Anthony Velonis studied at the College of Fine Arts at New York University. He received his silkscreen training from his brother's sign shop. He joined the New York City WPA poster division as a designer in 1935. In 1938 the Silk Screen Unit was created as a branch of the graphic arts division and Velonis was appointed head. Through his efforts, with a few other artists, silkscreen was turned into a fine art medium which they called serigraphy.
He authored the book Technical Problems of the Artist: Technique of the Silkscreen Process. He left the WPA in 1939 and founded a commercial studio, Creative Printmakers Group, with Hyman Warsager and other colleagues. A year later, he along with other artists, co-founded the National Serigraph Society and in 1940, Velonis along with Warsager invented a silk screening on glass process that they patented and eventually sold to VCA Corporation in 1969. He served in the Air Force during WWII and after the war came back to the business, primarily doing administrative work as well as experimental work on alternate materials such as metals and techniques with stained glass.