Sandberg was a graphic and exhibition designer as well as a museum man. Educated at the State Academy of Art in Amsterdam and later in Vienna, with Otto Neurath who worked on Isotype and in Utrecht. Sandberg’s design career started with a publishing firm, but he soon was commissioned by the Dutch Post and the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum. He was a curator at that museum (1937–41) and worked with the resistance against the German occupiers, on the forging of documents. While in hiding he developed the series Experimenta Typographica, which went on to influence his main body of characteristic graphic work. He was the director or advisor of several museums, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. His awards include: NY Hall of Fame, 1979; Werkman Prize, 1959; Erasmus Prize, 1975. In his position at the Stedelijk Museum he was very active in his efforts to encourage other graphic designers and build up their professional organization.