Behind The Scenes with Big Spaceship

This issue we go big time with the highly respected New York agency Big Spaceship

Founded back at the turn of the new Millennium, Big Spaceship has evolved from a bedroom in Brooklyn to one of the world’s highly respected creative agencies. Co-founders Michael Lebowitz and Dan Federman decided it was time to start an agency that pushed the boundaries and was a fun place to work. Nine years on and it’s still all innovation and smiles.

WD: To get started, could you tell us about Big Spaceship and how and when it all got started?

MICHAEL LEBOWITZ, FOUNDER & CEO: Big Spaceship was founded in 2000 by myself and Dan Federman. We had each worked at a handful of digital agencies that functioned in a top-down format, essentially ostracising the younger, less-experienced folks – those closest to the culture. After Dan and I teamed up at the same agency, we decided to find a better way of getting the job done – to not just exist in the digital world, but to push the boundaries. We were also simply looking for a place where we’d want to come to work every day. So with a healthy dose of confidence and a little naivety, Big Spaceship was born. We had no business plan, just a spare room in Brooklyn that we converted into an office. Over time, we grew into the present 45-strong team. That growth was not a goal; it was a side effect… the natural outcome of a desire to innovate. As for the company name, we were brainstorming around space-oriented themes and concepts. They felt appropriate to our desire to create a new ‘launching pad’ so to speak… something forward thinking. We wanted a name that moved past the stigmas that arose from the bubble burst in the late Nineties. Big Spaceship worked on multiple levels.

WD: When the agency first started out what was the original vision and how has that matured since?

ML: Big Spaceship was formed at a time when the industry was in its formative years, and no one really knew what steps were involved in creating and expanding digital design into the behemoth it is today (not that we have all the answers now). The point is, Big Spaceship was fashioned from the minds of people trying to make sense of interactive experiences. And we were doing so from an inventive perspective. Consider the role of the internet in 2000 and how much it has changed since then. The transformation has been revolutionary, to say the least. Likewise, our business structure and vision have matured. We’ve really bolstered our strategy practice over the past year. At the same time, the spectrum of our work has broadened – not only in terms of the clients we work with, but also in terms of our output.

WD: As a creative agency your website is a focal point for prospective customers. How much time, energy and manpower is dedicated to the site?

ML: We relaunched our site earlier this year and have since been more dedicated to continuing to evolve it. Quantifying the manpower isn’t all that exciting. What I can say is that we’ve adopted a holistic viewpoint. It is an extension of our communications. Far more than our portfolio, we use it to further engage our audience – through Flickr photos, Twitter, RSS feeds, etc. It is a window into our culture. The homepage itself is sort of a scrolling news feed, so we can continually update folks on what’s happening.

WD: You’ve worked with some big global brands, 20th Century Fox, Nike and Adobe to name just a few. You have a strong brand association with TV and film companies, in particular. How did that come about?

ML: One of our first jobs was with Miramax. We had an existing relationship when we bid on the project. From there, we took it one day at a time and chose our work carefully. Though we obviously needed clients to survive, we desired only to develop work that was different. We wanted it to be experiential, immersive and bigger than anything our clients were expecting. Early projects with Miramax – like Bridget Jones’s Diary and Serendipity – were precocious ideas in terms of movie marketing at that time. They soon led to deals with Paramount and Sony. We didn’t set out to conquer the entertainment world, though it is how we cut our teeth and is certainly an area we still love working in. Our goal was and is engagement… moving people, getting our audience as close to the story as possible, even giving them the ability to interact with it.

WD: How does working with strong established branding affect the design process?

TYSON DAMMAN, ART DIRECTOR: There are times when prior to starting a project, many of the variables – such as typefaces, colours, branding, etc – have been set. But this doesn’t limit us in any significant way. We consider these variables as a set of creative ingredients used to develop a brand experience. They usually evoke a certain style that we can explore within. Having certain constraints allows us to focus on the user experience and create something memorable. In the case of a heavily branded project, our process usually begins with a review of any established guidelines. We’ll experiment with type, look at how we can treat any logos and taglines, and brainstorm on how we can best create a seamless jump into the website, game, application, etc. While we do enjoy making things “our own,” our top priority is making sure that whatever we design and execute is cohesive with the brand and enhances it in a meaningful way.

WD: The agency covers a broad spectrum of creative services. Are all of these services dealt with in-house or is some work contracted out to external agencies or individuals?

ML: We refer to ourselves as a digital creative agency. We don’t define what we do in terms of services or tactical offerings, or technology for that matter. We talk instead about innovating where brands and people meet… and focusing on that sphere of interaction. To the extent possible, our preference is to work in-house. We have four core disciplines: strategy, design, development and production. We collaborate on cross-disciplinary teams to encourage collective brainstorming and ownership of ideas. That said, we have enjoyed partnering with other agencies and will continue to do so, particularly when our strengths compliment each other. But for the most part, we form and build our ideas entirely in-house.

WD: How many staff are employed by Big Spaceship and more specifically how many designers/ developers and what do their roles entail?

ML: We’ve got about 45 crew members, approximately 50 per cent designers and 30 per cent developers. TD: A designer’s primary role at Big Spaceship is to craft a visual approach to a project. Designers brainstorm alongside other disciplines before transforming highlevel concepts into visual directions through flat comps and storyboards. Once a direction has been determined, they work closely with developers and strategists to construct the project. Unlike many agencies, the designers at Big Spaceship also do a majority of the animating and production. Our designers have a broad range of skills, which gives us the ability to function in small teams with shared responsibilities. JOSHUA HIRSCH, MINISTER OF TECHNOLOGY: Our developers play an important role in the entire process at Big Spaceship – from concept through delivery. They are always involved in brainstorms, often contributing to early explorations by creating functionality and motion tests, as well as proof of concept prototypes. The team has a wide spectrum of skills across a variety of programming languages and platforms. They’re constantly learning and experimenting to keep us on the leading edge of technology.

WD: Promotion is crucial for any agency. What are the principal tools used by Big Spaceship to ensure maximum exposure?

ML: I think the approach we take to “promoting” ourselves goes hand-in-hand with the direction marketing is going. Because digital communication is both constant and, by nature, interactive, there’s no distinct line between performance and communications – or actions and words. The way we position ourselves grows out of our behaviour. Our efforts to self-brand and develop as a digital agency are evolving. We’ve become more active with our two blogs this year: Think (our strategy blog) and Labs (our design and dev blog). We use them as platforms to share some of our thinking and experimenting. We pride ourselves on starting conversations and telling stories.

WD: What are the current trends and styles that have caught the agency’s attention? And what do you think will be popular in the coming months?

JH: When we posed this question to our crew, one of the answers we got back was deeper mobile integration and synchronisation. We’ll see more apps that are useful beyond a single mobile device. The fact that so many brands want an iPhone presence is very interesting to me, especially because iPhone users are still a relatively small audience. Mobile has been trendy for a while, but I think the iPhone is the first device to really make people realise the possibilities. It has led and will lead to a lot of innovation in the space. Another area we’ve been talking about is predictive but unobtrusive recognition… things like Pandora and the iTunes Genius that make recommendations based on your behaviours. These will become more fluid and will make the internet feel personal. Lastly, our designers have been taking note of the increasing attempts to simulate full sensory experiences online. We’ll continue to see a greater connection between the digital world and the real world.

WD: What is Big Spaceship currently working on that we should be looking out for in the future?

ML: We recently launched an iPhone app (and accompanying site) called The Next Move for Lexus and UrbanDaddy, which is a lifestyle site in the States targeting hip, upscale guys. It adopts a holistic, human approach to making plans, blending curated content with intuitive functionality to help you figure out where you want to go. We’ve got several client projects in the works, but we can’t talk about them just yet. I can speak of some internal projects, however. We’re continuing to experiment and build upon Hope vs. Despair, sort of a “happiness index” we created utilising Twitter. Earlier this year, we launched Qapture (http://www. qapture.net/), which stemmed from our fascination with Twitter coupled with our frustration in keeping up with its endless stream. So we identified people who tweet consistently interesting links and then created a way to share and categorise those links, ranking their output and popularity. Another internal project we had a lot of fun creating is Pretty Loaded (http://prettyloaded. com/). In short, it’s an infinitely loading digital museum in which each preloader reveals another.

WD: As one of the most highly regarded agencies in the world, what qualities do you look for in a prospective employee? Plus, what advice would you give to anyone trying to break into the industry?

ML: In terms of hiring, one piece of advice I have is: don’t hire egos. The difference between the most talented and the second most talented person in the room is likely minimal. Personality and a desire to work as a team are much more important to our culture. JH: In terms of breaking into the industry, my advice for someone focusing specifically on digital is to not be afraid of specialising in an area that you like. If you enjoy coding, make that your focus. It’s important to understand how all the pieces ultimately fit together, but you don’t have to master every discipline. We find that candidates who have a clear understanding of what they want to do and excel in are more attractive than those who claim to be able and willing to do anything. TD: Also, know what kind of work you want to do, and seek out agencies that parallel your interests. If you are into motion graphics, don’t try to work somewhere that does standard sites. You won’t be happy. Do research on the firms that you are interviewing with, know their type of work and their basic philosophy. Be aware of trends, but don’t follow them. With so much inspiration on the internet, it’s easy to borrow and follow, but challenge yourself to decide what is best for each individual project and for you personally.