It all started in the fall of 1988, LTC Robert J. Oldmixon retires from the army at Fort Lee, Va. His last assignment was the IG for TSA, now DECA. Fort Lee, also know as "Home of the Quartermaster" is located just south or Richmond Virginia right off of interstate 95.

When he retired he started Appomattox Gallery which was about a 150 sq. ft. shop inside the PX mall. Yes I did say 150 sq. ft. not 1500, it was literally a large closet. A short time later we moved into a larger space, about 600 sq. ft where the business started to grow.

At this time most of the work was being done in a garage / work shop at Bob's house. this is when I come in. Hello, my name is Scott Oldmixon, Bob's oldest son. At the time I was in high school doing my best to keep out of trouble. I had always had a fascination with computers and that proved to be very beneficial later on. Now at this time I had converted part of my bedroom into a work area too. I even went out and started a company of my own called Progressive Designs. My products included custom printed coffee mugs, mouse pads and shirts. I used the sublimation system we bought for the awards business.

In 1994, we opened our second location in Colonial Heights just outside Fort Lee. We called this, The Award Shop. Shortly after opening this location we moved into a much larger building located on the Boulevard (US Route 1) in Colonial Heights. Our new building has about 6,000 sq. feet of work space with a 2,000 sq. foot showroom.

Now, with room to grow, we have branched off into many areas of business. From trophies and plaques to medals, challenge coins and our own line of custom framed awards. We also offer screen printing, vinyl banners, embroidery, laser engraving, sublimation as well as custom medals made in-house. We have grown substantially with our wide variety of products and capabilities.

As for our shop at Fort Lee, we are still there. We now have the largest retail space at the PX, about 1500 sq. ft. and we continue to add new products and services.

Our company has been helping to design and manufacture military coins since 1990 and with the rise of the Internet we brought our challenge coin company, military-coins.com, online in 1998. Now, with our own Internet sales department, we are able to focus on military coins and strive to provide excellent service, quality and low prices to our military customers.

In 1998 I branched out again starting Richmond Designs, LLC. This company focused on website design and programming. Since then I have restructured the company to a single purpose; to provide high quality products to the military and corporate community.

In 2008, 10 years later and Richmond Designs has managed to grasp a fair share of the market for challenge coins and related products. We will continue to bring new products to our customers and try to offer service and reliability second to none.