As an illustrator, much in demand, he is one of the few Southerners belonging to the Society of Illustrators of New York. In 1967, his work for the Sarasota, Florida Herald-Tribune won him a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning.

After graduation from high school in Belton South Carolina where e received his first art training, Moore majored in commercial design at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. Since graduation he has worked he has worked for a design house in Greenville, South Carolina as art director for an NBC-TV affiliate, art director for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and as senior illustrator with an Atlanta studio. In 1971 he opened Wayland Moore Studios which is located at Atlanta Stadium where Moore serves as graphics director for the Atlanta Braves, combining his career interests in art with his leisure time love of sports.

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize nomination, is a book consisting of his Florida Sketches, a front page cartoon that is included in the permanent collection of Walt Disney Studios in California, a scholarship offered in his name by the Ringling School of Art and a string of artistic assignments that have included coverage of the Indianapolis 500, PGA Golf Tournaments, Can-Am races and, perhaps the greatest spots hustle of all time, the Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs tennis match in Houston's Astrodome.