#trends
I have two very special reasons for inviting you to stop by the WaterShapes booth during this year's International Pool|Spa|Patio Expo in Las Vegas: [ ] First, I want to talk with you about the WaterShapes Professional Network and all of the reasons you should sign up right away. As a minor barrage of emails advised last month, we're on
As I wrote in a recent blog ("The Way-Back Machine," September 23), I envy you if you live in a community where your public pools are still being used to teach people of all ages (and especially children) to swim. It means that kids in your area are able to discover swimming in capable, confidence-building environments - the sort of supportive circumstances that were found just about everywhere
I've been around watershapes a long time - for more than three-quarters of my professional life. I started out with scientific and technical magazines in 1980, but once I started splashing around at Pool & Spa News in 1987, I never really looked back. As it turns out, I found my way into the world of aquatics
It all started at the Orlando pool expo last November, when Noah Nehlich stopped by the WaterShapes booth toward the end of the show and asked how we might work together. He's the founder of Structure Studios (which produces the Pool Studio software system), and I have to admit that I'd never been terribly receptive to the concept of digital design. At that point, in fact, I was still so
I've been working as a watershape designer long enough to have seen big trends emerge and really take hold. It seemed for a while, for example, that vanishing edges came up at some point in just about every initial client conversation. More recently, I've found myself discussing lots of geometric pools - rectangles and various other squared-off perimeters - and that's great, because it gives us plentiful ways to
There's no doubt that watershaping took it on the chin in the Great Recession. Some businesses vanished, and those that have persisted are, in many if not most cases, leaner than they were back in 2008 and just different in many respects from what they once were. It's also fair to report, because the economy and
Up until recently, I'd watched in frustration as watershaping failed to gain any significant traction on television. Sure, pools and hot tubs and fountains and ponds have been featured components in more broadcast series than I can count, but what I've really wanted is a good show about watershapes, how they're
