MICHAEL
LEBOWITZ

Business is ultimately culture.

Michael Lebowitz, 2023 AD

Michael wears the the Vanta Pant in Charcoal Donegal

The founder of award-winning creative agency Big Spaceship discusses his lifelong pursuit of culture and creating magical experiences for clients such as Starbucks, NFL and JetBlue along the way.

All words by Michael Lebowitz in conversation with Seneca.

You can't just say you have values, which is most companies. It's just a plaque on the wall.

Michael wears the Orion Jacket in Charcoal Donegal

I got my first full-time agency gig from the back of the print edition of the Village Voice.

Thoughtbubble Productions, a god awful name. It was right at the beginning of the internet bubble. Everybody was kind of young and cool, the office was really fun. There was good music playing and I was like, "Work can be like this?". This was real culture, not something generic. I was handed the entire Bravo television site to manage with 6 months of experience to my name. At that time there wasn't anyone to teach you anything. There were no classes, bad software, barely even any books. Everyone was just figuring it all out. That was my favorite part. I loved the energy of trying to make a new medium do what you wanted. I also learned everything not to do from that job. It became all about the money for them, and they lost sight of the magic. I thought that I could do better myself and set out on my own.

Michael wears the Orion Jacket in Charcoal Donegal and Vanta pant in charcoal donegal

My Dad gave me the best gift I've ever been given, a creative framework.

On my 13th birthday he gave me a stereo — components, speakers, and a turntable. What he didn't do was give me the records he liked and tell me to listen to them. Instead he bought me a new record, of my choice, every other week until my next birthday. He kept renewing it for years. It was a gift of opportunity — to experiment, to discover and to collect. In doing so, he gave me agency, a love of music and what is now a far-too-large record collection.

Spaceship.com was taken

Big Spaceship sounds cool. It's like a mothership. There's room for everybody on a Big Spaceship. Later, I found a quote from Marshall Mcluhan that summed it up, "there are no passengers on the spaceship Earth. We are all crew." A beautiful quote. Without knowing that quote, we have called the team "the crew" from the beginning. It's a sense of possibility that... we can all find possibility in this together.

In my experience, a company that has a rich culture has a rich set of rituals. It’s not the specific rituals that matter, but that people are using the company as a canvas to create them. There was a period of time when everybody was playing Guitar Hero in the office, and then suddenly it stopped. It wasn't that culture was breaking down. It was that Guitar Hero had its moment. We want people to engage the community that they have around them and feel safe and comfortable doing that in our environment.

Michael wears the Vanta Pant in Charcoal Donegal.

If I had known what it would take to start a company, I never would've had the guts to do it.

Companies can run themselves into the ground trying to take on an opportunity they’re not ready for, and on the flip side break themselves down for missing such a big opportunity if they choose not to take it. I really look at this as falling on your face over and over and over again to varying degrees of public view. You're falling in your face, but not everybody knows all the time. I mean I've made some pretty epic mistakes. I’m coming from a good place, but I was also coming from a place of wanting to avoid an inevitable, unavoidable bad feeling.

Michael wears the Orion Jacket in Charcoal Donegal

I've been on all the big stages, but I honestly feel best when we get to be together.

Nobody talks about the soft stuff. The soft stuff is what separates good business from bad business. Business, unless you just look at it as just a financial instrument, is ultimately culture. Culture is something that either happens to you or it’s culture that you put some guardrails up to facilitate, either way it will define you. You can’t wake up one day and create culture, because as you add people to the company, it’s just going to change. It takes thought and vigilance. When we first started there was no onboarding. It was simply, "Hey, you're here. Great. Welcome. Come on in. You're one of us now.” As we grew, I figured out that we had to make sure people understood what they were signing up for.

Lifelong friendships have been born here. Marriages have happened, kids have been born because of this place. Other companies have sprouted because of this place. I’m proud that it's a place of joy and connections.

It's an incredible privilege, using your imagination for a living.

I keep a list, a kind of gratitude exercise, of all the things that Big Spaceship has afforded me the opportunity to do.

Not like, ‘I made money to travel’. But I got to go to an organic dairy farm in Wisconsin and talk with the farmer for hours to learn about his life. That is so f**king amazing, right? Our job is understanding people, and how stuff works. It's the best job for curious people.

Give yourself room to question the assumptions behind 'normal'. You might just blaze your own trail.

Michael Lebowitz, 2023 AD

Measurements. All garments are hand-measured for accuracy.

It may be helpful to compare these product measurements to a similar garment you already own. To do this, place the garment on a flat surface and take all measurements from the outside.

Modena Shirt

Chest
40"
42"
45"
47"

Back Length
28"
28"
28 1/2"
28 1/2"

Sleeve Length
24"
24 1/2"
26"
26 1/2"

Shoulder Width
17 1/4"
17 3/4"
18 1/2"
19"

Lumen Shirt

Chest
39"
41"
44"
46"

Back Length
28 3/4"
29 1/4"
30"
30 1/2"

Sleeve Length
24 3/4"
25 1/4"
26 1/2"
27"

Shoulder Width
17 1/2"
18"
18 1/2"
19"

Forma Jacket 2

Chest
36 1/2"
38 1/2"
41 1/2"
43 1/2"

Back Length
28 1/2"
29"
29 3/4"
31 1/4"

Sleeve Length
24"
24 1/2"
25"
25 1/2"

Shoulder Width
17 1/4"
18"
19"
19 3/4"

Terra Jacket

Chest
40"
42"
45"
47"

Back Length
28"
28 1/2"
29 1/4"
29 3/4"

Sleeve Length
25"
25 1/2"
26"
26 1/2"

Shoulder Width
18"
18 1/2"
19 1/4"
20"

Vanta Pant

Waist
30"
32"
32"
34"
34"
36"

Outseam
39"
39"
41.5"
39"
41.75"
40"

Inseam
29"
29"
31"
29"
31"
29"

Hem Opening
12.5"
12.75"
12.75"
13"
13"
13.25"

Vanta GPT

Waist
30"
32"
32"
34"
34"
36"

Outseam
40"
40.5"
43.25"
40.5"
43.25"
41"

Inseam
30"
31.5"
33.5"
31.5"
33.5"
32"

Hem Opening
13"
13"
13"
14"
14"
14"

Vanta Pro

Waist
30"
32"
32"
34"
34"
36"

Outseam
37"
37"
39.5"
39"
41.5"
40"

Inseam
29"
29"
31.5"
30"
32.5"
30.5"

Hem Opening
13"
13"
13"
13.25"
13.25"
13.5"

Cortina Longsleeve Knit

Chest
41"
43"
46"
48"

Back Length
25 1/2"
26 1/2"
27"
27"

Sleeve Length
23 1/2"
24 1/2"
25"
26"

Shoulder Width
18 1/4"
18 3/4"
19 1/2"
20"

Still Unsure?

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MICHAEL LEBOWITZ

Business is ultimately culture.

Michael Lebowitz, 2023 AD

Michael wears the the Vanta Pant in Charcoal Donegal

The founder of award-winning creative agency Big Spaceship discusses his lifelong pursuit of culture and creating magical experiences for clients such as Starbucks, NFL and JetBlue along the way.

All words by Michael Lebowitz in conversation with Seneca.

You can't just say you have values, which is most companies. It's just a plaque on the wall.

Michael wears the Orion Jacket in Charcoal Donegal

I got my first full-time agency gig from the back of the print edition of the Village Voice.

Michael wears the Orion Jacket in Charcoal Donegal and Vanta pant in charcoal donegal

My Dad gave me the best gift I've ever been given, a creative framework.

Spaceship.com was taken

Michael wears the Vanta Pant in Charcoal Donegal.

If I had known what it would take to start a company, I never would've had the guts to do it.

Michael wears the Orion Jacket in Charcoal Donegal

I've been on all the big stages, but I honestly feel best when we get to be together.

It's an incredible privilege, using your imagination for a living.

Modena Shirt

Lumen Shirt

Forma Jacket 2

Terra Jacket

Vanta Pant

Vanta GPT

Vanta Pro

Cortina Longsleeve Knit

Vanta Pant

Vanta GPT

Vanta Pro

MICHAEL
LEBOWITZ