Choosing first to major in industrial design, Pai was deeply interested in a basic yet comprehensive coursework in three-dimensional design, which was founded on Bauhaus principles and focused on abstraction, visual analysis, and form and structure. After graduation, he was deeply moved by the constructivist work of Theodore Rosjak, a master of welded sculpture, and subsequently worked for two years as his assistant. Constructivism is the most notable tendency in Pai’s early work, and also played an important role in training the artist to comprehend the structures of objects by examining and analyzing them into basic elements.