The week that brought Artem Pivovarov's site several accolades at once became a notable event for Ukrainian web design in 2017. As Afisha.tochka.net reported, the site
“received 5 prestigious awards within a week of launch, becoming site of the day” on Awwwards
The launch came at the end of summer, and within days international competitions began featuring it in their galleries and selections. This chronology is what makes the story telling: in a single week, the project passed through three different judging systems.
The Week's Chronology
The first accolade was Site of the Day from CSS Winner, dated 23 August 2017. CSS Winner is a web design gallery and competition where the best works receive Site of the Day (SOTD), Star, and Nominee statuses. SOTD status means the jury singled out the site as the best of the day, and it is usually followed by attention from a professional audience.
The next day, 24 August, CSS Design Awards gave the project Special Kudos with a score of 7.63. This is a separate competition accolade awarded to works that receive high marks from the jury but not necessarily the top spot of the day.
On 25 August it was Awwwards' turn, one of the most famous international website competitions. The project received two titles at once: Site of the Day and Developer Award. The first relates to the overall impression of the work; the second recognises technical implementation—how the site is built inside.
The publication mentions five awards but does not name them all. Two are confirmed by dates within the same week: CSS Winner and Awwwards. The other three are not listed in the text, so this article does not break them down.
What Lies Behind the Title “Site of the Day”
Awwwards works with submissions and selects projects based on design, usability, and execution criteria. Making it into Site of the Day makes a site visible to designers, developers, and clients who follow the competition's gallery, so such an accolade often becomes the most weighty item in a portfolio.
For Ukrainian studios, such competitions have long been a way to reach beyond the local market. The Sponge bureau, for example, received an Honorable Mention on Awwwards on 5 December 2013, when it updated its own website. In February 2014, the portal Splashnology included the studio's works in its “30 Dark Web Designs for Inspiration” selection at number 23 out of 30, and in 2016 the bureau's projects were recognised with SOTD statuses on CSS Winner, in particular Carts Guru on 6 March and Trendon store on 10 July.
The bureau's founder, Bohdan Hnatiuk, was simultaneously involved in projects outside the studio. He was one of the creators of the Looks.fm service, which the Ukrainian Korrespondent wrote about in early 2015. This experience explains why the studio quickly learned to work with international galleries: interfaces for mass audiences require the same attention to detail as portfolios for competitions.
The Profile in Numbers
The bureau's profile on CSS Winner gives a sense of how the accolade system works. Over several years it accumulated 21 works: nine received SOTD status, six were marked as Star, and six as Nominee. The most recent at the time of writing, Hijina, received a nomination on 14 February 2017—half a year before Pivovarov's awards.
The comparison shows that success in competitions is rarely a one-off. Site of the Day status can be won once, but a series of several works over the years builds a reputation that clients and industry colleagues notice. Pivovarov's week became another link in such a chain, not an exception.
The bureau's profile on CSS Winner lists 21 works, of which nine are marked as SOTD.
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