Tyler Willey Blazes His Own Trail With Graphics King

By Julie Hill Lehr

Have you ever bought flowers at Vintage Vines? Or stopped by Downtown Depot? Or perhaps attended an event at North Central Missouri College’s Ketchum Center?

If so, you may have seen some of Tyler Willey’s work.

Willey is the owner of Graphics King, a company that provides race car wraps, decals and commercial graphics. The company designs, prints and installs graphics and signs.

The Trenton native’s journey to becoming an entrepreneur started in an unusual way when he was 16.

Willey was attending Trenton High School when his brother’s friend, Bud Wilson, decided to sell his graphics business. Willey’s brother, David, bought the business, and Willey created the graphics.

The brothers began working with previous clients, which provided a strong start to the business. A large portion of their work was spent on lettering cars, since one of Willey’s interests was car and ATV racing.

Willey turned his energies to finishing high school and getting ready for college. While attending Trenton High School, he took advantage of a program that allowed him to attend school at Grand River Technical School in Chillicothe.

By the time he graduated from high school in 2008, he had a certificate in welding and a jump on his college education. Three weeks after high school graduation, he started attending North Central Missouri College, where his work at GRTS allowed him to enroll in the articulated credit program, giving him 30 college credits toward his Associate in Applied Science degree.

“Since NCMC was taking into consideration my welding certificate, I took a lot of business classes that would go toward my associate degree,” Willey said. “I wanted something that was broad and had more versatility because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, and the business background gave me flexibility.”

After graduation in 2009, the brothers decided to close their graphics business and move on.

In 2020, Willey and his brother each bought a race car, which got him thinking about the graphics used to wrap the cars. He had always thought the wraps were way too expensive.

In an interesting turn of events, a new opportunity became available to Willey. Clay Williams, the owner of 1 Shot Designs in Trenton, decided to sell his business. Willey bought the business from Williams and traded one of his four-wheelers, added some cash and became the new owner of the graphics business. He changed the name to Graphics King.

Williams had some projects already lined up when he sold the business, so Willey contacted those people, and they all continued their projects with him.

“I really appreciate everyone in the community who has helped grow my business,” Willey said. “Trenton is a great place to live.”

While still working at Modine, Willey was able to go back to college to finish his four-year degree under the Modine tuition reimbursement program. He took online classes and graduated from Northwest Missouri State University with a bachelor’s degree in business management in 2022.

Throughout this time, Willey continued to run Graphics King on the side.

In 2026, Willey left Modine and put all of his efforts into running Graphics King. He said the people in Trenton, the surrounding area and the racing community have embraced his business. It has been a wild ride for Willey.

“It’s been really fun to not only be accepted but to be able to collaborate with people in related businesses,” Willey said.

He decided to give back to Trenton and has provided a scholarship at NCMC for a student who is interested in going into business, graphics or entrepreneurship. He has been a Bright Futures lunch buddy, is an athletic sponsor at NCMC and donates signage to different youth programs when he can.

“I think the most important thing is doing whatever it takes to make you happy with yourself,” Willey said.