Inside the Agency: Big Spaceship

Huge may be one of the biggest agencies in Dumbo, but it’s certainly not the only one in this new digital media hotspot. Digiday recently visited digital agency Big Spaceship at its Dumbo headquarters (which happen to be in the same building as Huge) to see its space and to get a feel of the agency culture there.

Minister of technology at Big Spaceship Joshua Hirsch gave us a guided tour of the 60-person space, which comes complete with the necessary agency office-space staples: a ping pong table, a foosball table and Dyson fans.

“You spend most of your time at work, so we think you have to make it a fun place to be,”  explained Hirsch. “It’s easy for people to burn out in this type of field, so we think creating a great atmosphere around here is really, really important,”

Check out the photos below from our Big Spaceship tour:

(Entryway, open desk floor plan)

“We decided to organize people in teams rather than by discipline, and the difference has been night and day. Each team has its own bank of desks and chooses its own team name and logo, and creates a sense of identity.”

(Wall art, office)

“We find increasingly that clients love coming out here to see us. It’s like a little vacation. They like getting out of town and coming across the water,” said Hirsch.

(Crayola swag, makerbot)

“This is really fun, but it’s been super-difficult to set up and maintain. It’s so intricate,” said Hirsch of the company’s makerbot, which is one of the first models.

(Dyson fan, kitchen area, foosball)

“We tend to go through phases with the foosball table and table tennis table. One month table tennis will be in; the next, everyone will be playing foosball. Right now, table tennis is out because we’re gearing up for the World Graphic Design Foosball Championship in November,” said Hirsch.

The skateboards were designed by staffers, and printed by a company called Boardpusher.

(Top: Meeting room, bottom: new expanded space)

“We call this ‘the cave,'” explained Hirsch. “It’s where we have most of our meetings, staff events, video game competitions, stuff like that. We have whiteboard paint on the walls, so it’s great for throwing ideas around.”

(Art, ping pong table, paper taxidermy heads)

(Communal table, lounge/meeting room, awards shelf)

“We try to all get out of the office together whenever possible, too. We go to things like Cyclones baseball games down on Coney Island, and we’ve done a few weekend ski trips, too.”

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