Decorative Glass

There are various techniques to create decorative finishes to your architectural glazing installation, from screen printing to decorative laminates.

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Glass as Decoration

Glass isn't always a purely functional element of an architectural design.

The glazing in a project can become a design feature in itself. Utilising the latest technology in digital printing and decorating techniques, IQ Glass can transform a simple pane of transparent glass into a piece of art.

Architects and designers continue to push the boundaries with unique project designs.  At IQ, we constantly strive to realise design visions for building envelopes, developing innovative colour and design methods for every glazing application. When exploring light, form and space in the design process, glass can be the answer for all three considerations, and so we evolve with glass innovations for both internal, and external applications.

By adding interlayers between the units, including decoration to the surface, or infusing the glass with colour, eye catching pieces of functional glass can achieve both function and aesthetics.

Designer Glass

Without light, colour would not exist, and modern design trends continue to bring colour into glass. Often a path for natural day lighting, today's architectural glass windows offer architects and designers a dynamic palette on which to display colour.

Commercial and residential urban facades can showcase colour in glazing design. Colour and light are used not only to define space, but to stimulate and even inspire those who inhabit it. 

We all see, perceive and experience colour in different ways.  At IQ, we can expertly guide you through your selection to bring your exact design vision to life.

Producing a broad spectrum of colours and moods that are unachievable using stock selections of glass, gives Architects and Designers more creative freedom with glass than ever before. Colour interlayers can be combined to produce more than two thousand transparent, translucent or opaque colour options to help create the desired tone and intensity.

Special Kiln Formed Glass can be used to add dimension and texture to your glazing element, and can be used as an artist way to obscure vision through a glass item.

At the Showroom

If you would like to see examples of decorative interlayers in person, a visit to the newly renovated IQ Glass showroom is a must.

One display showcases internal sliding glass doors that utilises a grass themed interlayer. The door sits within a wall covered in grass Astroturf, and so this type of interlayer was chosen to show how the glazing can be specified to blend into its surroundings.

Coloured structural glazing can also be seen at the showroom, and a visit allows you 'one on one time' with a technical sales advisor to talk through our decorative glazing options at length, ensuring the right one is chosen to meet your projects requirements.

Book your showroom visit today

Specification

Kiln Formed Glass

By heating glass to a molten state and allowing it to mould to a pattern, you can create a textured finish to the external face of a glass panel for privacy or decoration.

The decorative glass patterns are formed on annealed, or float glass. After this process, the decorative glass can be toughened or laminated to create a safety glass.

Jumbo glass units up to 6m x 3m are available with this decorative glass panel finish.

 

Screen Printed Glass

Using ceramic enamel paints, we can create patterns or artwork on the surface for privacy glass, decoration or solar control. We also use this glass technique to create anti-slip patterns on glass floors.

The ceramic paints are applied to the glass in an annealed or float state. After this, the glass can be toughened and laminated to create a safety glass unit which can then be used to create an insulated glass panel.

Ceramic paints are available in almost any RAL colour and patterns can be bespoke. Maximum size 3m x 6m

Tinted Glass

Where a slightly coloured tint is required to a glass unit, and a coloured interlayer within the glass unit will create a colour that is too bright, tinted glass units can create subtle tinting finish for decoration or solar control and reduced glare.

Tinted glass is available in blue, grey, green and bronze through a process of adding additional elements to molten glass. This process creates a consistent shade and concentration of colour throughout the glass panel.

Once the decorative glass is tinted, it is able to be toughened and laminated to be integrated into any glass installation up to a maximum of 6m x 3m.

Decorative Laminated Glass

Anything can be laminated into glazing... From grass, to fabric, to printed interlayers.

The material that you choose to laminate into the glass unit will change the thickness of the interlayers used and the glass thickness will be determined by the glass installation itself.

This technique can be used to create any number of decorative glass panel designs to create unique glass structures.