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Stefan Kiefer

JANUARY 19, 2010
Many years ago I received a call from an art director at Der Spiegel.  He was very descriptive of what he was looking for and very detailed oriented.  It was Stefan Kiefer.  It turns out he was an illustrator once and a good one.  He understood what was possible and has an amazing eye for what works and what does not.  I've done numerous covers for the magazing since and now count Stefan as a good friend.  He's had me out to Berlin for a Der Spiegel retrospective where I got to see just how much the magazine respects illustration.  Stefan has been to many of the ICONs and many Society of Illustrator functions.  He's plugged into where we are and I know the illustration community loves him.
 
Stefan is a wonderful guy, a vegetarian, a drummer, and loves to laugh.  Here is my Stefan portrait. 
Stefan Kiefer, a man in charge.

Happy Birthday Stefan.
Here is a close up view of the piece.  I got to leave all my brush strokes untouched, which I love.




I just did this illustration for Stefan last week.  A cover story about Tut. 




These brush strokes are softened to make the gold glimmer and Tut look like the young king he was. 

Stefan and a gaggle of German illustrators seeing what a 15 year old rube does with $25 dollars back in the 80's.

We had a great show opening in Berlin and I remember Stefan was really tightly wound that night.  The Chancellor was in attendance as well as all the Der Spiegel brass and he had to give a talk.  When we was finished Stefan FINALLY relaxed and was almost spiritural in his calmness.  Great memories.

I've always liked this photo.  I had just gotten to Berlin and we were in the building where the workshops were to be held. We stepped onto the roof and it was this wonderful sunset.  This was not the Bono look-alike contest.  That was later and Rafal Obinski won.

Thanks Lou Brooks and Nancy Stahl for posting your great pieces.

© 2024 Tim O'Brien