CSS Winner is among the well-known web design galleries. Sites there are evaluated on design, functionality, usability, and content, and the total score determines the work's place in the overall list. A nomination means making it into the circle of contenders, not winning. The site earns the right to be evaluated, but the status of best is assigned separately. The card for the bureau's American promo site describes it as follows:
Promo site of creative bureau Sponge & Digital Design for US users
The final score of 7.6 was made up of four indicators. Design and functionality each scored 7.6, usability and content each 7.5. The difference in tenths seems insignificant, but in a gallery where hundreds of works are published every day, it is precisely such fractions that determine how noticeable a site will be.
Marks in Two Weeks
Publication in One Page Love meant the site had made it into a gallery of one-page projects, which showcase works built on a single screen with scrolling. A week later, on August 10, the site was marked by BestCSS, which named it Site of the Day. On August 14, the promo site received a Special Kudos mention at the CSS Design Awards, an international web design competition. The score there was 7.57. The site also made it into the CSS Light catalog, and on October 14 it was marked by AndySowards.
These marks continued a series that had begun for the bureau's site in the spring. On May 24, CSS Design Awards named it Website of the Day with a score of 7.80. Then came Site of the Day at CSS Nectar on May 29 and a CSS Light mark on June 3. On June 13, CSS Winner awarded the site Site of the Day status with a score of 7.5. On July 20 it was selected by BestCSS, on July 27 the site received a winner's title at CSSReel, and on August 8 Awwwards named it Site of the Day with a score of 7.03.
The Studio Behind the Promo Site
Behind these awards is a team founded by Bohdan Hnatiuk. The bureau had made a name for itself long before the American project. On December 5, 2013, Awwwards gave the previous version of the bureau's site an Honorable Mention. In 2015, in the UD competition, the Sponge D&D site received Best of B-1. The promo site for the American market was another step in this line: it was a site intended for a foreign audience, and it was evaluated by the same criteria as any other work.
The CSS Winner nomination matters in this story because it shows how international galleries are structured. Users see rankings, dates, and captions there, but for a studio it is a way to gain attention for its work beyond its home market. A site that appears in several galleries in a single week receives feedback from different juries at once, and the overall picture is built from a set of such marks.
Autumn and the Golden Site
In the autumn of 2015, the bureau's noted works continued to come to the attention of the professional community. On October 14, AndySowards included the site in its selection, and at the end of the month the bureau received recognition at an award. On October 22, 2015, at the Golden Site 2015 awards, the Sponge site took first place in the Digital Agency Website category.
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