Ukrainian Design is considered one of Ukraine's main design competitions, and Best of there means the highest mark for a work in its category. In 2015, that mark went to the Geeks Empire TV intro, listed in the competition catalog as “Geeks Empire tv intro.” The entrant was Sponge D&D, part of the Sponge studio founded by Bohdan Hnatiuk.
For Sponge, Geeks Empire was no random project. The studio calls the portal's community “friendly,” which explains why the bureau made not only the site itself but also the logo, which it gifted. Executive director Kyrylo Soliar spoke about this in a 2014 interview with Innabits. The portal's site is also a 2014 studio work, and the intro became a continuation of that story. The video is published on Vimeo and YouTube, and in the bureau's portfolio it is classified under entertainment projects and video production.
The intro was part of the motion direction the studio was actively developing in 2014–2015. The Geeks Empire logo, by the way, was also submitted to the KMRF 2015 but won no awards there. The difference between festivals and competitions is clear: a logo is judged as a mark, an intro as a moving image, and each jury has its own criteria.
The site that was noticed earlier
The Geeks Empire portal came to the attention of international platforms even before Ukrainian Design. Its site was noted by the CSS Light gallery, and in June 2015 the work received a nomination from CSS Winner. That is the name of the CSS Design Awards, where sites are judged on design, layout and idea, and nominees are selected for the next stage.
In fact, 2015 was a fruitful year for the studio in terms of international marks. The bureau's own site appeared in several roundups over spring and summer: in May it was named site of the day by CSS Design Awards and CSS Nectar, in June it was noted by the CSS Light gallery, on 13 June it became site of the day on CSS Winner with a score of 7.5, and on 8 August it entered site of the day on Awwwards with a score of 7.03. Awwwards, like BestCSS, is an international catalog of sites where works are voted on by experts and receive points.
The Geeks Empire TV intro stood alongside other works by the bureau. At the same Ukrainian Design 2015, the studio received Best of for the Sponge D&D site and the KTK logo, and the project “Madonna. The Very Best of” was also among the recognized works. In 2014, the competition had already recognized Sponge: the Estetico.me site received Best of, and the logo for “Pershyi Miskyi” was noted in the C-I-5 category. That was when, according to the Creativity Ukraine ranking, the studio found itself in 12th place in the interim table with 4 points.
Season results
Ranking tables in the Ukrainian industry also took the bureau's work into account. At the end of the 2014/2015 season, in the VRK ranking, the studio took 21st place and scored 4 points. That was more modest than the projects that rose in galleries and competitions, but it showed that the studio was moving beyond the local market.
The Geeks Empire intro should be considered in conjunction with these wins. It was chosen for its animation and presentation, not for external effect, and together with the portal's site it became one of the few examples where work for a community received recognition from a professional jury.
On 22 October 2015, at the “Golden Site 2015” ceremony, the Sponge site took first place in the “Digital Agency Site” nomination. Second in financial media was Foundator, third in educational and blog projects was the Estetico site. In the developers' ranking, where the studio scored 9 points, it ended up in 17th–19th place.
1
