Behance, the portfolio platform owned by Adobe, has long been the main showcase for designers and studios. Alongside the regular feed, the site runs themed galleries featuring work selected by its curators. The Motion Graphics gallery is dedicated to animation, video and motion in graphics, and getting into it is harder than simply racking up views. A curator's badge means the platform's editors noticed the work, not just the audience.
For Sponge, there were five such badges between September 2014 and August 2016. This was no random spike: the bureau had declared motion a priority and consistently released work publicly. The spongedigital profile on Behance was created on 23 August 2013, well before the first curator's badge.
Alien and the first steps
The Alien video was published on Behance on 20 August 2014, and the Motion Graphics badge is dated 2 September of the same year. The work was included in the Adobe Motion Graphics Served selection, which for a studio then known primarily for websites was a notable signal. A year earlier, the bureau had already caught the eye of industry publications: on 9 February 2014, Splashnology included Sponge in its "30 Dark Web Designs for Inspiration" roundup at number 23.
In autumn 2014, the studio also began making waves in Ukraine. On 17 October 2014, AIN.UA published a piece titled "What dynamic design can do: the example of creative bureau Sponge," focusing specifically on its approach to motion in interfaces and advertising. In parallel, the bureau's work was recognised at the Ukrainian Design competition: in 2014, for the Estetico.me website and the logo for "Pershyi Miskyi."
Hennessy, Madonna and summer 2015
The badge for Hennessy is dated 29 September 2015, while the work was published on Behance on 12 August of the same year. By the time of the curator's decision, the animation had already garnered 764 likes and 5,650 views, meaning public interest outpaced editorial selection. In summer 2015, the bureau was also active in web competitions: a series of SOTD and similar accolades on CSSDA, CSS Nectar, CSS Light, CSS Winner, BestCSS, CSSReel and Awwwards—the latter's last badge recorded on 8 August 2015—ran alongside its motion projects.
The Madonna work was published on Behance on 30 June 2015, and its gallery badge is dated 22 June 2016, almost a year after publication. This particular work drew a notable response: 996 likes and 6,269 views. In September 2015, Sostav included it in its "Best projects of the summer from Behance" roundup in the motion design section, confirming its popularity before the official curator's badge.
Black Swan, White Tetris and the later stage
The Black Swan animation was published on Behance on 25 July 2016, and the curators' badge was awarded on 3 August 2016. The work collected 380 likes and 2,389 views—fewer than the others—but made it into the gallery in the same season as the White Tetris video. That one was published on 1 August 2016, the badge appeared on 23 August, and the work garnered 588 likes and 5,071 views.
A telling illustration of how the studio described its own scale came in a job posting on dated 6 September 2018, where the bureau described itself as follows:
The phrasing comes from the studio's self-description in a recruitment ad and relies on its own account rather than an independent count.over 60 awards in two years
Another thread ran through rankings. In the 2017 Runet Rating of digital agency creativity, Sponge took fourth place; in 2018 it rose to tenth with 51 awards; and in 2019 it dropped to 37th with the same 51 awards. Bohdan Hnatiuk, the bureau's founder and one of the creators of Looks.fm, is listed as the company's head in the 2019 ranking.
The last Behance curator's badge for the studio's work is dated 15 June 2018 and relates to the OneClickMoney project. The five badges from 2014–2016 remain the main confirmation that the motion direction the studio had been developing since 2014 gained recognition beyond the Ukrainian and Russian-speaking market.
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