Behance is a platform where designers and studios post their work while users rate and comment. Owned by Adobe, it is one of the main showcases for the creative community. Here you see not only the finished product but also what peers consider successful. Likes on Behance work like upvotes, so their number shows how much the work resonated with designers rather than clients.
White Tetris stands out against conventional law firm websites. The name references Tetris, one of the most famous puzzle games, and the site's presentation is built like a video game. Law firm websites are usually built around seriousness and trust, so a game format is rarely seen in studio portfolios. That is precisely what drew attention. For a work of this genre, 74 comments mean a lively reaction, not formal approval.
A studio with and without awards
According to external sources, Sponge was founded in 2009. The exact date, November 22, 2009, is cited by CSS Winner, one of the web design galleries. The agency's Behance profile appeared on August 23, 2013. Already in December of that year, the studio's work received an Honorable Mention on Awwwards, a site that selects the best web projects and publishes jury and user ratings.
In February 2014, Splashnology included the agency's site in its '30 Dark Web Designs for Inspiration' roundup, where Sponge placed 23rd out of 30. In May of the same year, the studio submitted seven entries to the 15th Kyiv International Advertising Festival (KIAC) but received no awards. At Ukrainian Design 2014, the Estetico.me site and the logo for 'Pervy Gorodskoy' were recognized. In autumn 2014, AIN.UA published a piece titled 'What Dynamic Design Can Do: The Example of Creative Agency Sponge,' where the studio was analyzed as an example of a modern approach to interfaces.
A portfolio that got noticed
In 2015, the studio's work regularly appeared in roundups. On June 30, a work for Madonna was published on Behance, and on September 21, Sostav magazine included it in its 'Best Summer Projects from Behance' roundup in the motion design section. In parallel, a series of accolades on showcase sites continued: from May 24 to August 14, 2015, the agency received SOTD (Site of the Day) and similar awards on CSSDA, CSS Nectar, CSS Light, CSS Winner, BestCSS, CSSReel and Awwwards, and on August 14, CSSDA gave Special Kudos to the American version of the site.
A separate thread involves the studio's founder, Bohdan Hnatiuk. He is one of the creators of the Looks.fm service, which Korrespondent wrote about in February and March 2015. Hnatiuk himself was listed as the founder of Sponge in 2016 in materials by IGate, DOU and tagline ratings, and the ratings themselves in 2016 placed the agency 67th together with Saatchi & Saatchi.
In spring and summer 2016, the accolades continued. On February 4, Korrespondent wrote about the Furgoneta site and CSS Light, and on the same day CSS Winner awarded that work SOTD. The studio's CSS Winner profile added SOTD marks for Carts Guru on March 6, 2016, and for Trendon store on July 10, 2016. In March, Behance included the Business Logic Group work in its Best of Behance selection, and on September 6 the same platform received White Tetris, and this site became the main topic of discussion among peers.
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