Otto Stefferl

From Stamps of the World
Prof. Otto Stefferl (1931-2018)

The son of a musician and a painter, Otto Stefferl was born on March 10, 1931 in Vienna. At the age of 16, he began his training at the Graphic Teaching and Experimental Institute in Vienna with the help of a small scholarship, which was just enough for paper and pencils. Since he was forced to earn something to do so, he was particularly able to make illustrations for Hermann Kacher – who later photographed and filmed a lot for Konrad Lorenz and was currently working on a dental-scientific book by Karl Christian Koller. In the 4th year at the Graphic Teaching and Experimental Institute, Stefferl worked in the afternoon at Atelier Koszler, a large and renowned advertising studio. He made designs of all kinds, from the leaflet for linoleum floors to posters. His first poster, "Heat works wonders" in 1951, and he immediately received a poster prize for this poster from the poster evaluation campaign of the city of Vienna.

In 1953 Otto Stefferl founded together with his school friend Hansjörg Swetina, with whom he had a lifelong friendship and who was also a member of the professional association of austrian visual artists and whose wife Annelott Swetina née Malcher founded The Atelier Kleeblatt, whose clients included well-known companies such as Eumig, Maggi and the Linz Nitrogen Works. The company existed until 1959. Many advertising posters from that time are still remembered fondly, as they are shown again and again in exhibitions.

From 1961 to 1963, Otto Stefferl was employed as art director at the advertising agency Lintas in Vienna and thus head of the entire design department – graphics, text, film, radio and television.Later, Stefferl worked again as an independent advertising graphic designer.

For the traffic advertising, which at that time was supervised by the Austrian Post and Railways, Stefferl designed the now legendary Postfuchs, which became a brand figure that was used for 30 to 40 years.

A substantial part of his oeuvre is stamp designs. Otto Stefferl designed more than 150 stamps for Austria and 10 for the Principality of Liechtenstein. Many of them received national and international awards, such as 1979, 1 place at the European Philately Grand Prix for the stamp, the stamp "Year of the Child".

These works of art in the smallest space concentrate the experience of a whole life of a great graphic artist and painter. Let us hold a stamp by Otto Stefferl in our hand, we realize that he was an equally important draughtsman as a painter and that he was able to deal with paint and brushes with equal confidence, as with the black and white of charcoal or chalk, ink, graphite or pencil. Also some very popular jewelry sheets for congratulatory telegrams come from him.

Otto Stefferl was awarded the "Cross of Honour for Science and Art" in 1979 for his outstanding artistic achievements. In 1988 he was awarded the professional title "Professor".

He died on 1 January 2018.

Original Artworks

1999 overlay technology
1973 acryl technology on cardboard