Alann De Vuyst was born in Dirk Marten's* city of Aalst, in the province of East-Flanders, Belgium. At the tender age of nine he studied art on Sundays, with Willy, his father (from he got his earliest drawing lessons at age 3), and Astrid his eldest sister, at the Academie van Schone Kunsten, in the same city for four years. A twenty kilometers roundtrip on his small bicycle, over hilly Flanders, through snow and rain and occasional sunshine. At thirteen he was the youngest painter at an artist fair in the city of Zottegem. At fifteen he finally decided to take classes in advertising arts at the renowned St-Lukas Instituut in Brussels, for another six years. In 1982, he set out to work for a brief spell at the famous advertising agency Lintas SSC&BWorldwide/Brussels, which he had achieved through competition of designing a poster for the agency's 50th anniversary. His design got the second-best place and the reward was first a fortnight job during the school holidays and then 3 months