recognised the Estetico.me website and the logo for 'Pershyi Miskyi' (First City). The competition is held in Ukraine and honours the work of Ukrainian designers, so for the bureau these recognitions were acknowledgement within the country as well, not only on international platforms.
The illustrative line was not the only one. On 20 August 2014, the studio published the Alien video on Behance, Adobe's platform for creative professionals' portfolios. The work appeared there in the height of the summer season of competitions and collections, when editors and curators actively review new projects.
The last fact in this line was a mention. On 2 September 2014, the Alien video was included in Adobe Motion Graphics Served, which features works in animation and motion design. The festival illustration and the Behance animation showed one studio that, over several months, worked with imagery in three formats: static, interactive and moving.
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