Topseafarers solves one of the most practical problems of the maritime profession: finding the next contract. For a seafarer, changing jobs means a new voyage, so clear access to vacancies matters no less than the service's brand mark. Sponge was responsible for the platform's logo and interface, and its purpose is stated simply in the project description: "A platform for seafarer job search" — that is, a job-search platform for seafarers.
The dates in the project description conflict, so it is worth giving the verified version. On the studio's website the service is dated 2016, the logo belongs to 2015, and the Behance post itself appeared on 9 February 2017. That is, the work was created over two years, and it was shown publicly the following year.
Behance and the curators' nod
Behance belongs to Adobe and serves as a portfolio for designers, illustrators and studios. Users publish their work there, and individual projects land in themed galleries run by the platform's curators. The User Interface gallery is devoted to interfaces and showcases work in which design is responsible for user convenience, not just for the picture. The curators' nod on 25 February gave the project 5,150 views and 794 appreciations.
For Odesa the subject is not abstract. The port and the shipping companies form one of the main hubs of employment on the Ukrainian coast, and job-hunting for seafarers long relied on personal connections, agencies and paper forms. A digital service that brings candidates and vacancies together in one place addresses a concrete problem of the city and its people.
A studio that grew out of websites
Sponge was founded in 2009. External sources cite that year, and the CSS Winner service records the exact date: 22 November 2009. The studio's founder, Bohdan Hnatiuk, built an agency that works at the intersection of web design, interfaces and branding. The studio had won the attention of international competitions long before Topseafarers.
Awwwards, one of the best-known international web-design competitions, gave the studio an honorable mention on 5 December 2013. Two months later, on 9 February 2014, the Sponge website made it into Splashnology's "30 Dark Web Designs for Inspiration" selection, where the studio took 23rd place out of 30 works. In the same year, 2014, Sponge entered the 15th KMRF, submitting seven entries. The studio won no awards at the festival, but the very fact of taking part showed that the agency was moving beyond a single market.
In 2015 the team took part in creating the Looks.fm service, which Korrespondent wrote about in its blogs on 13 February and 5 March. Among the service's creators were named Bohdan Hnatiuk, the head and product manager Kyrylo Soliar, and the designer Serhii Semernov. In June 2015 the work for Madonna appeared on Behance, and on 21 September Sostav included it in its "Best projects of the summer from Behance" selection in the motion-design section.
In 2016 the studio continued to win recognition from professional competitions. On 4 February CSS Winner awarded SOTD status to the Furgoneta website, and on 6 March of the same year the same service recognized Carts Guru. On 29 March Behance included the project for Business Logic Group in its "Best of Behance" selection. The Tagline ranking of the same year placed Sponge 67th among design studios, alongside Saatchi & Saatchi.
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