On Tuesday 3rd November 2009 Matt Lees, Sue Coles and I (Nathan Monk) took a 110 mile trip to the UK capital, London. Whilst in London we decided to give Airside a visit.

Back in 2008 we exhibited at Plus International Design Festival where we met lots of characters; one whom was Jamie Wieck from Airside.

We took the tube to Angel and began to walk. It was a good job we had our phones, because we quickly realised that we were completely stranded. We loaded up Google Maps and navigated ourselves to Airside. Luckily we had left plenty of time because we walked right past the entrance about 3 times! Eventually we realised where we needed to be and found the buzzer.

Jamie Wieck greeted us and took us up 6 flights of stairs! From the moment you enter Airside their brand values smack you in the face. Prints adorn the walls in black-rim frames. It oozes playfulness, but you know that it has value attached. Walking further down the corridor we saw boxes of American Apparel. The volume was impressive, but more impressive was the thought that they were the beginnings of items for the Airside shop.

On floor 1 there is the huge neon sign which fills the purple staircase with a flood of red light. Unfortunately, this is as far as we got on the first floor. Jamie explained that this was where all the meetings took place, and it was busy at the time with… well, meetings.

Floor 2 is where it’s at. This is where the full-time designers reside. The workspace was different to how I had imagined it would be. Each designer had their own space, whereas I thought there would be more of a communal space, where they would swap computers on a semi-regular basis. When Jamie began to tell us how Airside worked with projects it became clearer. Airside are incredibly diverse in their work intake (just like SMILE) and all of the designers have skills in different areas, with quite a few crossovers. So with headphones on, and they’re own personal preferences set up on their computers, it makes perfect sense to do it the way they do.

There are designed artworks everywhere that you look at Airside. No wall is left untouched. When we were there, Airside were apparently low on numbers (they were all out on projects), but even in this case, the studio looked busy. This was a working environment where things get done.

Whilst I was there it was hard not to think back to the SMILE studio and how it compares. Airside has 12 full time employees with one intern and we are 3 equal partners, so things are inevitably different. This said, we like to keep things moving and our studio keeps the mood vibrant. We know when to get our heads down and work hard but we also know that downtime is crucial to keeping us level-headed.

If you know about Airside then you will without doubt know of their illustrated “ladies”. They’re probably my favourite typeface of the year and we got to see some of the originals. They’re creating a new set of classy ladies and we got shown a forthcoming sexy ladies print by their originator Malika Favre.

Jamie Wieck then took us upstairs to the final level. This is where the animation team works, and there is a sofa area for lunch and reading. The view from here was fantastic! One side was georgian houses and the other half was a spectacular skyline shot of London. I wondered if the sunsets there were as good as they are at SMILE.

We took some of our work to Airside because we had talked to Jamie last year about some projects and he was interested to see how they had developed. Jamie Was extremely complimentary about our work. He especially liked the invites that we have recently been working on.

Jamie Wieck began asking us quiet a few questions about SMILE.

  • Jamie Wieck: So, how have you found it?
  • Nathan Monk: Starting up?
  • Jamie: Wieck: Yeah…
  • Nathan Monk: It’s been pretty good. It hasn’t been easy, but it’s a ride we’re enjoying.
  • Jamie Wieck: Do you have much work coming in?
  • Matt Lees: It’s actually starting to pick up nicely now, August was a write off though…
  • Jamie Wieck: Summer always is.

Then we got onto some really interesting topics of conversation. He asked us how we felt about our blog. He explained that he had had a good rumage around, and he started reeling off events, moments and memories from SMILE. Quite frankly, we were shocked at how much he knew about us - in a good way!

He likened our honest and very open approach to Airside and said how this translated well to the blog style of communication. The conversation deepened and led into the territory of getting work.

“We’re now a design company competing with advertising companies that have design and digital design subsidiaries. They know how to talk… some call it strategy, others might call it hot air, but either way we have to learn a bit of that now in order to compete.”

When we showed him our Aston Science Park pitch document (which didn’t win the pitch) he told us about how they once lost a pitch to a company whose pitch was deliberately vague, guaranteeing things that are difficult to guarantee.

“It’s important to care about your future relationship with the client.”

Airside had put a lot of effort into their document just like we had. It just goes to show that the lessons you learn on a small scale needn’t be forgotten as you grow. People looking to buy into a design firm should be aware of this too. There are design cowboys out there and it is important to be informed about making a crucial design decision. It goes against every value that we have at SMILE to mislead a potential client. Honesty is our biggest value and something that we pride ourselves on.

He asked if, because of the different way we have approached the industry to Jamie (he started working at Airside 3 years ago), if it had an effect on how we felt about it. The answer? As a three person partnership we have to know our industry inside out. We’re still learning, and we enjoy watching SMILE evolve. We have to know all of the acronyms and technical terms because we’re the ones doing it.

  • Nathan Monk: Where does Airside stand on free pitching?
  • Jamie: Wieck: (He smiles) We do free pitches but on a conditional basis.
  • Nathan Monk: What are your terms?
  • Jamie Wieck: Most importantly it has to be work that we really really want - once we pass that hurdle then come the conditions: we have to know we have the resources to do it, we make a point of asking for a pitch fee, and crucially we try not to get involved with pitches that have more than 3 studios after the same job. Ultimately, we are trying to move the business away from pitching by developing long term relationships with clients.

It was nice to hear a larger company have a similar opinion to the one that we hold.

“It’s sad that no one (especially smaller studios) can avoid the spectre of free pitching.”

Jamie Wieck then picked up our Journal. We had noticed that he was smelling all the printed pieces and running his finger across the paper stock. We were relieved that it wasn’t just us that did it! He was surprised when we told him that it wasn’t printed on a litho press but on our trusty HP6980.

“This is one of the loveliest pieces of studio promotion I have seen in a long time.”

We then mentioned something that we are working on with a number of very exciting people, but we have to keep it under wraps. We can tell you that it’s all about print, and why printed things are amazing.

We left Airside with a big smile on our faces. The Airside gals and guys are a really nice bunch of folks and although it was a shorter trip than the one I took to Berlin, I felt that I learnt just as much.