In the 1960s, Stermer had become an art director for Ramparts. A magazine that had leftist views that eventually resulted in the conceptualization of the Rolling Stones magazine. With his work in Ramparts, he had enabled the magazine to the first “Radical Slick” by combining blockbuster investigative stories with high production values by including photographs and glossy paper.
After a successful career at Ramparts magazine for a number of years, he had left the position to pursue a career as a freelance illustrator and a magazine designer. His later jobs had consisted of working on advertising campaigns for Levi’s, Jaguar, Brooks Bros., BMW, Nike, and others as well. However, one of most notable, if not the most notable, was his designing of the medals for the 1984 Summer Olympics while he was still living in Los Angeles.
In addition to that, he had also worked as an illustrator by creating illustrations for The San Francisco Chronicle, Time, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New Yorker, GQ, and The Rolling Stones. He had led a successful career until his eventual death at the age of 74 on December 2, 2011.