He studied at the Fine Arts School in Katowice, then a branch of the Academy of Fine Arts of Cracow, finishing in 1952 in the class of Jozef Mroszczak, the founder of the Warsaw International Poster Biennial, and moved to Warsaw immediately after graduation. There he soon established close relations with many theaters, book publishers and the Film Rental Office, and began to participate in many polish and international competitions and exhibitions. His work was rewarded with practically all important prizes and medals, and his posters are in all major poster collections of the world. He was also a teacher at the Academies of Fine Art in Warsaw and in Poznan.

Waldemar Swierzy was last of the giants of the "polish school of posters", after Roman Cieslewicz, Henryk Tomaszewski, Jan Lenica, Jan Mlodozeniec, Wiktor Gorka and Franciszek Starowieyski have passed away. The curtain has closed on one of the most fruitful and fascinating periods of poster design.