Nice One I Like curates collections of the best websites for designers and developers. Cards appear there not only by editorial choice: the site has a 'Submit your website' form through which authors propose their own work. Therefore, inclusion in the gallery indicates a submission, not an editorial selection. The Sponge card was published at 09:57 on 17 March 2014 and gathered three likes. The description in it was written by the studio itself and reads:
SpongeDigital is a young growing company specified in web developing, advertising and attracting clients
In Russian, this is a formula in which the bureau calls itself a young growing company with a focus on web development, advertising, and client acquisition. It was suitable for publication in the gallery, but in itself was not proof of broad recognition. Recognition came later and through other platforms.
By the time it appeared in the gallery, the bureau already had its first international result. On 5 December 2013, the previous version of the site received an Honorable Mention on Awwwards. This is an international platform where websites are evaluated on design, usability, and technical implementation. An honorable mention there is not the same as a win, but it appears in a feed that colleagues and clients watch closely.
A Year of Work Before the New Version
In 2014, the bureau participated in Ukrainian competitions and grew noticeably in the professional ranking. In October, at the UD competition, the Estetico.me site received a 'Best of' mark in its category, and the logo for 'Pervy Gorodskoy' was noted in the logos category. In the VRK ranking at the intermediate stage of the season, Sponge held 12th place with 4 points, and by the end of the 2014/2015 season it rose to 21st place with the same 4 points.
The press also paid attention to the studio. On 19 August 2014, Innabits published an interview with the bureau's executive director, Kirill Solyar, and on 21 August DesignWebKit analyzed the symmetry of the Sponge site's menu. For a studio that a few months earlier had called itself young, such publications meant a transition from self-presentation to external evaluation.
Awards for the New Version of the Site
The new version began collecting awards in spring 2015. On 24 May, CSS Design Awards marked the site as Website of the Day with a score of 7.80. A series of marks on other platforms followed: on 29 May the site received Site of the Day on CSS Nectar, on 3 June the CSS Light mark, on 13 June Site of the Day on CSS Winner with a score of 7.5. On 20 July the site became Site of the Day on BestCSS, on 27 July it received winner status from CSSReel.
The culmination was the Awwwards mark: on 8 August 2015 the site was recognized as site of the day with a score of 7.03. The CSS Winner platform maintains a named profile of the bureau: it lists 21 nominations, 6 stars, and 9 Site of the Day marks. For a studio that started with an honorable mention, this meant a transition from individual notices to a stable position among authors regularly noted by juries.
From International Feed to Russian Award
Awards were not the only thing. On 22 October 2015 in Moscow, at the 'Zolotoy Sayt' award, the Sponge site took first place in the 'Digital Agency Website' nomination. In the same developer ranking, the bureau received 9 points and entered the 17–19 place range. The founder himself, Bogdan Gnatyuk, is listed as CEO in later profiles: in the profile for 2019–2021, he is indicated with this title.
Ranking results continued to grow. By the end of the 2015/2016 VRK season, the bureau took 8th place among digital agencies with 29 points, while the season had begun with 12th place in the intermediate ranking and 4 points in October 2014.
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