Gretchen Carswell, Immediate Past President of AAF DC, dies
Gretchen Carswell, Immediate Past President of the American Advertising Federation DC Chapter (AAF DC), died. According to an email that Lindsay Matthews, AAF DC president, sent to the AAF DC Board on Saturday, July 18, “it’s with immense sadness that I’m sharing Gretchen, our beloved and longtime Board member, and friend, has passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.”
According to Linkedin, Carswell was involved with AAF DC for 27 years. She was “an award winning art director/creative director with experience in advertising, branding, and design across all media channels including print, broadcast, digital (online, mobile, social), collateral and out-of-home.”
On her website, Carswell posted that her “main professional goal is to make things look good. I look forward to finding new, creative ways to get an idea and a product out in front of people. There really isn’t much about advertising I haven’t worked on — logos, branding, collateral, print, out-of-home, digital, social, television, radio and standing on the corner in a mascot suit — I’ve done it. I’ve worked with amazing people, won some big awards, had exhibits of my work, been in a few magazines and have had a ton of fun along the way.
“As far as my work life goes, I’ve been pretty lucky to work at great agencies with talented people and do work for some pretty amazing brands: National Geographic, World Wildlife Fund, DC Lottery, Truth Initiative, SoftSpikes, AOL, Boston Market, Papa John’s, ConEd, Vitamins.com, Away.com, NIH, Washington Business Journal and more.”
During her career, Carswell worked for and with a number of agencies, including MDB Communications, where she was Creative Director. Cary Hatch, former head of the agency, said that Carswell was “first and always, a friend — the kind who showed up, who remembered the small things, who made you feel like you mattered simply by being herself with you. That she also happened to be one of the most skilled creative directors many of us ever worked with almost feels secondary — it was just Gretchen, bringing the same warmth and devotion to a conference room that she brought to a dinner table. And she was funny — genuinely, wonderfully funny, the kind who could turn a brutal 11pm deadline into something you’d laugh about later. She had an endless well of ideas, and somehow the crazier the deadline, the better she got — pulling something brilliant out of thin air when the rest of us had given up. We didn’t just lose a brilliant collaborator. We lost someone who loved us well.”
On Carswell’s LinkedIn profile, Gary Duke, Managing Partner, Chief Talent Officer at Wild Blue Yonder, Inc., wrote in 2023 that “Gretchen is the rare creative talent who not only excels at her craft but is also a great strategic thinker and problem solver. When I was at MDB I had the pleasure of working with her on vastly different client brands – each with their own unique marketing challenges – and she consistently came up with highly creative solutions that not only broke through the clutter but always connected back to solving the business or marketing problem at hand. In my currently role as a leadership trainer/coach, I advise a lot of highly accomplished creative professionals across the industry and I have to say Gretchen is still one of the best I’ve ever worked with. Plus, she’s a whole lot of fun!”
Carswell was the lead co-producer of the ADWKDC sessions at the Mid-Atlantic MarCom Summit for numerous years. “She was such a pleasure to work with; she always brought a positive spirit and can-do attitude. Gretchen will be dearly missed by all that have had the pleasure to work with her. All of us with the Mid-Atlantic MarCom Summit are quite heartbroken by her passing,” said Paul Duning, Publisher of Capitol Communicator and Executive Producer of the Mid-Atlantic MarCom Summit.
