The Monkeys Melbourne ECD Grant Rutherford set to depart for new venture

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Photo Grant Rutherford 2.jpg

Campaign Brief can reveal that, after a year of helping set up The Monkeys Melbourne office, ECD Grant Rutherford has resigned and will form his own venture, effective January. 

Rutherford has been with The Monkeys nationally for two and a half years, initially consulting before joining on a full-time basis in October 2016.

His remit has included creative directing clients Telstra, Parmalat and MLA, most notably ‘Beef. The Greatest’, plus the launch of online betting agency BetEasy with Ricky Ponting, and multi-award winning Lamb ‘Celebrate Australia’ and ‘Diversity’ campaigns.

Rutherford’s 20+ year career has seen him work across many creative Australian agencies including Y&R, George Patterson Y&R and Clemenger BBDO. More recently from 2008-2012, Grant was executive creative director of DDB Group Melbourne but left in July of 2012 to pursue other personal endeavors. In June, 2013 he joined Publicis Mojo as national chief creative officer.

Rutherford’s personal work has been acknowledged with over 150 international and national awards, including seven Cannes Lions, Gold’s at One Show, New York Festivals, Clio, London Internationals, Mobius, AdFest, Spikes, AWARD and Silver nominations at the prestigious D&AD awards. His work as ECD has a similar record.

His work includes Carlton Draught’s ‘Made from Beer’ campaign including ‘The Big Ad’, which has been one of the most awarded campaigns in Australian advertising history. He has also been included in the top 10 art directors in the world in the Gunn Report.

Closer to home, Rutherford has been acknowledged with the prestigious ‘Creative Leader of the Year’ title at the Melbourne Advertising and Design Club for creative contribution to the industry. His work has been included in the permanent collection at the MoMA in New York and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

Rutherford has served on a number of marketing peak bodies: The Communications Council, the Australasian Writers and Art Directors Club (AWARD) and the Melbourne Advertising and Design Club (MADC). In 2010 he co-founded the Snowdome Foundation in memory of his daughter who died of Leukaemia, which has so far raised over $25 million for charity.         

At press time Rutherford was unavailable for comment.