Vivian Lau, Trend Hunter (INTERVIEW)

Former Editorial Intern Vivian Lau appreciates social media, especially street art apps, which creates an online art community where anyone can share the art found on the streets of San Francisco in one place. This great idea not only gives credit to those street artists who may not normally get acknowledged but it is also a great way to share a part of the city that many may not have even taken notice of. Ms. Lau also discusses her time at the Trend Hunter offices and fills us in as to why it is such a great and encouraging place to work.

How do you define cool?

The way I define cool is when something is presented to you and you feel like you can hear it over and over again and be blown away all the same, every single time. In a sense, cool is when something is timeless.

What is your favorite trend and why?

My favorite trend is urban street art apps and an example of this is called 'Art Around SF.' It's an app that's an online library archive of all the street art in San Fransisco. What people do is take pictures of all the art -- statues, murals, paintings, anything on the street and they upload them onto this archive. It really gives street artists the chance to showcase their art in a city where sometimes it is overlooked.

What is your secret to uncovering the best trends?

My secret to uncovering the best trends is not to be discriminatory. Say the article title is off-putting, It doesn't matter, go into it and read it because you might end up finding something that interests you that you wouldn't think would interest you before. Sometimes titles can be super misleading. Read anything and everything on the Internet.

What is your favorite thing about working at Trend Hunter?

There are so many things, but my favorite thing about working at Trend Hunter is the people, which I'm so sure has been said before. The culture of Trend Hunter is to be totally encouraging and supportive. Even just our office, it's totally open, we are all sitting at the same desks. When we find something funny we can tell everybody about it. The fact that the lunchroom is two steps away and the fact that we all go together and we have all of our functions in the lunchroom keeps things really consistent and tightly packed.

What advice would you give to the business world?

One piece of advice I have for the business world is to run with an idea no matter what idea it is because in this age there are so many people in this world who are capable of doing so many things. It doesn't matter what you do or even if you have a good idea, you just have to do it.

Any last words you'd like to say about Trend Hunter?

I LOVE Trend Hunter!