Sponge Digital & Design was founded by Bohdan Hnatiuk. In the summer of 2015, its new website drew the attention of several international web design galleries, the first of which was CSS Design Awards. The platform rates works by jury scores, and in the description of its award the site is called an interactive presentation of the bureau with 369 portfolio works.
On May 24 the site received the status of Website of the Day with a final jury score of 7.80. Five days later, on May 29, CSS Nectar marked it with Site of the Day. On June 3 CSS Light selected the work as Featured of the Day with the caption “by Sponge D&D from Ukraine.” Site of the Day and Featured of the Day from different platforms are not equivalent, so in the list of awards they occupy different tiers.
On June 13 CSS Winner awarded Site of the Day with a score of 7.5. On June 22 FlatUI included the site in its Flat Design Inspiration gallery, dedicated to flat design. On July 20 BestCSS marked the work as Site of the Day, and on July 27 CSSReel named the site Winner. The final point of the series was Awwwards, which on August 8 awarded Site of the Day. This platform belongs to the leading web design galleries, and on it the bureau's previous website had already received an Honorable Mention on December 5, 2013.
The American Version
In parallel with the main site, an American version was released—a promotional page for users from the USA. On August 3 it was published by One Page Love, a gallery of one-page sites, and on the same day CSS Winner awarded it the status of Nominee. On August 10 BestCSS marked this version as Site of the Day. On August 14 CSS Design Awards gave it Special Kudos with a score of 7.57. In the CSS Design Awards catalog, Special Kudos belongs to a separate category of jury recognition, not to the platform's main rating.
Alongside the American version, a campaign for the main site was also underway. The case study of the new site appeared on Behance on May 8, half a month before the first award, and it was the first major public showing of the work outside the studio.
What the Bureau Said
In July 2015, amid the string of accolades, the bureau spoke plainly:
“We have already received 5 Sites of the Day and continue to participate”
The phrase was uttered in an interview with the bureau Dark Site of Marketing on July 23, 2015. It accurately conveyed the pace, because by that time the site had already collected several Site of the Day awards in a row, and other platforms and the second, American version were still ahead.
What Happened Next
The studio's works continued to appear on Behance after the summer as well. On June 30, 2015, the Madonna project was published on the platform, and on September 21, 2015, Sostav magazine included it in its selection “The Best Projects of the Summer from Behance” in the motion design section.
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