Artyom Pivovarov's new website was not just an artist's calling card. It was there that new material was released, and the first of these was 'Kislorod', a video timed to mark three million views of the music video of the same name. The live video series was conceived as a permanent feature, and the website became its home.
The publication attributed the development to a studio it described as an international-level creative bureau. In the Afisha.tochka.net text published on 6 October 2017, it is stated that the website 'was developed by the international-level creative bureau "Sponge D&D"'. The material appeared with a 'press service' tag, meaning it is the version of the artist and his team, not an independent assessment. Therefore, we will next examine which awards are confirmed by platforms and which are taken from the press release.
Awards That Can Be Verified
The most notable mark came from Awwwards, an international web design gallery where sites are selected by a jury and given a daily Site of the Day mark. Pivovarov's work received it on 25 August 2017. In the same month, Awwwards awarded the studio a Developer Award, a prize for technical execution, not just for design.
Another mark was given by CSS Winner, a gallery that selects sites based on the quality of layout and interactivity. Its Site of the Day fell on 23 August, two days earlier than Awwwards. The CSS Design Awards competition, which has a professional jury, awarded the project a Developer Award and Special Kudos, which translates as special mention.
Here the figures themselves diverge, and this should be stated plainly. The press release on which the article is based speaks of five prestigious awards in the week after launch. In the studio's portfolio for this project, there are seven international jury awards, including the Awwwards Site of the Day. The first figure refers to the first days after launch, the second to the overall total, and that is why both are cited in the text.
'was developed by the international-level creative bureau "Sponge D&D"'
Audience and Professional Community
The project appeared on Behance on 9 August 2017. This is Adobe's platform where designers and studios showcase their work, and ratings there reflect the reaction of colleagues, not the general public. By the time the press wrote about the website, it had garnered 1,666 ratings and 9,175 views. The project did not make the editorial Featured selection, but the response from the professional community was notable.
Sponge itself was in the spotlight in 2017 even without this project. On 25 September, Behance included another of the studio's projects, Helicopter View, in its best works. On 28 September, in the Runet ranking, the studio took fourth place in the creativity category for digital agencies. For a market where client work often remains anonymous, such selections serve as a way to show results.
The studio's history goes back further. In February 2014, Splashnology included Sponge's work in its '30 Dark Web Designs for Inspiration' roundup, and in October 2014, AIN.UA dedicated a separate piece to its dynamic design. Sponge founder Bogdan Gnatyuk is also known as one of the creators of Looks.fm, a service that Korrespondent wrote about in 2015. The bureau's works regularly appeared in Site of the Day galleries, and Pivovarov's website became one of the most awarded in its portfolio.
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