Brandon Bastaldo, Trend Hunter (INTERVIEW)

Brandon Bastaldo passes time on public transit by seeing them as digital subway libraries. When he's not reading on trains, the graduate of film from the University of Toronto is all about visual creativity. From his love of Sci-Fi all the way to film criticism, Bastaldo will take on all rivals in a movie trivia contest. He also has a strong fondness for the Toronto hip-hop community and considers himself a food connoisseur.

How would you describe Trend Hunter?

So far Trend Hunter has been an amazing experience. The people and the community here are totally killer. Everyone is here to have a good time but also work really hard. I'm learning a lot, even though it's only my first week, I've learned so much about optimizing social media and the Internet. It's all good stuff!

What's your favorite trend and why?

One of the cool trends I found is digital subway libraries. This is really cool because what it does is give you ten free pages of books like The Hobbit or The Kite Runner, a lot of different cool books. When you get off the subway, it tells you where the closest library is for you to go and actually get this book. It's a smart and educational way to pass what would otherwise be a pretty boring time.

How do you define cool?

I define cool as anything that catches my eye. Cool is whatever you simply can't resist checking out.

What's your secret to uncovering the best trends?

My secret to uncovering the best trends would be taking things one step further. A lot of times I'll look at something on the Internet and do a little bit of further research. Maybe I'll look up the company that created it, and sometimes that will lead me to more interesting and ingenious products that people are creating.

What's you favorite part about working at Trend Hunter?

My favorite thing about working at Trend Hunter are the beer parties! Just kidding. Realistically my favorite thing about working here is the community. The type of people and atmosphere we have going on here isn't something you can recreate anywhere else. Everyone is positive and creative. Everyone is looking to work together and build towards a collective sense of consciousness about all the crazy things that are happening in the world. I really can't tell you many other places where you can get that.

What's your favorite accomplishment?

My favorite accomplishment in my short 23 years on this earth would be getting published in a national magazine last year. I work as a writer, journalist and a critic. I'm always writing, so having my work spread out across Canada in print was pretty cool.

What's your awesome prediction for the year 2030?

Kim Kardashian and Kayne West will be the President and First Lady of the United States.

Is there anything you'd like to add about Trend Hunter?

Trend Hunter is a really amazing place to come, learn and build some crazy good skills that will definitely help you out in whatever field you plan or would like to go into. I also can't say anything better about the really interesting group of individuals I work with right now.