Born in Kendallville, Indiana, Sheffer was a successful artist and illustrator of whom very little biographical detail is known. Academically a product of the Art Institute and the Art Academy of Chicago, his further studies were largely self-conducted, though materially assisted by such masters as Hans Larvin of Vienna, Albert Gartmann of Berlin and Walter Goldbeck of New York. He lived and died in Chicago where he was a president of the Palette and Chisel Club of Chicago, and also a member of the Painters and Sculptors club. He is best known for producing a famous poster advertising the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, copies of which are highly sought after today. He produced numerous illustrations for the magazines of the day and worked for publications by the Kappa Sigma Fraternity.