Airside staff to launch new consultancy Rupert Ray

Rupert Ray is the first new group to be launched since Maclean and Airside co-founders Fred Deakin and Nat Hunter announced last November that they were closing the consultancy and going their separate ways.

Speaking at the time, Deakin said, ‘We got to the point where we had to find our next goals – and right now the three of us have individual ambitions.’

Maclean and Matthews say Rupert Ray will ‘carry the same enthusiasm, warmth, humour and respectful working process [as Airside] – we’re just a little more glamorous, less cartoony and with a glint in the eye.’

Rupert Ray is set to launch at the beginning of April, following the closure of Airside. It will initially be based in the former Airside building in north London.

Maclean will be creative director at the new consultancy, while Matthews will be managing director. They will be joined by Megan Riera, currently a moving image designer at Airside.

Rupert Ray, which will initially be three-strong, supplemented by freelancers, is working to create branding for a US-based start-up lingerie company as well as on a user-experience brief for Intel – a client it is bringing over from Airside.

Maclean and Matthews say the name Rupert Ray comes from ‘a historical figure whose life-story embodies a spirit of bold adventurism.’

Maclean says, ‘He’s a semi-mythological character who’s based on a real character we’re both distantly related to.

‘Also the domain name was available… And the name doesn’t sound anything like Airside.’