Daily Design Break is a web design blog that regularly posts selections of websites and works useful as a reference for professionals. Such lists are read by designers, art directors, and studio owners looking for fresh solutions for their own projects, so inclusion in a selection means attention from the professional community, not just page views.
The new selection was called “7 Creative Portfolio Websites.” In it, the editors gathered seven portfolio sites that, in their opinion, stand out. The authors’ introductory phrase reads: “We have selected 7 Creative portfolio websites we think have got someting special”. Translated, this means: “We selected seven creative portfolio websites that we think have something special.”
We have selected 7 Creative portfolio websites we think have got someting special
Sponge Digital and Design came in second, right after Abby Putinski. The selection did not provide detailed analyses of each site, so the placement itself became the main sign of attention to the bureau’s work. The blog’s authors did not accompany it with separate evaluations, and nothing else was added to the selection.
Portfolio as a Studio’s Showcase
For a design studio, a portfolio website serves as a showcase: clients and colleagues judge the bureau’s style, taste, and technical culture by it. In 2014, such sites were often supplemented by profiles on specialized platforms. Sponge used Behance, a service for publishing work owned by Adobe. The studio’s Behance profile was created on August 23, 2013, and that is where the bureau posted its projects.
Attention to the studio’s websites in 2014 also came from other publications. On February 9, the blog Splashnology published a selection titled “30 Dark Web Designs for Inspiration.” Sponge was 23rd out of 30 works in it. The selection shows that the dark aesthetic the studio adhered to in a number of projects interested editors of industry publications even before Daily Design Break.
Awards and Recognitions of 2013–2014
One notable event was a recognition on Awwwards. This is an international website competition in which works are evaluated by professional juries. The bureau’s new website, designed with Masonic symbolism, received an Honorable Mention on December 5, 2013. This recognition became one of the first signs that the studio’s work was noticed outside Ukraine.
In 2014, the studio also performed on the Ukrainian market. In the Ukrainian Design 2014 competition, the Estetico.me website and the logo for “Pershyi Miskyi” were recognized. Both projects show that the bureau worked not only on online showcases but also on corporate identity, that is, on visual systems for clients of various profiles.
The studio was founded by Bohdan Hnatiuk. External sources cite 2009 as the founding date, and the first recorded recognition on CSS Winner, a website rating platform, dates to November 22, 2009. Thus, by 2014 the bureau already had a five-year history, and the Daily Design Break and Splashnology selections were not its first appearances in professional publications.
The studio’s work in 2014 was not limited to websites. On August 20, the Alien video appeared on Behance and was featured in the Adobe Motion Graphics Served section, where editors select outstanding works in motion design. The publication came out two days before the date when Daily Design Break featured the Sponge website in its selection.
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