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Endpoint: Michel Guiré-Vaka

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created on: 19/06/2024
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Michel Guiré-Vaka (born 27 May 1936 in Paris, France - died January 30 2015 (aged 78)) was a French illustrator.
He entered Estienne College in 1951, specializing in book binding and advertising. From 1951 to 1954 he studied of advertising illustration.
From 1960 to 1962 he served in the Algerian war.
After military service he became a teacher in Roubaix, France. In 1965 he was named graphic arts tutor in Paris. At the same time, to enrich his teaching, he collaborated first as a graphic designer, then as an illustrator with advertising agencies.
By 1970 Michel dedicates himself entirely to illustration and becomes freelance.He illustrates for well-known products such as Coca Cola, Club-Méditerranée, Raley, Waterman, Banania, Lanvin, Air-Wick, etc.
Until 1972, he exclusively did advertising. Since then his first offers for collaborations with magazines came in, such as le Nouvel Adam in France (fashion), Pardon in Germany (satirical), then again in France with the major economic magazines L'Expansion, le Nouvel Économiste, Réalités, etc.
In 1974 he creates his first children's book based on a text by Charles Trenet for Éditions Hachette: A Nut (Une Noix (fr)).
In 1975 Les Contes de Grimm would follow.
From 1976 to 1980 he began an almost permanent collaboration with the monthly Enfants magazine, for which he created an illustration almost every month.
By 1981 he started working internationally- by correspondence - every month with Esquire magazine and in January 1983 decided to make the trip from Paris to New York. It allowed him to develop new professional relationships with the United States: book covers for Pantheon Books, children's books for CCI and Knopf, birthday cards, advertising for the Bartel agency in Missouri.
Work for Playboy, Cosmopolitan, Sport illustrated and The New York Times would follow.
His most recent publication was Petit Pata Pon au Pays des Francochons, published by Calligram en 1995 after which two decades of calm followed.

Besides France and the United States, the works of Michel Guiré-Vaka have been published in Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, Hong Kong and in Canada.