Robert Frank Tinney (born November 22, 1947) is an American contemporary

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

known for his monthly cover illustrations for the microcomputer publication Byte magazine spanning over a decade. In so doing, Tinney became one of the first artists to create a broad yet consistent artistic concept for the computing world, combining a specific artistic style with visual metaphor to showcase emerging trends in

personal computing A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as word processing, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and gaming. Personal computers ar ...

technology.

Early life and work

Robert Frank Tinney was born on November 22, 1947, in

Penn Yan, New York Penn Yan is an incorporated Village (New York), village and the county seat of Yates County, New York, Yates County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 5,159 at the 2010 census. It lies at the north end of the east bran ...

. He later moved with his family to

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

. There he attended

Istrouma High School Istrouma High School is an accredited public school located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. It was founded in 1917, and is located in East Baton Rouge Parish. Its name is a local Indian word meaning "red stick." Red stick is also the En ...

where his talent for art, and specifically illustration, became distinctly apparent. He later attended Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, now known as

Louisiana Tech University Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public university, public research university in Ruston, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and Carnegie Classification of Institu ...

Byte magazine covers

Carl Helmers, Editor-in-Chief for

Byte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...

, contacted Tinney about the new magazine in 1975; sending him a copy of the first issue released in September. Tinney was given the opportunity to produce the artwork for the magazine covers and his first print appeared on the December 1975 issue. Tinney created over 100 pieces of artwork for the magazine covers. His artwork for Byte was done by hand and consisted of drawn illustrations with tissue paper, oil painting, and designer wash and airbrush. Tinney would later sell limited edition prints of his Byte magazine covers to the general public; accepting orders on hi
website

References

1947 births Living people American illustrators Louisiana Tech University alumni {{US-illustrator-stub