Robert Hunt

New Republic listed Hunt's October 20, 2011 cover portrait of US Presidential contender Rick Perry as an art director pick of the year.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

After graduating from UC Davis with a degree in Art History in 1976, Hunt briefly taught mathematics at Esparto Middle School in Esparto, California.

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.

Robert Hunt (born 1952) is an American illustrator and painter.

Robert Hunt was born in 1952 in Berkeley, California and attended High School at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California.