The Story Behind the Logo
Faith, Family and Freedom surround the Mission
NOVEMBER 30, 2025
Mission First Design didn’t begin as a business plan. It began as a calling…I just didn’t know it yet.
I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. As a freelance artist, I would sell commissioned work mostly around Christmas to make a little extra spending money. When my husband deployed in 2021, I was asked to design the company deployment shirt. Then, my husband decided to pick up drawing as a way to pass the time. We began to share more shirt design ideas across the continents and the idea to start selling morale shirts was our original intention. When it came to naming the business, he came up with Mission First - derived from a line in the Soldier’s Creed, “I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat…”. I came up with the logo after we agreed that our life Mission was surrounded by our love for our faith, our family and our freedom.
After he came home, life happened. We went through career changes, moved a few times, bought and sold houses…and after he went full time National Guard, I decided to quit my full time contract job to be more available for our kids. I decided to start my own business. Mission First was revived and even though the logo was the same, it took the first seven months to finally figure out how to incorporate those three foundational pillars into how the business would operate.
I changed website hosts, encouraged my husband to continue drawing shirt designs and we are now well on our way to establishing an amazing business that, no doubt, will become a well-known brand.
FAMILY is my main branch. I have professionally worked with kids since 2019 in different capacities and they all involved some kind of education. I love art and I love teaching, so providing easy to understand art educational material is one way that I feel could bring families closer together. Art speaks without words, so the opportunities here seem endless. I have a lot of exciting things in store for this branch and I can’t wait to write about them!
FREEDOM is Jon’s branch. He loves creating material that is relatable to the Military and First Responder community. By choosing to create morale apparel and other things like stickers, he knows he can build that connection with his comrades. One goal is to be able to reach stores like The Exchange and offer his designs to thousands more Service Members across the globe. He will be getting his own domain and we will be creating a sister site to provide those products in the near future.
FAITH is something we will work on together. In 2014, we began working in the children’s ministry at our church that we attended at the time. We organized the bus routes that picked up local kids and helped with the Summer Kids Krusade. Eventually, we spear headed a valuable ministry called Teen Church until we were called in a different direction. Through the Faith Branch, we will be able to continue providing resources for Sunday School leaders, youth ministers and more. We are hoping to launch this branch in late 2026.
Thank you for reading my first blog post! Please check back often to stay up to date on our growth and receive tips for creating amazing art with your kids!
