Before launching himself into the global freelance industrial design market, Alain invested seven years of study into becoming a industrial designer. The first rung on the ladder was achieved in 2004, when he completed a product design degree in Auckland, New Zealand – his home city. This was followed by two years of post-graduate transport design studies in Germany. Alain was the first-ever New Zealander to study transportation design at world-renowned Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences. While working towards his Master of Transportation Design degree, he completed an internship at Audi-Lamborghini in 2008, where he worked on exterior design and design strategy. This was another first for New Zealand – Audi Design had never employed a Kiwi before.

With his studies complete, Alain moved to Switzerland and co-founded design and engineering firm Designwerk GmbH, which has pioneered the development of electric vehicles. Before moving back to New Zealand in 2015, he worked for product design companies in Italy on projects for Scott, TechnoAlpin, Microtec and Salewa. Today Alain works from his base on Waiheke Island where he works on product and transportation designs for clients such as Rinspeed, Gibbs Amphibians and Fisher & Paykel.