The fact sheet at the end of the interview runs to a few lines, but they show how the bureau wanted to be perceived. The studio called itself a full-cycle company that has been operating on the market since 2009. Then comes the main part: over a hundred clients from around the world and more than six hundred projects.
On the market since 2009, over 100 clients worldwide, more than 600 projects.
The founding year matches the entry in the studio's profile on CSS Winner, where the date 22.11.2009 appears as the start of operations. Cyclopedia, however, gives the studio's former name as Layner and dates the rename to Sponge to 2007. Most external sources, including the description on IGate, still consider 2009 the starting point, so that is the year used in the text.
What Is Confirmed Here
The figures in the fact sheet are the company's self-description. Dark Site of Marketing did not calculate or verify them, but reported them as the bureau provided them. The same interview was given by a studio representative, and it was in that interview that the bureau stated that it is mentioned by leading media in the CIS and abroad, and that its work regularly reaches the finals of professional competitions.
External marks do exist. In December 2013, the bureau's work received an Honorable Mention on Awwwards, and on February 9, 2014, Splashnology included Sponge in its '30 Dark Web Designs for Inspiration' selection at number 23. There was also a competition where the result was more modest: at the 15th Kyiv International Advertising Festival on May 30, 2014, the studio submitted seven entries and received no awards, although there are points in the protocol. It is important to assign this story to 2014, not 2015, as is sometimes done in retellings of the interview.
The spongedigital profile on Behance was created on August 23, 2013. That is where works appeared that the studio presented as the best in their genre. In 2014, the Alien video was released on Behance, noted in the Motion Graphics section. On June 30, 2015, the bureau posted an animation for Madonna, and on September 21 of the same year, Sostav included it in its 'Best Projects of the Summer from Behance' selection. On March 29, 2016, a work for Business Logic Group was among the best according to Behance.
Portfolio and Recount
The claim of more than six hundred projects is hard to verify through external catalogs because most orders have no public card. However, the works can be counted in the studio's own portfolio. When duplicates were merged on the old version of the bureau's website, the result was 638 items, which is close to the stated figure. The coincidence does not prove completeness, but it shows that the formula was not invented from scratch but relies on its own catalog.
The bureau's history itself is also linked to notable projects. In 2014, the studio worked on the Estetico.me website and the logo for 'Pervy Gorodskoy' (First City), which were included in the Ukrainian Design 2014 program. The bureau's founder, Bohdan Hnatiuk, was one of the creators of Looks.fm, a service that Korrespondent wrote about in February and March 2015. Project and product management at the time belonged to Kyrylo Soliar, who later, in early 2016, was listed in IGate selections as executive director of Sponge D&D.
The latest public marks that can be tied to this story date to the spring and summer of 2016. On February 4, Furgoneta received CSS Light and SOTD on CSS Winner, on March 6 the Carts Guru website received SOTD, and on July 10, 2016, CSS Winner awarded SOTD to the Trendon store website.
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