Quick Facts
Biography
Robert Hunt (born 1952) is an American illustrator and painter.
Over the course of his illustration career, Hunt has created works for a wide variety of clients, including Bank of America, CBS Records, Criterion Collection, Dreamworks, Disney, Federal Express, MGM, The New Republic, Paramount, Random House, Rolling Stone, Universal Studios, The Wall Street Journal, Williams-Sonoma, Inc., and many more.
Early life and education
Robert Hunt was born in 1952 in Berkeley, California and attended High School at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California.
Hunt's grandparents lived a few miles from his family home and he would frequently visit his Grandfather who had suffered a stroke. The stroke left his grandfather with the use of only one arm and during visits he often emphasized the importance of appreciating the ability to do things with ones hands and to try make the most of your hands to create things that solve problems.
The artist found early inspiration in what he observed growing up in the late 1960s. Films by Stanley Kubrick and David Lean inspired Hunt to imagine that a life as a creative artist was a possibility.
Hunt attended university as an under-graduate at UC Davis, where he initially sought a degree in fine art and film making. With the encouragement of UC Davis professor Wayne Thiebaud, he later switched his undergraduate major to art history.
After graduating from UC Davis with a degree in Art History in 1976, Hunt briefly taught mathematics at Esparto Middle School in Esparto, California.
In 1978 Hunt went on to attend The Academy of Art in San Francisco where he was one of two students in the graduate illustration program. The other student was Kazuhiko 'Kazu' Sano, who would notably go on to illustrate the movie poster for "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.The director of the illustration program at the Academy of Art when Hunt and Kazu attended was Barbara Bradley, one of the first women to pursue and succeed in commercial illustration. Bradley taught clothed figure drawing and heads and hands, and Hunt attended daily classes with her for one year. Hunt credits her with teaching him to turn off his ego while drawing. Hunt would graduate with an MFA from the Academy of Art in 1980.
Illustration career
Getting started
Although the majority of work in illustration was coming from magazines and book publishers based in New York City in the early 1980s, delivering art from Hunt's home in San Francisco became a viable option with FedEx going nationwide to 90 cities in 1980. The San Francisco-based illustrator, David Grove had forged a successful career in illustration from the West Coast and Hunt, along with his friend Kazu decided that they could as well.
Hunt's first published work appeared in 1980, at age 28 for Listen Magazine. His first appearance in the Society of Illustrators Annual came in 1983, with a piece titled Hidden Victims for Listen Magazine. His first book cover assignment was with Bantam Books in 1984, under the art direction of Jerry Counihan., for the book The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour
Notable works
DreamWorks logo
In 1994 Hunt was commissioned by Steven Spielberg to create the DreamWorks logo. Spielberg originally imagined a CGI generated image of a man fishing from the moon. On the recommendation of Senior Visual Effects Supervisor, Dennis Muren that the image instead be an original painting, Hunt was called in to execute the final image on which the motion version was based. The final motion logo took Hunt three months to complete and features a boy fishing from the moon. The model Hunt used for the child was his own son, William Hunt.
New Republic covers
Hunt was featured in an 11-year retrospective of New Republic covers by The Society of Publication Designers for his December 2, 2009 cover titled Trial By Fire picturing the back of President Barack Obama's head, art directed by Christine Car and Joseph Heroun.
New Republic listed Hunt's October 20, 2011 cover portrait of US Presidential contender Rick Perry as an art director pick of the year.
Motion graphics
In addition to Hunt's motion logo for DreamWorks, the artist has created motion logos for Random House Worlds [1], and Broad Green Pictures [2]
Book cover illustrations
Some of Robert Hunt's hundreds of book covers:
- A Million Ways to Die in the West by Seth MacFarlane[3]
- Coming Out by Danielle Steel
- Hidden Cities by Daniel Fox [4]
- Jade Man's Skin by Daniel Fox [5]
- Medusa's Country by Larissa Shmailo[6]
- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (20th Anniversary Edition)[7]
- SuperFreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner[8]
- The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley [9]
- The Jungle by Upton Sinclair [10]
- Victore or, Who Died And Made You Boss? by James Victore, and Michael Bierut[11]
Teaching
Hunt is an Associate Professor of illustration at the California College of the Arts. Since 2008 Hunt has led an annual New York City trip to introduce students to top art directors and working illustrators as a way to introduce students to professional practices.
Honors and awards
- Hamilton King Award, Society of Illustrators, 2015
- Distinguished Educator in the Arts Honoree, Society of Illustrators, 2016
Personal life
Robert Hunt is a member of the N.Y. Society of Illustrators and is a member and past president of the San Francisco Society of Illustrators. He lives and works in San Anselmo, California, with his wife Lynn. Hunt has two children, William who is a music composer and a daughter who is an animal biologist.