The new resource appeared online at kdigital.tv and is intended primarily for a business audience. According to Kozyr, the idea for a unified project arose back in 2012, and it was brought to presentation at the Odesa-Media press center, where holding representatives spoke about the website's objectives. The managing television company headed by Kozyr handles the technical and production support of the holding's channels, so the online showcase was needed not so much by viewers as by partners and advertisers.
A New Face for the Holding
Kozyr expressed the main idea of the presentation briefly and without excessive solemnity:
“the Managing Television Company ‘Kozyr Digital’ has acquired a new unified ‘face’”
For the Odesa media market, such a step was logical. The holding united several television channels with different audiences, from the news channel GNews to the fashion channel Odessa Fashion Channel, and a single website allowed them to be presented as one structure. A separate resource for the business public distinguished the managing company from the general television flow and made it understandable to those who buy airtime or seek contractors.
The executor of the corporate identity is named in several publications as the Kyiv studio Sponge. In the presentation text published by Odesa-Media, the studio is not mentioned, so information about its work relies on the bureau's own portfolio: the promo site “Development of a promo site for KozyrDigital,” the Kozyr Digital corporate identity, the logo for Kozyr Digital, and the logo for the KTK television channel—all works dated 2014. This is enough to speak of a commission, but not of the role the studio played in the presentation itself.
The Studio in 2014
By the end of 2014, Sponge already had a notable reputation. The bureau was founded by Bohdan Hnatiuk, and it was his studio that was gaining recognition beyond Ukraine during this period. In February 2014, the website Splashnology included a Sponge project in its “30 Dark Web Designs for Inspiration” selection, where the bureau's work took 23rd place out of 30. Splashnology specializes in web design selections, so inclusion in such a list meant attention from a professional audience.
That same summer, the bureau participated in the 15th KMRF, submitting seven entries, but received no awards. However, in the annual Ukrainian Design 2014 competition, two projects were noted: the Estetico.me website and the logo for “Pershyi Miskyi.” Ukrainian Design remains one of the main Ukrainian design showcases, and participation in it was recognition for the studio on the domestic market. In October 2014, AIN.UA published the piece “What Dynamic Design Can Do: The Example of Creative Bureau Sponge,” meaning the studio also appeared in business media, not just professional catalogs.
An important part of the bureau's public image was also its work in international online portfolios. On Behance, the platform owned by Adobe that collects designers' projects, the Alien video appeared. It was published on August 20, 2014, and on September 2 of the same year was featured in the Motion Graphics section curated by Adobe.
What Happened Next
In early 2015, attention to the studio shifted to another project. In February and March, Korrespondent published blogs about Looks.fm, a service developed by Bohdan Hnatiuk and his associates. The head and product manager of Looks.fm was Kyrylo Soliar, who later wrote a column for the Goethe-Institut magazine. Looks.fm also caught the eye of Forbes, which included the service among its discoveries of 2015.
At the same time, the studio itself continued to release works under its own name. On May 8, 2015, a case study of the bureau's new website appeared on Behance, and between May 24 and August 14, 2015, Sponge's websites received a series of mentions on CSSDA, CSS Nectar, CSS Light, CSS Winner, BestCSS, CSSReel, and Awwwards, where one work was noted on August 8. Thus, the commission for Kozyr Digital became one of the links in the series of works with which the bureau announced itself in 2014 and 2015.
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