Alain Carrier was born on 14th October 1924 in Sarlat, France.  His parents were owners of the Café du Palais.  The clientele was incredibly eclectic.  Horse traders, poultry sellers and craftsmen sat side by side with notaries, doctors, tradesmen, and manufacturers who were joined by artists, writers and unknown travellers searching new horizons.  The Café du Palais was Sarlat's Café de Flore with Georges Simenon, Paul Eluard, Henry Miller, Robert Couzinou (baritone with the Paris Opera, a native of Sarlat) and many other familiar faces.  Often at a table in the main room, a little off to one side, little Yves Alain would be busy drawing everything he saw.  It was this first name of Yves that gave rise to the nickname of Vivou.  Even today one shouldn't be surprised if it is this name that you hear in the streets of Sarlat.

One day when he was drawing a label intended for a bottle of his grand-mother's nut wine, a man approached the child and, surprised by his imagination, he said to Vivou's father: « Albert, your son thinks with his reflexes – he'll be a poster artist ».  This man was Marius Rossillon, alias O'Galop, a famous illustrator and creator of the Michelin Man.  If this comment didn't seem to please his father, it must have encouraged Vivou?
Vivou studied at the La Boétie secondary school but his enlistment in the French Resistance as early as 1940 disrupted his education.  He was arrested by the Germans in the Café du Palais, but managed to discretely escape when the soldiers found the place much too much to their comfort and began a drinking spree that made them forget their mission.

Despite his father's objections and encouraged by Josef Benari, artistic director for Metro Goldwyn Mayer, he 'went up’ to Paris in 1945.  He was the student of the greatest poster artist at the time, Paul Colin, and became his assistant.  He graduated quickly from routine tasks to participating in the creation of important works.  It was on the advice of Paul Colin that he signed his posters simply « Alain Carrier ».

In 1947 he exhibited at the Autumn Salon in Paris.
 
Becoming interested in teaching he was appointed teacher of drawing at the Ville de Paris school, a post which he left in 1950.  At the same time he continued to create classical and popular music record sleeves for famous artists, as well as posters.  He was entering the circles of show biz and was a friend to the greatest artists of the time: Anne Chapelle, Edith Piaf, Bourvil, Jacques Hélian, Joséphine Baker, Philippe Clay, Pierre Dac, etc... 
But there was also good contacts with Jean Cocteau, Paul Eluard, and Louis Jouvet.

In 1950 the Printemps Department Store, recognising his talent, appointed him Artistic Manager of Advertising.  He stayed ten years.
 
This is not to say however that he never turned his attention to his native region, the Périgord, and in 1952 he co-founded a festival of dramatic arts in Sarlat, the Theatre Arts Festival In Sarlat – an innovation at that time !  The festival has now been running for more than half a century.  Unhappily the poster which he created for the occasion – the herald astride his horse –  which was the calling card for these days of theatre and part of their success, has recently and for no discernible reason been replaced by a new graphic.
 
In 1960 he was invited to join the Havas advertising agency thanks to the pressure exerted by the SIMCA automobile corporation for whom he had created an advertising campaign.  For eight years he held the post of Director of the Creation and Technical Departments for this important advertising agency.

During a fact-finding visit to the United States his American colleagues called him " Mr Mennen " on account of the famous slogan he created for this
after-shave gel in France: « Mennen for us men ».
 
In 1969 he decided to establish a design agency, the Agence de Création Alain Carrier.  A number of companies entrusted him with their trade mark posters, logotypes, graphic charters, slogans etc...
 
After a fact-finding trip in the U.S.S.R. towards the end of 1974 he was appointed to the art directorship of the Brossard communications group.
 
Wanting to pass the advantage of his experience on young graphic artists he became teacher at a prestigious advertising school, the Graduate School of Publicity, whilst serving as consultant to the Profac and Spire agencies.
 
A new fact-finding trip took him to India in 1982.
 
In 1984 he retired.

But this is not to say that he put down his pencils and brushes.  He hasn't stopped creating posters for charitable causes, associations and for towns such as his native Sarlat but also Domme, La Roque-Gageac, Monpazier.  The majority of these posters he donated without charge.
 
Alain Carrier was member of the jury for the international poster awards, the Prix International de l'Affiche in 1992-1993.  The following year he decided to live permanently in Sarlat.
 
In 1999 his famous poster for Amnesty International based on a quote by Victor Hugo: « You cannot muzzle the light » was used as basis for the French paper in the Baccalaureate examination.
 
In 2001, the book « Le XXème Siècle à l'Affiche » (published by Larousse) devoted two pages to the poster « Non à la torture » it being analysed as follows: « Its simplicity is understood at first glance; the arms metamorphosed into ropes which themselves become the instrument of torture reflect the expression of unbearable suffering.  Furthermore, the man is alone, in a position halfway between a forced kneel and his will to remain standing.  He is not yet completely broken; the invisible tormentors in the image haven't yet crushed every part of him.  That's what torture is, a refinement of horror, a balance between life and death.  The images of torture are not infrequent in paintings and engravings of previous times, the most famous being without doubt those painted by Goya, in which he describes the disasters of war; but the mutilations or dismemberments represented have most often already done their deadly work and already turned men into cadavers; we see the result and not the process of ferocity.  It is this result that is present in the poster and which is why the representation is so eye-catching.  [...]  The mystery of this image, monstrous in itself, is that the tortured man is the guardian of his own interior treasure, a sacred temple of the human condition which survives all cruelty. »
 
In 2003 Alain Carrier received a visit from the Director of Prints and Photography at the French National Library.  When she was shown the posters in Alain Carrier's possession, she offered to transfer this important collection to the National Library.  Wishing to see his works restored – should it be necessary – and conserved in the best conditions, Alain Carrier accepted.
 
Few poster artists can pride themselves on having collected as many signs of recognition in their career.
 
In 1975 he was made Officer in the International Order of Arts and Art Education.
 
As citizen he was accepted into the National Order of Merit in 1982 and into the order of the Légion d’Honneur in 2004.