Shift adds creative + design firepower including hiring of Dale Rhodes as creative director

The first appointment will see Dale Rhodes (far left), founder of Rhodes Shapter, join the company as creative director. The appointment reunites Rhodes with Shift’s strategy director, Richard Sauerman. Rhodes and Sauerman were founding partners in award winning advertising company Neon Pigeon, which ranked in the top three advertising agencies in Australia by BRW.

Managing Director of Shift, Iain Good, explains: “Dale is not only a very talented creative guy, with outstanding credentials in many forms of communication, he also believes in the power of brands to drive both internal and external change for companies and social change in communities. He is passionate about the core ingredients that we believe are the future for SHIFT.”

Rhodes has been responsible for some of Australia’s best-known and most successful brand conversations – from The Northern Territory “It’ll never, never leave you “, to “Bloody Volvo Driver”, which changed Volvo’s brand conversation and saw sales double within twelve months.

Before founding Rhodes Shapter, he was executive creative director of Euro RSCG Australia across direct, digital, design and advertising.Rhodes has extensive experience on brands including Toyota, Westpac, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, Carefree, Liptons, Continental, Sony, Volkswagen, Dell, Scotts and the Federal Government’s Drug Offensive.

Rhodes said of the appointment: “Shifting brand conversations, not only in communications, but throughout organizations, is what I’m all about, and that’s the driving ethos behind Shift. It’s a complete meeting of minds and I am enormously excited to be joining such a great group of people.”

In another appointment set to further boost the creative experience of its team, Shift has also appointed Nick Beckhurst (above right) as executive creative director – design.

The appointment is part of a natural growth strategy for the company, and will see Beckhurst, previously managing director of his own brand identity and design studio, Nice Idea, working alongside current ECD, Raj Rabindranath (above centre). The move will formalise an existing working relationship by merging of the Nice Idea studio with Shift.

Through Nice Idea, Beckhurst has already worked with Shift on branding projects for Anglican Retirement Villages, Guardian and Kimberley Clark, and closely with Richard Sauerman on the new brand identity for Talent2 and CSIRO. In addition, he has been prolific in the financial services category developing the brands of Platinum Asset Management, NAB Private and Institutional Wealth, Colonial First State, Wilson HTM, Macquarie and many others.

Shift’s managing director, Iain Good, said of Beckhurst’s appointment: “This is a natural

evolution of our core in-house capabilities, and having worked closely with Nick we know that our strategy outputs work incredibly well with his premium design capabilities. We are in complete agreement about the role design can play in amplifying a brand DNA at every

touchpoint.

“In bringing Nice Idea and Shift together, the common industry battle between the identity creation and graphic guideline of design agencies versus the ongoing communications output of communications agencies, has been removed. This is consistent with our desire to breakdown industry barriers that do not create efficient client outcomes and promote the core brand DNA.”

Raj Rabrindath said he was excited at bringing together creative design and communications.

Says Rabrindath: “Adding Nick to our team will allow Shift to seamlessly incorporate Nice Idea’s design disciplines and ethos into every component of our communication output.

Nick and I work really well together and we both agree that the development of brand

identities must be done in parallel with the creation of the core communications ideas. The

separation of design from communications is an industry barrier that makes no sense for brand owners”.

Beckhurst commented: “I am excited about again working closely with Richard Sauerman, Raj and their teams, this time being a real part of that team. We are all genuinely motivated by creating seamless brand thinking that generates better experiences for every person who

touches the brand. We know we can produce great work together. I see this as a real shift.“