“I thought I was supposed to be in the corporate world, selling things 9-to-5,” Mowery said. “That was a pretty harsh lesson.”
As a “desperate last move,” he got a small loan from his grandmother and bought a new computer and a plotter, a machine that prints vinyl sign lettering and graphics to make products including car decals to billboards. He made a postcard using the free program that came with his computer and started cold calling mobile home builders, who primarily rely on printed banners for advertisement.
“I picked up Palm Harbor Homes right before the rodeo,” Mowery said. “It was thousands of dollars worth of banners, and me and my wife made them all in our living room on tables.”
That was the beginning of Graphics Guys, Mowery’s local print business that specializes in vehicle wraps, motorsports kits, vinyl signs, banners and wall murals. The eight-person team recently relocated from a 2,800-square-foot building off of Hwy. 290 West to a new, 12,000-square-foot warehouse at 10509 Circle Drive, Ste. 1310, near West Oak Hill.
“We could get maybe two to three vehicle wraps out a day [at our old place] due to space,” Mowery said. “Here, it’s more like five or six. It’s always been, ‘That’ll do; we can make this work; this is all we can afford’ until this place.”
Most of Graphics Guys’ business comes from creating custom-wrapped cars for commercial purposes, such as company cars or delivery vehicles. The second biggest source of revenue is from projects they create for local film and television productions.
“If there’s a movie that’s come through town, we usually have some role in it,” Mowery said. “We usually do some type of background work, or continuity work—lots of police cars.”
The first movie Graphics Guys ever worked on was “Idiocracy,” a 2006 sci-fi comedy from director Mike Judge. Their biggest claim to fame is working on the TV show “Friday Night Lights” for the four years it filmed in Austin.
“We did all the background graphics—helmet graphics, police car graphics, all the way down to the rock-and-roll posters in the teenager’s room,” Mowery said. “They wouldn’t let them drink Budweiser on-site, so we made a bunch of trace beer wraps and can wraps, all kinds of fake stuff like that.”
Today, the team regularly works on the CW show “Walker,” the “Walker, Texas Ranger” reboot that films in Austin. They recently completed a new period movie for HBO Max, which involved creating several 1970s-style model police cars.
“Stuff like that comes at a real high speed—they know what they want, and they’re very deadline-oriented,” Mowery said. “That’s why they use companies like us.”
Graphics Guys
10509 Circle Drive, Ste. 1310, Austin
512-326-3700
www.graphicsguys.com
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-6 p.m.,
closed Sat.-Sun.
