Digital-production companies don't just build websites; they handle the entire digital production: interactive projects, online stores, mobile interfaces, and campaign support. Tagline compiles its ranking of such teams separately from the design studio list, and Sponge appeared in it as a newcomer. For the Odesa-based bureau founded in 2009, this was its first time in the top hundred in this category.
In the ranking, Tagline listed the clients the studio had worked with: Hennessy, Simbrella, "Dengi Srazu," "Obolon," Kredo Bank,, "Gaztron-Ukraina," and "Chernomorets." The list reflects the bureau's geographic reach; from the start it focused on Ukraine, though the studio had offices in both Kyiv and Baku. is one of Ukraine's largest online stores, Obolon is a well-known brewing brand, and Kredo Bank is among Ukrainian banks, so the orders spanned several industries, from retail to finance.
The technology stack, as Tagline noted, consisted of OpenCart, WordPress, and Symfony. OpenCart and WordPress are used for online stores and content-managed sites, while Symfony is a PHP framework used to build complex services with custom logic. Such a set means the studio worked with both standard solutions and custom development.
International competitions
Tagline's ranking measures work within the Russian and Ukrainian market, while recognition abroad followed a different track. The main platform for web designers remains Awwwards, an international competition where the jury selects sites of the day, week, and month, and also awards honorable mentions. Alongside are CSS Design Awards, CSS Winner, and BestCSS, which evaluate sites on design, code, and usability. Appearing on their lists is considered a good indicator for a studio, because the competition there is comparable to world level.
In 2017, the bureau received several notable awards. The BizzGrid site received an Awwwards honorable mention on January 16 and became CSS Winner's site of the day on January 17. The M1 Club Hotel site on February 4 simultaneously received CSS Winner site of the day and BestCSS status. In May, the Arbeko site was honored with the CSS Winner Star title, and in September Style Whisperer received an Awwwards honorable mention and CSS Winner Star. The Helicopter View site received CSS Winner Star on September 28, and the project for Odesa restaurants Hijina became a CSS Winner nominee back in February.
The most notable result of the year was the Pyvovarov site. On August 23 it became CSS Winner's site of the day with a score of 7.6, and the next day it received a special CSS Design Awards mark with a score of 7.63. On August 25 the project received Awwwards site of the day and the Developer Award. For the studio, this confirms that design and development work in tandem, not separately.
What came before and after
Tagline's ranking was not the bureau's first recognition in Russia. In 2015, the Sponge site took first place in the "Digital Agency Site" category at the Golden Site 2015 awards, and in 2016 Furgoneta and Trendon took first in their categories at Golden Site 2016. In the Runet Rating for creativity in 2017, the bureau took 4th place with a score of 23.32, that is, higher than in Tagline's ranking.
Within the studio during that period, a stable team had formed. Bohdan Hnatiuk founded the bureau and continued to lead it; the executive director in 2014 was Kyrylo Soliar, and Serhii Semernov, lead designer, later became art director of Sponge D&D. It was this team that was responsible for the projects that entered the competition and ranking lists of 2017.
The following year, the bureau showed a result in the Runet Rating for creativity: 10th place with 12.25 points. That was a different ranking and a different selection, yet it confirmed that the Odesa studio remains among the country's notable digital teams.
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