BestCSS and CSS Winner are among the international web design galleries where studios submit their work and editors select the best. The Site of the Day accolade is awarded for a single day: the site appears in the daily selection and receives a separate mark. CSS Winner adds a score to the mark as well, and for the M1 Club Hotel site it was 7.6. Importantly, these are different juries and different pages. On BestCSS the work is listed as "m1clubhotel by Sponge D&D"; on CSS Winner its card is opened separately, and both entries are dated 4 February 2017.
The project itself is designed for guests choosing hotels in Odesa. The online platform combines a business card, a brochure and a news feed with prices and services, replacing the three formats the hotel previously used. The site is responsive across all devices, so it opens equally well on a desktop computer and on a phone. For the hotel business such a combination matters: price and the list of services are usually needed by a guest at the moment they are deciding where to stay, and this is precisely where users most often leave a site if the information is inconvenient.
A year of work in plain view
For the bureau, awards on international galleries have long been routine. Exactly a year earlier, on 4 February 2016, CSS Winner chose the Furgoneta site as Site of the Day, and on 7 February the same project received a CSS Nectar mark. In 2016 the studio's projects were also recognised in the Ukrainian "Zolotoy Sayt" competition: Furgoneta and Trendon took first place in their categories. In the developers' ranking this yielded 10 points and a place in the 13th to 18th range. The studio finished the 2015/2016 season of the VRK ranking in 8th place among digital agencies, with 29 points.
Even earlier, in 2015, the studio's work appeared in broader selections. The bureau's site received Site of the Day on CSS Winner on 13 June with a score of 7.5, and on Awwwards on 8 August of the same year its score was 7.03. Awwwards is considered one of the most renowned international platforms for evaluating web design, and appearing in its daily selection among hundreds of new sites remains a notable result.
2017: a run of awards
In the spring of 2017 the bureau's working rhythm became even denser. BizzGrid received an Honorable Mention on Awwwards on 16 January and Site of the Day on CSS Winner on 17 January, and the M1 Club Hotel site a week later landed in the same two categories: on 4 February. On 14 February CSS Winner nominated the work for the Hijina restaurants, also from Odesa. On 1 May the Arbeko site received Star status on CSS Winner.
Through summer and autumn the run continued. The Pivovarov project received Site of the Day on CSS Winner on 23 August with a score of 7.6, and the next day it was recognised with a special CSSDA award with a score of 7.63. On 25 August the site received Site of the Day on Awwwards along with the Developer Award. The Awwwards scores that day were 7.13 and 7.17. The Style Whisperer site received an Honorable Mention on Awwwards on 13 September, received Star on CSS Winner on 16 September, and on 21 September, together with a special CSSDA award, scored 7.63.
Rankings and the studio's place
Galleries recognise individual works, while rankings show how a studio stands against the market. In the Runet Rating for creativity, the studio took 4th place in 2017 with 23.32 points, dropped to 10th place in 2018 with 12.25 points, and in 2019 became 37th with 4.59 points. The rating itself tracks digital agencies, and its methodology is tied to specific projects and reviews, so sharp fluctuations between years reflect a change in orders no less than a change in the quality of work. The bureau's founder, Bohdan Hnatiuk, is listed as CEO in the rating profile, and in 2020 and 2021 the studio by profile took top places in Odesa: 4th in September 2020 and 2nd in January 2021.
The outcome of 2017 for the studio looks like this: several awards on international galleries, a separate line of work for Odesa business and a constant presence in the rankings. The M1 Club Hotel site was one of the first in this run, and it concluded on 28 September when CSS Winner awarded Star status to the Helicopter View site.
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