Thinking Differently

Eric Herman

Not long ago, a friend and I were talking the about worn-out phrases, and “thinking outside the box” was one of them. As he pointed out, it’s remarkably ironic that we now use a cliché to describe the process of freeing ourselves from habitual thinking.

And that phrase is far from alone: Whether someone is marching “off the beaten path” or “to the beat of a different drum” or plainly refers to the notion of doing things in a different way than they’ve been done in the past, all of those phrasings have become so familiar and so widely recognized as being keys to success that all of them have become somewhat shopworn and tired.

That’s a pity, because no matter how you put it, the fact remains that enabling, developing and following a creative impulse is one of those things that often spells the difference between success and failure.

That’s especially true in a cooled market and a universe in which watershape designers, engineers and builders have all been forced to think carefully about how they demonstrate their value to potential clients and make the most of projects that manage to come their way. Sometimes, that means operating with efficiencies that squeeze more out of tightened budgets; in other cases, however, it’s all about coming up with new ideas and approaches that inspire clients to devote greater resources to their homes and yards.

In my role in guiding the content of this magazine, I’m constantly amazed at the population of professionals who follow the creative road and continue to press at the boundaries in ways that lead to new thinking, whether those ideas emerge out of necessity or surface in response to creative passion. Indeed, one of the things I enjoy most about watershaping as a business is the fact that so many of you are able to convert innovative thinking into creative action.

In this issue, for example, you’ll find two stories about creativity that are as different from one another as one could imagine.

[ ] In “Shaping Bubbles” by inventor David Whiteis (click here), you’ll find the story of a man whose childhood curiosity led him to develop a class of devices that generate perfect “bubble rings” – not cascades of individual bubbles that form a ring but, rather, single circular bubbles that rise like smoke rings in the water. It’s one of the most unusual features we’ve ever run, and it’s all about a clever, charming, even mesmerizing concept.

[ ] In “Moving Experiences,” Canadian pool designer/builder Josh Katz (click here) describes what may well be the world’s first-ever lazy river pool made with vinyl-liner technology – a project that asserts by its very existence that these pools are capable of becoming every bit as custom (and creative) as their concrete cousins.

As suggested above, these two stories have little in common – except for the fact that both Whiteis and Katz are extremely passionate and have devoted their time and energy to developing concepts that had never been tackled before. Both were of a mind to take chances; both did what it took to see their innovations through to fruition.

To my mind, whether it’s something as ephemeral and simple as a bubble ring or as persistent and complicated as a custom swimming pool, there’s something truly inspiring about looking at the work of those who, to use another possible cliché, “expand the sphere of possibilities.”