Hechenberger was born in Innsbruck, Austria. His posters, in the form of posted bills and placards, have been used since earliest times. They were used primarily for announcements and advertising. Hechenberger developed his unique style of producing posters, and by the 1890s, this technique had spread throughout Europe. In this same period, a number of noted artists created poster art, foremost amongst them Jules Chéret and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who are considered to be the "fathers" of advertisement placards. However, a lithographic technique developed by Chéret better suited the needs of advertisers. In this technique, he added more and more color which, in combination with inventive typography, rendered the poster much more communicative. Hechenberger worked in the days when the printing industry perfected color lithography and made mass production possible. The styles have ranged from Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Cubism, to the hippie posters of the 1960s and the more formal Bauhaus posters.
Poster art had widespread usage in other parts of Europe by the 1890s; advertising everything from bullfights to bicycles. By the end of the 19th century, the role of the poster as a serious form of art was raised even further during an era known as the Belle Époque. In fact posters soon transformed Paris streets into the "art galleries.” Hechenberger was known for programming, interactive art, open source, industrial design. His Fellowships and Awards included Artist-In-Residence MuseumqsQuartier Vienna, Carnegie Mellon University STUDIO for Creative Inquiry Resident, Advisory Council, Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, Postindustrial Design Resident, Hyperwerk Institute, and CultureLab Fellow.
