Behance is an online platform where designers and studios publish their work and viewers mark it. On the platform, such marks are called appreciations—essentially the equivalent of a like. The Madonna animation received 996 appreciations, 6,269 views, and 47 comments. The curated “Motion Graphics” mark appeared on 22.06.2016, almost a year after publication, and secured the work in one of the platform’s thematic galleries.
The video became the bureau’s third branding-focused promotional video. In the Behance description, the work is linked to the Branding & Identity service—that is, to corporate style and identity. The project owners on the platform are listed as Sponge Digital & Design and Sponge Space. The studio itself explained the concept in one phrase, which became the main key to the work:
Let each viewer decide what meaning is hidden behind the images
This approach leaves the viewer the role of interpreter. The images in the animation are not accompanied by explanatory text, so meaning is built from the sequence of frames and sound.
Sound and Images
The soundtrack was written by Alexandro Spotovsky, a composer from St. Petersburg. In a work where meaning is deliberately left open, music serves as a second language: it sets the rhythm for the changing images and defines the mood in which the viewer perceives them.
For the bureau, Madonna was not the first experience in motion. The Alien video, published on Behance on 20.08.2014, received a mark in the Motion Graphics gallery on 02.09.2014, which was run as part of Adobe Motion Graphics Served. So by the time they worked on Madonna, the studio already had practice with animation projects.
Awards in 2015
The animation appeared against a backdrop of a series of marks the bureau received for websites. Between May 24 and August 14, 2015, Sponge received SOTD (site of the day) marks and their equivalents on CSSDA, CSS Nectar, CSS Light, CSS Winner, BestCSS, CSSReel, and Awwwards, where the mark is dated 08.08.2015. Awwwards is one of the well-known international web design competitions, and being included in its list is considered notable recognition. For the American version of the bureau’s site, marks from One Page Love, BestCSS, and CSSDA Special Kudos were added, the latter on 14.08.2015.
Even earlier, on 05.12.2013, the bureau’s site received an Honorable Mention from Awwwards. In 2014, Sponge’s work also appeared at Ukrainian Design, a Ukrainian design competition: there, the Estetico.me site and the logo for “Pershyi Miskyi” were recognized. Madonna received the highest tier, The Very Best of, at Ukrainian Design, and against this backdrop the video became the studio’s most awarded animation.
Recognition of the work was also built on the mechanics of publications. Since 2013, Behance has given the bureau the opportunity to show projects to a wide audience of designers, while curated galleries gave works additional exposure among the professional community. Madonna ended up in both streams simultaneously: in user appreciations and in a curated selection.
Next
On September 21, 2015, Sostav published a roundup titled “Best Projects of the Summer from Behance,” where Madonna was included in the motion design section. Sostav is a Russian advertising and marketing portal, and such a roundup became another external mention of the video, which by then had already appeared on several platforms.
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