Before there were fleet wraps and F1 cars, Byron Mowery was a man in a suit selling radio airtime. He had a quiet hunch and a dream that there was something better. That hunch led him to a vinyl cutter and a computer, and it cost him every last dollar he had.
Mowery is the owner and founder of Graphics Guys. His earlier work in a small San Antonio sign shop had quietly set the stage. “I did not realize at the time that it was foreshadowing,” he says.
The early hustle wasn’t glamorous. Mowery walked “trailer alley” on Highway 290, pitching banners and signs to mobile home companies. Weekends meant flea markets and racetracks— Friday nights at Longhorn Speedway and Saturdays at Thunderhill—selling decals out of a booth. It was bootstrapping at its purest.
Over more than 25 years, Austin has transformed from a sleepy college town into one of the country’s fastest-growing cities, and every wave of growth brought new opportunities for Mowery. He is quick to note that growth alone doesn’t guarantee survival: “The biggest thing in this industry is to stay up on technology and processes to make sure you can do the jobs as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.”
Scaling the business required a leap of faith. “I was always nervous about going too big and getting in too much debt,” Mowery admits, “but I could see that if we did not scale, we would never get over the ceiling. I believe now more than ever: If you build it, they will come.”
Ask Mowery about his most demanding projects and the list reads like a motorsports hall of fame. Graphics Guys has wrapped F1 cars for Haas Racing, Williams Motorsports, and Red Bull, along with drag cars and exotics. “There is not a flat panel or straight line on the whole car,” he says.
Their most audacious job, though, was a Fox-commissioned wrap of a four-story downtown Austin building during South by Southwest. It took his team three weeks of printing and prep and three days to install.
Managing work that spans fleet graphics, motorsports, and architectural signage comes down to people, specifically great employees and delegating. “We have a bunch of guys that really care about what they’re doing,” Mowery says. “We also hold each installer accountable for their work.”
Mowery’s approach to design is rooted in function. “You want someone to say, ‘Oh, that’s Waypoint Roofing—what a great wrap.’” And when problems arise, his standard is equally direct: “If you always tell the truth, you will never have to remember what you said.”
Finding and keeping great people is a priority he takes seriously. “Retention is big for me because good help is hard to find and bad help can be detrimental to business,” he says. His hiring criteria are straightforward: attention to detail, a strong work ethic, honesty, and attitude. “Everything else is training. Attitude drives everything.”
A new UV flatbed printer capable of printing directly onto substrates up to 4 inches thick has expanded what the shop can produce and how fast it can complete jobs. With four total printers running, Mowery has eliminated bottlenecks that once limited growth. “No downtime plus no missed deadlines equals happy clients that will stick with you.”
As for Dripping Springs, it’s more than a business address. From City Hall signage to school district murals, Graphics Guys has grown alongside the community. “The businesses and owners in this area are not only clients but have become friends over time,” Mowery says. “Say what you do; do what you say; be honest and on time. The rest will come to you.” Twenty-five years in, it still does.
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Graphics Guys at a Glance
Byron Mowery founded Graphics Guys more than 25 years ago with a single vinyl cutter and a willingness to hustle. Today the company operates out of a 10,000-square-foot facility in Dripping Springs with four industrial printers, including a new UV flatbed unit for direct substrate printing. Their work spans commercial fleet graphics, custom vehicle wraps, and motorsports liveries. Large-scale event installs, architectural signage, and school district graphics round out a portfolio built on one simple principle: Do what you say you’ll do, every time.