Airside was founded in 1998 by Alex Maclean, Nat Hunter and Fred Deakin, and have won many awards including recognition from D&AD, BAFTA and Design Week.

Founded before the Dot Com Boom, Airside grew at a time of enormous changes for the creative industries. Initially known as either a web design company, or as illustrators or even as innovative interaction designers, they diversified into film making through animation. Genre shifting and restless curiosity for the challenges of emergent media meant that they were hard to define as any particular kind of design company or agency. Widely recognised as an early example of its kind, Airside went on to create ground breaking projects in emergent digital media whilst honing skills in traditional design and film making.

Clients have included Coca Cola, Greenpeace, MTV, Nokia, and Sony, as well as musicians The Pet Shop Boys and Lemon Jelly (of which Fred Deakin is half of).

Sadly the studio closed its doors in March 2012, with all three founding members having either moved onto new work or continuing with ongoing side projects.