Appalachian-rooted branding, web design, and AI-assisted creative work, built with craftsmanship and purpose.
Selected work
Student projects, concepts, and a first venture. Labeled for what each one is — no fiction here.
A full identity system for a family-owned timber supplier: research, hand sketches, three refinement rounds, and a final system with logo, monogram, palette, type, and applications from shop signs to vehicle graphics.
Read the case study →
A minimalist MG monogram in deep navy — interlocking letterforms with wide-set serif type. Quiet, trustworthy corporate work.
See more →
A retro-poster campaign: a dancing-piston mascot, a two-color mustard-on-navy palette, worn print texture, and copy built to read at a glance.
See more →
My first business, started in 2019. It didn’t succeed — but the vintage mascot work taught me more about branding than anything since. Failure counts as experience.
What we do
Full-service creative support, from first sketch to final launch.
Marks and full identity systems built to work everywhere — from a business card to a storefront sign to the side of a truck.
See a full identity case study →Full identity refreshes for established businesses ready to look like what they have actually become.
See the Appalachian Timber refresh →Original characters that give a business a face — where Ironwood got its start, from sketch to finished mark.
Meet the Creatures →Truck-door graphics and wraps designed around the vehicle, not pasted onto it. Your truck becomes a billboard.
See vehicle graphics in a case study →Posters, business cards, hang tags, sticker sheets — print collateral that keeps a brand consistent everywhere it shows up.
See poster work →T-shirt, hoodie, and work-shirt designs built from your brand — wearable work that sells itself.
See the Bad Apple merch →Clean, fast websites that carry your brand online. This site was designed and built by Ironwood.
Every project starts on paper. AI tools help explore and render ideas faster; every piece is then art-directed and refined by hand. You always know which parts were AI-assisted.
How I use AI →Character work
Original characters and mascots — where Ironwood got its start. Every business deserves a face. These are ours.
New · Original series
A dysfunctional family of fruit, a worm on a leash, and a grandma with an eyeball for a head. Watch the trailer and meet the cast.
Watch the trailer →
Before the gloves, before the attitude: a rotting apple core, studied and rendered. Every character starts as an observation. This is the observation Bad Apple grew out of.
See the first sketch (PDF)
A bruised apple core in boxing gloves, ready for a fight. Started as a doodle on my wife Tessie’s leg early in our relationship — she kept it, and I kept drawing. Today he’s the gnawed-down, permanently snarling dad of my animated series Apple of My Eye — Bad Apple, or Bart to his family.
Meet the whole family →
My son heard the Bad Apple stories and figured that made him a bad seed. I heard him say it and had the character drawn in under ten minutes — shown here in both rendered and line-art styles. In Apple of My Eye, he’s Bad Apple’s spitfire oldest son, with one finger always raised.
See him in the show →
A cheerful vacuum with a big smile. Proof a mascot can make even a household chore look fun — built for product branding and family-friendly businesses.
A flying bomb riding itself like a vehicle, cigar lit. Rat-rod and lowbrow style for brands that want attitude — skate shops, taprooms, garages.
The character line lives on shirts, stickers, and prints. Ironwood designs the face — then puts it on everything.
Who we are
I’m Josh Mitchell. I run Ironwood Creative Studio out of Clendenin, West Virginia, while studying graphic design (web design concentration) at Southern New Hampshire University.
I’m an honest, hard-working family man, and I’ve been drawing since I could hold a pencil. Before design, I spent my working life in warehouses, on concrete and framing crews, in manufacturing, and running a restaurant cleaning business. Those are the people I design for now, so I build identities that hold up on a truck door, a hard hat, and a storefront, not just on a screen.
My process starts on paper. I use AI tools to explore and render ideas faster, then art-direct and refine every piece by hand, and I’m upfront about which parts were AI-assisted. Strong, honest work that’s built to last, not just to launch.
Get in touch
Tell me a bit about your business and what you’re looking for — I’ll get back to you personally. Email is preferred.
