A friend of many in the advertising world, Charlie Clark, passed away on December 26th, 2024. Here are my remarks from the celebration of his life:
Charlie and I were long-time friends in the world of advertising and graphic design and I’d like to share a snapshot of his work life with you.
When she invited me to say something this morning, Leslie (his wife) suggested I might share a story such as the time she and Charlie and I visited a women’s prison in rural Virginia to do research for a state of Virginia client–I decided against it.
If you knew Charlie primarily as a friend, neighbor, or extended family member, you might not know much about his professional life. Charlie was an advertising “idea man,” and he was very good at it. Technically, he would characterize his role as a “conceptual art director.”
Let me explain: Whether you’re a regional chain of banks or a giant international manufacturer, the reason you hire an advertising agency is because you believe the creative team at that agency can produce ideas superior to your own.
Now put yourself in their position. You’ve poured your blood, sweat, tears, and treasure into developing a unique product or service, and you’re being asked to entrust it to someone else—to brand it, market it, and advertise it in ways you, perhaps, had not even envisioned. That’s a monumental leap of faith. It was Charlie’s job to convince you–that his team of researchers, writers, production artists, and others—could create ideas so compelling that you’d be willing to take that leap.
It’s a tall order. But Charlie had a gift for making that happen. He wasn’t always the primary presenter, but it was very often his ideas everyone in the room was selling and buying.
He was creative, clever, and meticulous. He knew the ins and outs of print design, photography, illustration, radio and TV production, and lots more. In short, he not only knew how to make compelling promises—he had the skills to deliver on them.
Our mutual colleague Mel Bryant shared this when he heard of Charlie’s passing:
“Charlie simply took the message to another level. His campaigns were visually intrusive and moved audiences to take action by moving their hearts and minds. His numerous national creative awards spoke of the respect he had from the best minds in the business. As a creative director, he was brilliant both strategically and creatively. As a mentor and a friend, Charlie had no peer.”
Charlie (often with Leslie as his copywriting partner) freelanced or worked for agencies right here in Virginia on local and regional accounts like Ukrop’s, Kidwell Turf Farms, and Newport News Shipbuilding.
He and Leslie also spent years in other cities—Atlanta, Washington, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles-—working for some of the most prestigious ad agencies in the world. Agencies like Bozell, Martin/Williams, Chiat/Day, and Cargill, on accounts as diverse as 3M, Pella, Fairmont Hotels, and even Apple Computers.
As soft-spoken and self-effacing as Charlie was, you might not picture him in a corporate conference room, presenting compelling ideas to captains of industry. But that’s exactly what he did.
Here’s my point:
What Charlie did for a living is less important than how he did it.
Charlie brought to the sophisticated, often cynical, secular business of advertising the authenticity and truth that a Christian kid from a small town was uniquely equipped to provide.
I love to think that, among the thousands of messages Charlie helped craft in his lifetime, they could all be summed up in this one passage by Dorothy Sayers, a contemporary of C.S. Lewis:
“The only Christian work is good work well done.
It is not necessarily a kind of work that is overtly evangelical…
It is the work of a Christian being true to their calling… doing what they are meant to do… with all their heart.”
I am proud to have called him friend.
Since that service, I have visited Charlie’s office and gone through parts of his portfolio to show you a tiny sampling of his work. Forgive me in advance that what I will show you below is not necessarily what Charlie would choose to show, only what struck me as interesting in looking across the surface of an ocean of examples.
Note that most of it is conceptual work, mocked up ideas to be shown to clients, some of which might not have even made it into a conference room.
I did a good deal of work creating similar types of “comps” in my years as a freelancer so these interest me most. I worked with Charlie and Leslie at various advertising agencies and we even pitched a client together and worked on that for a year or two. I can hear the echos of designers, art directors, and copywriters huddled in offices brainstorming ideas and ultimately choosing a few that might make it into a presentation. It was, at once, challenging, entertaining, invigorating, and stressful.
Great ideas are the capital of advertising. Some of the concepts are Charlie’s, others, I’m sure, are the work of his copywriter partner and wife Leslie. All can be listed under their business moniker: “Clark & Clark, A Couple Of Creatives.”
Posted in MARCH 2025 / Chuck Green is the retired principal of Logic Arts, a design and marketing firm, a contributor to numerous magazines and websites, and the author of books published by Random House, Peachpit Press, and Rockport Publishers. All rights reserved. Copyright 2007-2025 Chuck Green. Contact.
Thoughts?