Why are frogs so happy? They eat whatever bugs them! A terrible joke I know, but I just could not resist telling you my three-year-old’s favourite considering the cover of this edition. This little tree frog though has some extraordinary powers, as it spends its entire life above the hustle and bustle of the rainforest floor, and can scale even wet vertical surfaces through the means of micro-adhesive suckers on its feet—this means that it has very few natural predators compared to its ground dwelling cousins.

So, in addition to the obvious metaphors this gave us for our lead feature on p57 that deals with the pitfalls of not using the right tapes and adhesives for your sign projects, it also strongly reflects the sentiments expressed in Ahead of the Curve this month on p50.

Redblu Graphics and Displays is part of a new generation of sign-makers and print-service-providers that over the last eight years has too managed to scale the vertical cliff face that was the credit crunch and ensuring recession, and today keeps itself above the continued price war that is raging across our sector by focusing squarely on providing quality products and services at a ‘realistic price’. Its directors, David Stewart and Ian Fyfe, also believe strongly in trying to help each customer overcome their own marketing and promotional challenges by providing them with solutions that ‘just work’ not ‘work just’.

This approach has also been lauded by David Catanach in this month’s Soap Box on p44, where he explores why there is still a significant number of sign firms in our sector that sacrifice long-term success for short-term gain, advising that an approach that mirrors that of Redblu’s will pay dividends with a little patience and, of course, a lot of hard work.

So, with that in mind I do hope you enjoy another packed edition, and thank you all for your continued support for this magazine. Whether a regular reader, advertiser, or contributor, you all make our twelve issues a year possible. So, I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year—see you in 2017!
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