To Good Use

Eric Herman

Welcome to WaterShapes’ 2011 Resource Directory!

It’s our way of wrapping up a year’s worth of issues with a special edition that anticipates your professional needs in times to come. Simply put, we’ve beaten the bushes and amassed a treasure trove of information that gives you direct, easy access to the products and services you’ll need to excel in the design, engineering and construction of watershapes and outdoor environments of all types in 2011 and beyond.

Since the magazine’s debut a dozen years ago, we’ve served as the forum for a number of previously disconnected trades involved in a range of previously unrelated activities – not just pools and spas or ponds, streams and waterfalls, but also commercial and residential fountains, wetlands and lakes, interactive play systems, landscape design and architecture, water resource management and even the aquatically oriented fine arts.

This unifying approach has broadened our reach to a readership that has diverse yet highly specialized requirements when it comes to selecting products and materials and putting them to use. Working directly with these readers, we carefully developed a Resource Guide that offers basic information across the whole spectrum of the watershaping arts and crafts. And all of the information has been painstakingly updated for 2011, with listings featuring more than 600 suppliers across hundreds of distinct product categories – all organized in an easy-to-use format that will come in handy throughout the New Year.

In addition, all of this information will soon be available online at www.watershapes.com, where in many cases you’ll get direct access to supplier web sites to speed your access to detailed technical information about products and services that catch your eye – “one-stop shopping” of the easiest kind.

While you’re on our site, you’ll also see what we’ve done to improve and enrich our Web offerings with respect not only to product information but also to original content and features. If you haven’t yet done so, please take time while you’re there to sign up for our twice-monthly newsletters, which feature articles you won’t find in print along with Ripples, our always-informative blog, and a host of other items we hope you’ll find both engaging and useful.

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We all know that 2010 was another tough year for our industry, for the construction sector in general and for the economy at large.

WaterShapes took the hit right along with the rest of the marketplace, but we’ve carried on just the same because we know that better times are coming and that there’s much more fun still to be had. And we’re encouraged by more than just the anecdotes from readers telling us that their phones are ringing and interest is growing: There’s so much pressure on banks and credit markets right now that we can all hope they’ll wake up and start working with property owners once again.

I’d say (and I trust you’ll agree) that we would all do well by unleashing some of the pent-up demand that has certainly developed during this overlong recession.

For us at WaterShapes, we’ve stuck to what we do best, aiding and inspiring the best possible outcomes for our readers. This directory is a key example of that commitment, and it’s our hope you’ll be using these pages often, literally wearing them out with profitable use.

Enjoy! And have a great New Year!