Tynell attended the Central School of Applied Arts in Helsinki, and he taught metalwork there from 1917 to 1923. He was one of the founders and the main designer of Taito company, and managing director of the firm from 1918 to 1953. The founders included designer , sculptor Emil Wikström, goldsmith and who acted as investor. He collaborated with distinguished Finnish architects, including Alvar Aalto, and his lamps were widely sold not only in Finland but in the United States too, where his designs were popular especially in the 1950s. He used brass and glass in an elegant and simple fashion, and his designs were often decorated with perforated patterns. In 2018, the Danish design company Gubi relaunched a collection of Tynell's lighting designs.
