Lucas Kschischang, Trend Hunter (INTERVIEW)

Lucas Kschischang, a graphic design and social media intern at Trend Hunter, seems to have fun checking out creative animal advertising. When he's not watching YouTube clips of pugs wearing advertisement fashion, Kschischang has an affinity for all things graphic design, as well as a passion for sports (particularly baseball) and video games. Just don't ask him his thoughts on Helvetica and Comic Sans fonts, or he'll actually tell you what they are.

How do you define cool?

I think cool is just being yourself, doing what you want to do. I think it's all about staying true with what you like and what you believe in. Maybe at first people might make fun of you, but after a while people will start to respect you for being who you are. That's definitely how to define cool, being who you are and doing what you want to do.

What is your favorite trend and why?

My favorite trend is creative animal advertising. I have a pretty sweet example here, it's called Pug Promoting Methods. Basically it's two guys, one of whom was an intern at Trend Hunter, they found a small way to advertise by placing pugs in places with little pug clothing. Basically, they're advertising with pugs. They'd put a pug outside of a Starbucks with a sign on it saying "half price happy hour." Things like that. It's a neat little way to revolutionize advertising. It's also cheap, it's cute and I guess it's animal friendly because the animals like it. I think it's successful because people like pugs. I mean, they're cute little dogs who are all wobbly and whatnot. People can interact with a pug since it's a small little thing. People are drawn to it.

What is your secret to uncovering the best trends?

I do a lot of graphic design, so for me, it's almost creating a trend. If you know something that's a little weird, you like it and you think it's cool, write about it. Chances are there's going to be a ton of other people that like it too. Look at Trend Hunter, we have 2.5 million followers on Facebook. That's more than TMZ, more than Cosmopolitan and more than Maxim. That's crazy! It's so cool. I think when people see something like that, they step back and say "wow, that's really neat." That's the kind of thing I look for when I look for trends to cover in graphic design.

How do you see the business world changing in the future?

I think a lot of businesses are changing the way they set up their offices to be similar to Trend Hunter's. I'm not saying Trend Hunter started it, but this office environment is the way to go. You're letting people be creative and have a little more freedom in what they do. I think the happier people are, the more free they are, the better work they're going to do. I think that's a positive trend in how businesses are evolving. You're going to see a lot more of it and you're going to see more growth from companies that let their employees have more freedom.