As a 3D Generalist, Nick transforms our orthopaedic implants and instruments into photo-realistic images and animations. Nick recently joined the Bonebridge team as a permanent member but has been supporting us as a freelancer since 2019. “I was working for a 3D company in Shenzhen, China, at the time,” Nick says. “Laurent Müller, then Head of Marketing & Business Development at Bonebridge, first told me about the start-up and that they were looking for someone to virtually bring their products to life.”
The position in Shenzhen wasn’t Nick’s first stint abroad: The Swiss native first started working and living primarily in Asia in his early thirties. He had the chance to work as an assistant on a documentary project in China and soon after teamed up with a friend in Indonesia, where he subsequently worked as a 3D Animator out of Jakarta and Bali. These days, Nick is based in Jakarta, but he still regularly visits Switzerland for work and to meet family and friends. “Jakarta has become a second home,” he says. There are many expats in Asia who are looking for an escape from their home country, but I’ve never looked at it that way – for me, it has felt very natural to be abroad, and I’m always excited to visit Switzerland.”
Nick grew up in Dietikon, a small suburb of Zurich right next to the Limmat River – a fitting backdrop considering he comes from a “canoeing dynasty”, as he calls it jokingly. His grandfather competed in the canoe sprint event at the Olympic Games. Nick’s father also competed on the world stage and was an Olympic qualifier but could not participate due to illness. “I’m afraid the canoeing family tradition ended with my generation,”Nick says. As a kid, he gravitated towards skateboarding instead — a passion that has stayed with him ever since. “Skateboarding has always given me a strong sense of belonging. No matter where you are in the world, if you show up with a skateboard under your arm, you’ll instantly connect with likeminded people.”
As a teenager, the sense of community he got through skateboarding was vital for Nick. He had a wide range of interests, but no obvious way to shape them into a future career — a lack of direction that was also reflected in his academic performance. After spending a few years away at boarding school in Switzerland and Scotland, he decided to join his father’s graphic design studio: “My dad always had a keen eye for design and typography, and once he retired from canoeing, he started a small design agency in Zurich,” Nick says. “I remember spending a lot of time there as a kid. It certainly planted the seed for my later life.”
Nick’s major professional breakthrough followed in the late 90s, when he discovered the first 3D computer games. What began as an interest in exploring digital worlds quickly evolved into a drive to create them, which then paved the way for his future career. Suddenly, at only twenty-two, Nick found himself in a booming emerging market: He successfully worked as a 3D and visual effects artist for various digital agencies in Switzerland, contributing to campaigns and music videos by major clients such as Migros, Coop, or Heineken. “These projects mostly came to me by word of mouth or through a friend who had his own studio in Zurich,” Nick says. “Through my affiliation with the skateboarding scene, I somehow also ended up collaborating with a few major Swiss and German hip hop artists like Bushido and Stress.”
Despite his impressive track record in Switzerland, Nick had to start from scratch when he arrived in Asia. “Indonesia, in particular, can be a pretty tough place for foreigners looking to work,” he admits. “There are 285 million Indonesians, and 30 million live in the greater Jakarta area alone — everyone’s just trying to make a living in this giant city.” Still, Nick wouldn’t trade his urban home, which he shares with his Indonesian wife Aya and several cats, for well-known Bali. The island has always felt too much like tourist bubble to Nick — a polished corner of Indonesia where tourists don’t have to face the difficulties of the developing country. He has always felt much more at home in the metropolitan center of Jakarta. “There’s always something going on — street vendors, food stalls, life spilling into the streets. It’s a place of beautiful chaos. However, it’s a place where you need to know what you’re looking for, rather than expect opportunities to present themselves.”
These days, most of his friends are Indonesian, with a few expats in the mix. Nick speaks conversational Indonesian, but the locals who know English often switch to it when they speak with foreigners — a small reminder of the cultural gap that remains, even in the city he calls home.