The man with vision

28 September 2007

Walk down the high street almost anywhere in the world and you'll see the work of Roland Hill, chairman and founder of Contra Vision. What started as a simple idea to solve a problem has been tweaked by his company so many times it serves as a lesson in the creative application of innovation.

Hill's first vision panel - essentially a glass or plastic panel with a pattern on one side not visible from the other - was designed for squash courts, enabling TV cameras to follow the action without distracting the players. He was still a practising engineer with Campbell Reith Hill at the time. A first patent came in 1985 and he has since registered a whole portfolio of designs, including buying the rights to others people's.

There's a surprising amount you can do with what he's rather grandly called a vision management system, from the dominant first patent for one-way see-though graphics, through various methods for printing, to a second dominant patent for a translucent 'backlite' pattern when you look back through the glass. Some of these applications are truly innovative. Take his 'differential' design, where the brain can decide whether it wants to see a pattern - one application would be a glass door where you don't necessarily see it's made of glass until you approach it.

Of course, it helps if you've got a customer to give you that headstart in exploiting opportunities. One of Contra Vision's first big breaks came in a deal with BT Payphones in 1993, followed by a major deal to put a panel in US gas stations, where customers could see the advertisement but staff could still see onto the forecourt.

In fact, his application of the design concept to multiple markets is a lesson in commercial exploitation. Contra Vision has now identified eight market segments where the product can be delivered, including advertising, architecture, vehicles and security. Many entrepreneurs dream up multiple applications for their ideas - the difference with Contra Vision is that it's actually delivered most of them.

By David Longworth