Meet Betty White Stamp Artist Dale Stephanos, SNHU Graphic Design Grad

Mailboxes nationwide will soon receive mail donning postal stamps that celebrate the legacy of a pop culture icon whose career spanned eight decades: Betty White. Dale Stephanos ’23, the Betty White stamp artist and a Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) alum, said it feels amazing to know so many will see his work.

“I just love the idea that in our culture today, we're still honoring little, tiny bits of art,” he said. “We're leaving behind these artifacts of our culture that accompany our wishes and our messages.” From birthday cards and sympathy cards to love letters and even bills, Stephanos equated stamps to the chauffeur of messages.

“It's hard to articulate, but I've been saying I feel like I'm this tiny little piece of a thread that's in the fabric of the tapestry that tells the story of our culture,” he said. In addition to the Betty White stamp, Stephanos will add three more United States Postal Service (USPS) stamps to his credit by the end of 2026.

He isn’t new to the mass distribution of his work. His artwork has appeared on magazine covers, including Sports Illustrated, MAD Magazine and Newsweek, and within many national newspapers.

But How Did He Get Here?

Stephanos said it all started when he was 3 years old.

“My drawings were always a much better ambassador for me than I was when I was a kid,” he said. "It was the quickest way to make friends and to kind of bridge the gap between me and other people.”

He credits the drawings he made as a teenager to win over his now-wife — and the “old fashioned pencil” for getting him to this point in his career.

“This thing is magical,” he said, a pencil in hand. “This thing has taken me from, you know, my living room floor when I was three years old to being on stamps that will be on millions and millions of correspondences.”

As an illustrator, Stephanos works across multiple mediums. His typical process begins with a pencil sketch, which he then scans and uses a large touchscreen device and stylus to color it in Photoshop.

This method works best for his professional endeavors as it’s simpler to make updates based on feedback.

“Like with the Betty White stamp, we slightly changed the color for the lights in the background,” Stephanos said. Initially yellow, he changed them to violet/lavender color. If he were working in oil paint, he said he’d have to wait to get the painting back, make the change and then send it back — a process that’s expedited digitally.

Stamps, in particular, have a lengthy review process, too. He said the designs go through many committees and the subject’s family when possible.

A Multipurpose Studio

Stephanos’ home studio hasn’t just been used to advance his professional work. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, he transitioned to teaching classes through video calls at the same studio desk — and taking classes himself as an SNHU student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design and Media Arts.

“I had no idea the journey I had just embarked upon because it was just pedal to the metal every day: a full-time student, full-time illustrator, teaching,” he said. “That made me a much better teacher, and it also made me a much better student because I had a lot of empathy for both positions.”

Stephanos said he wasn’t a good student in high school, so this path may have surprised him at one point in his life. But he realized he just didn’t connect to the material that was being taught when he was younger; it was art and music that really held his interest.

After finishing high school, he made a living as a caricature artist and cartoonist in Boston. “I was an editorial cartoonist for the Boston Herald, and I self-syndicated, and I went on to be a regular at USA Today and the New York Times,” he said. From there, he transitioned into illustration.

“As the internet sort of ate away at the newspaper industry, I sort of slid over to the illustration side, doing pictures that were just more finished, less idea-based, and started doing a lot of magazine covers,” Stephanos said.

In 2014, at the encouragement of a friend, he began teaching classes at a Connecticut academy — and he said he loved it.

“I had the opportunity to start as an adjunct at Suffolk University in Boston, where I still am, and quickly realized I can't get anywhere if I don't have a degree,” he said.

So, when the pandemic began, it seemed like the perfect time to give school another shot.

What a Liberal Arts Education Taught Him

After doing some research and reading through reviews, Stephanos decided to try SNHU’s online graphic design program. His stepfather, who played for the Boston Celtics, held a basketball camp on SNHU’s Manchester campus back when the school was known as New Hampshire College.

“So, I thought that'd be kind of cool to go to school there,” he said. “Even though I never stepped foot on the campus until graduation, I felt like there was a bond there."

While he earned his bachelor’s degree, Stephanos took a range of courses — some for his major, some involving photography and some that fulfilled general education requirements.

“I liked so many classes,” he said. “I kept thinking, why didn't I do this when I was younger? This is awesome."

“A lot of being an illustrator is having to come up with ideas and solve problems... And this just gave me more tools to be able to do that, to really think outside of ... the circle that I would usually be kind of traveling around in,” Stephanos said. “And for my students too, I'm able to communicate in a much wider fashion than I was able to articulate before.”

After Stephanos finished his bachelor’s degree in 2023, he advanced to a Master of Fine Arts in Illustration, which he expects to complete this summer. (Note: SNHU does not currently offer an MFA in Illustration.) From there, his goal is to land a full-time teaching role.

Looking Forward

Stephanos credits the network he has built to the many opportunities he’s had over his career.

“Getting out and meeting people, it's so important,” he said. "The reason I started teaching was because I met a friend in New York 15 years earlier. Even these stamps, the reason those came along was because I made contacts that put me into a much more visible position than I would have been.”

Networking is easier now, he said, in that social media provides greater access to people. On the other hand, it can also be more challenging to forge solid connections. So, he said he does his best to keep in touch with people.

And beyond networking with others in the industry, he advises everyone to keep looking forward.

“If you believe that you can do things, you can do them,” Stephanos said. “And if you don't believe them, you can't.”

Although there have been many moments throughout his career where he felt he hit his peak, he's looking forward to what's to come. At 60 years old, Stephanos has the Betty White stamp about to debut and two degrees nearly complete.

"I feel like I'm 20 years old and I've got a fresh new road in front of me,” he said.

Rebecca LeBoeuf Blanchette '18 '22G is a writer at Southern New Hampshire University, where she fulfills her love of learning daily through conversations with professionals across a range of fields. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communication with a minor in Professional Writing from SNHU’s campus in Manchester, New Hampshire, and followed her love of storytelling into the online Master of Arts in English and Creative Writing at SNHU. Connect with her on LinkedIn.