Dragan S. Stefanović graduated in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo in 1979. As a student, he became famous and gained fame in Yugoslavia with the design of LP records of the Sarajevo group Bijelo dugme (mid-seventies), and then the group Indexi, Ambasadori, Cod, Teška industrija, Time and especially the design for LP covers by Zdravko Čolić.
In the first half of the 1970s, Dragan S. Stefanović understood, unlike other designers, the creative potentials of photography, the power of media (newspapers, radio and TV) and the importance of the creation of image of a group for its status on music scene. Just music was not sufficient for success. Popular culture to which this music genre belonged (rock music) repeated the cultural matrices taken from the West. Flower Children and the sexual revolution preceded this generation of our musicians. In this respect, Dragan S. Stefanović often touched boundaries of the then accepted norms of good taste with his provocative design, pretending to break them or to push them.
Those “suspicious design solutions” were sometimes banned. The group’s live concerts, the created image of their members, scandals in the private and public lives, suspicion that they were using drugs, foreign currency smuggling, etc. were easons for their media presence and – their fame. Such a media strategy made them the No. 1 music brand in the then Yugoslavia. As a designer, he was successfully involved in photography and illustration, as well as the design of posters, books and LPs. His creative approach often meant more than design - he was a great stylist and an author who understood the power of marketing. Although he has lived in Lausanne (Switzerland) since 1983 and is still active in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in numerous projects of the publishing house Rabic from Sarajevo - as a designer and illustrator.