Leadlights, leaded lights or leaded windows are decorative windows made of small sections of glass supported in lead

came A came is a divider bar used between small pieces of glass to make a larger glazing panel. There are two kinds of came: the H-shaped sections that hold two pieces together and the U-shaped sections that are used for the borders. Cames are mostl ...

s. The technique of creating windows using glass and

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

came to be known as

came glasswork Came glasswork is the process of joining cut pieces of art glass through the use of came strips or foil into picturesque designs in a framework of soldered metal. Final products include a wide range of glasswork, including stained glass and ...

. The term 'leadlight' could be used to describe any window in which the glass is supported by lead, but traditionally, a distinction is made between

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows and leadlights; the former is associated with the ornate coloured-glass windows of churches and similar buildings, while the latter is associated with the windows of vernacular architecture and defined by its simplicity. Since the traditional technique of setting glass into lead cames is the same in both cases, the division between 'leadlights' and 'stained glass' became less distinct during the late 20th century. The terms are now often incorrectly used interchangeably for any window employing this technique, while the term 'stained glass' is often applied to any windows, sculptures or

works of art A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

using coloured glass.

Description of traditional leadlight

Traditionally, leadlight windows differ from stained glass windows principally in being less complex in design and employing simpler techniques of manufacture. Stained glass windows, such as those commonly found in churches, usually include design components that have been painted onto the glass and fired in a kiln before assembly. The extra time and cost employed in painting and firing the glass usually prohibited its use in domestic architecture. While stained glass windows are found principally in churches and ornate buildings, leadlight windows, which rarely employ painted components, are much more common, and from the 1860s to the 1930s were a regular architectural feature in many private houses and cottages, where their style is often a clue to the age of the building. Unlike stained glass windows which are traditionally pictorial or of elaborate design, traditional leadlight windows are generally non-pictorial, containing geometric designs and formalised plant motifs. Leadlight windows almost always employ the use of quarries, pieces of glass cut into regular geometric shapes, sometimes square, rectangular or circular but most frequently diamond-shaped, creating a "diaper" pattern. A further difference between traditional stained glass and leadlight is that the former almost always has painted pictorial details over much of the glass, requiring separate firing after painting by the artist. In traditional leadlight this is not the case, painted quarries being separately produced and leaded in with those of plain glass, in the form of armorial crests and occasionally small scenes painted in ''

grisaille Grisaille ( or ; french: grisaille, lit=greyed , from ''gris'' 'grey') is a painting executed entirely in shades of grey or of another neutral greyish colour. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many g ...

'' (grey). Quarries painted in grisaille were employed both in the Medieval period and in the 19th century, the most famous ancient windows to have been decorated in this manner being in

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbis ...

; these have inspired many 19th century imitations painted with little birds. Quarries may be mould-cast into patterns such as ''fleur de lys'' and imprinted with black and yellow stain. Used extensively during the 19th century in England and Commonwealth countries, these quarries are often the product of a single studio,

James Powell and Sons The firm of James Powell and Sons, also known as Whitefriars Glass, were London-based English glassmakers, leadlighters and stained glass window manufacturers. As ''Whitefriars Glass'', the company existed from the 17th century, but became well k ...

of Whitefriars. Another form of decorative quarry is the etched or engraved quarry, which is made of flashed glass, most often ruby red or royal blue over a transparent layer. It then has a design cut into it using either acid or a lathe, the character of the resultant design differing accordingly. Etched quarries of

Venetian glass Venetian glass () is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city. Traditionally it is made with a soda–lime "metal" and is typically elaborately decorated, with various "hot" glass-forming techniques, as well as ...

are often employed, sometimes in conjunction with panels of stained glass, particularly in Italy and Eastern Europe. Lathe-cut quarries with a simple star-burst pattern are very common in the late 19th century domestic architecture of many regions, both in leadlighting and in simpler wooden-framed glazing. The colours employed in leadlight windows may range from delicate pastels to intense hues. The glass used may be textured or patterned or bevelled (as in the small panel from the 1920s illustrated above). However, since they are generally non-pictorial, and are primarily to illuminate the interior, with or without a decorative function, the glass is usually of pale hue, or transparent. File: Cerveny kostel okno adj straight.JPG, A leadlight church window,

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, combines traditional diamond panes with the pale translucent and textured quality of modern so-called "

cathedral glass Cathedral glass is the name given commercially to monochromatic sheet glass. It is thin by comparison with ''slab glass'', may be coloured, and is textured on one side. The name draws from the fact that windows of stained glass were a feature of ...

". File:AriahParkHotelLeadlight.jpg , This domestic leadlighting above the residential entrance of a 19th-century Australian hotel shows a use of opaque glass which allows the name to be visible both by day and night. File:Leadlight 1920s.jpg, Domestic leadlight (1920s) employs an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

motif in brightly coloured opalescent glass set in transparent glass which is both textured and cut with bevelled edges to reflect the light. File:Furness Lib window 1 UPenn.JPG, A highly detailed design by

Frank Furness Frank Heyling Furness (November 12, 1839 - June 27, 1912) was an American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his diverse, muscular, often unordinarily scaled b ...

for the University of Pennsylvania Library (1888–90),

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Origin and continuity

The work of the leadlighter was essentially to provide windows that excluded the weather, but admitted light into buildings. Leadlight has been in use for over a thousand years, having its origins in the Roman and Byzantine windows that were made of thin sheets of

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that includes ...

set in armatures of wood or wrought iron. With the employment of small pieces of glass as the

translucent In the field of optics, transparency (also called pellucidity or diaphaneity) is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without appreciable scattering of light. On a macroscopic scale (one in which the dimensions a ...

material (rather than alabaster), lead "cames" of H-section were used to hold the glass in place, with the iron armatures being retained as support for larger windows. By the late Middle Ages the profession of domestic leadlighter was common across Europe. Until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

most towns had a commercial shop producing domestic leadlight. These craftsmen did not refer to their product as "stained glass". The provision of decorative stained glass windows was a task requiring many more complex skills than the provision of domestic leadlight. However, some of the major stained glass studios that produced church windows also produced leadlight for commercial and domestic buildings, so that the division became blurred, and the leadlights, particularly for public buildings, were occasionally very ornate as in the windows of Central Railway Station, Sydney (below). In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the previously accepted division between leadlight and stained glass has almost disappeared, with the terms "stained glass" and "leadlight" often being used interchangeably. This is because the techniques of construction of a pictorial stained glass window and a domestic leadlight window are basically the same, and any glass that is coloured or carries a stain is generally referred to as stained glass. File: Ightham Mote England 001 Medieval armorial leadlight crop.JPG, Medieval diamond pane and armorial glass at

Ightham Mote Ightham Mote (), Ightham, Kent is a medieval moated manor house. The architectural writer John Newman describes it as "the most complete small medieval manor house in the county". Ightham Mote and its gardens are owned by the National Trust a ...

, England, seen from the exterior File:Brussels heraldic glass in cloister 18th or 19thC.jpg, 18th-century-style leadlighting, Brussels. File:Torun witraz piast 5 01.jpg, 19th century domestic leadlight with

and ''bull's eyes''. File: Franz Wilhelm Seiwert Glasfensterentwurf Café Namur.jpg , A design for a cafe window by Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, 1928

History

15th–17th centuries

Many buildings exist that were glazed at this period,

Little Moreton Hall Little Moreton Hall, also known as Old Moreton Hall, is a moated half-timbered manor house southwest of Congleton in Cheshire, England. The earliest parts of the house were built for the prosperous Cheshire landowner William Moreton in abo ...

(1555–1559) in Cheshire, England, being particularly famous for the extensive nature of its leadlighting. During this period large sheets of glass were unavailable. Domestic windows were generally small and were made of broad glass or cylinder glass before crown glass was first made in England in 1678. Broad glass is usually around 1.5 to 2 mm thick and uneven, often with scars and marks on the surface where it has been 'ironed' flat, and often has a greenish tint. Later windows often had crown glass, which has a much better surface quality and shows slight concentric ripples that form as the disk is spun. Old windows often contain a mixture of several types of glass, as they will have been re-leaded about every 100 years, with the replacement of some of the quarries. The irregular glinting surface of diamond-pane windows is a distinctive feature of old European houses. The ''diaper'' shape of the panes gave greater stability than square-cut straight-set panes, and it is accordingly more common. It was also convenient to cut diamond-shaped panes from a single "crown" of glass with less waste than that caused by cutting square panes. Square panes are most often found in the grander or later buildings, and sometimes only on ground floor windows. In grander houses, the windows often contain small painted panes or stained glass panels containing heraldic emblems and

coats of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its wh ...

. Some European churches also retain diaper glass of this period, some, like

, with painted and fired quarries. During the 19th and early 20th century a great number of important medieval houses were restored and had their windows returned to an earlier style of glazing. The glazing of the western range of

Haddon Hall Haddon Hall is an English country house on the River Wye near Bakewell, Derbyshire, a former seat of the Dukes of Rutland. It is the home of Lord Edward Manners (brother of the incumbent Duke) and his family. In form a medieval manor house, it ...

, Derbyshire, is particularly effective as each pane is set at a different angle to those adjacent, creating jewel-like facets when seen from the exterior.

Late 17th–18th centuries

With the development of

sash windows A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History T ...

, leadlighting became much less common in the domestic setting, giving way to larger panes of glass set into wooden frames. Doors were often surmounted by decorative

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...

s in which the panes of glass might be supported by lead, but wood was also commonly used as the support for the glass in fanlights. Casement windows and fixed windows continued to employ leadlight, often with larger panes of rectangular rather than diamond shape. Large windows set in public buildings and churches of this period also employed rectangular panes of leadlight supported by armatures emphasizing the classical design of the windows. Heraldic motifs in stained glass were often set into the windows.

19th century

By 1840 there was a growing fashion for the Medieval. The

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

brought about a new popularity for diamond-pane windows, which were initially found in homes of the wealthy. Soon the fashion for leadlight windows spread, promoted by the Arts and Crafts Movement. Leadlight became a commonplace feature of houses, generally to be found in or around the front door. The style might be medievalising, formal classical motifs or

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

designs which often included among the motifs lilies, tulips and sunflowers. In the late Victorian period it was common for leadlight windows in wealthier homes to contain small rondels painted in

(grey) and depicting birds or fruit and flowers representing the seasons. During this period also, many churches and public buildings were constructed in Revival styles. Many public buildings such as town halls, public libraries, museums and hospitals had their public spaces glazed with pale-coloured leadlight, creating a pleasant ambience in areas where good lighting was required, but a view was not. At this time also a great number of new churches were constructed, particularly in England, the United States, countries of the British Commonwealth, and Japan. Many of these churches were initially glazed with leadlight, often in pastel

or Powell's cast quarries with impressed designs. Although frequently the windows have later been replaced with pictorial stained glass, many such windows remain, particularly in less visible locations such as organ lofts and ringing chambers. In Sydney, the Anglican Church of St. Philip's, Church Hill retains an intact set of Powell's impressed quarries. File: St Mary's church - south nave window - geograph.org.uk - 1252079 adjusted.JPG, A leadlight window (18th-century-style) set with salvaged remnants of ancient stained glass. England File:Paris SaintPaul-Saint-Louis Vitrail85 straight.JPG, A leadlight window set with an heraldic shield (1840s) in the church of St. Paul and St. Louis, Paris File:The church of All Saints - east window - geograph.org.uk - 1709343 straight.JPG, A 19th-century leadlight church window set with small stained glass roundels with symbolic motifs. England File: Johns 14 Powell stencilled quarries.JPG, Mid-19th-century window of Powell's impressed and silver-stained quarries. Sydney

20th century

Prior to World War I, in domestic architecture, the front entrance remained the focus for decorative leadlighting. It was also commonly used for stairwell windows, but was uncommon in other locations where large panes of glass were valued over small ones. The

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

Secessionist Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics lea ...

style dominated the design, leading to the incorporation of many long curved sections of glass that were never previously a feature of leadlight windows. As in the 19th century, there was much application of leadlighting to the foyers and public spaces of public buildings. Many late 19th and early 20th century commercial buildings make extensive use of leadlighting, particularly in shopping arcades and tea rooms. Leadlighting in translucent glass was also used extensively for internal doors of public and commercial buildings, theatres and other such venues because it enabled people approaching the door from opposite sides to be visible to each other. In domestic architecture, after World War I, the focus on the decoration of the front door became less common, and the front windows became the location of leadlighting. Many houses of the 1920s and 30s have

Mock Tudor Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

elements, including gables decorated with pseudo half-timbering and leadlight casement windows in diamond panes at the front of the house. This architectural style is commonly found in

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s of the time, and also in school buildings. With the "bungalow" style of architecture becoming increasingly popular, sash windows were also often made with leadlighting, often incorporating sections of glass very much larger than in traditional diapered windows. This trend continued until World War II, the style evolving from ''

'' to ''

'', which both employed a great variety of glass, including

and

opalescent glass Opalescence refers to the optical phenomena displayed by the mineraloid gemstone opalopalescent. 2019. In Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language. Retrieved January 7, 2019, from https://1828.mshaffer.com/d/word/opalesc ...

, as well as bevelled glass. From 1940 until about 1980 domestic leadlighting was less common. The designs varied greatly in character and quality in this period, with the famous designers

Louis Comfort Tiffany Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art NouveauL ...

Alphonse Mucha Alfons Maria Mucha (; 24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, best known for his distinctly stylized and decorat ...

and

Charles Rennie Mackintosh Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macdo ...

all having much influence on leadlighting, both commercial and domestic. Many of the larger-scale works in leadlight of this period, particularly in public and commercial venues, are artistic masterpieces. The medium responded to local character, and local events. A typical example is the effect of the unification of the Australian states through

Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

in 1901, which brought a profusion of designs based on Australian flora and fauna to local leadlight production, a notable example being the windows of the booking hall of Sydney's Central Railway Station. File:NSWGR composite straight.JPG, One of a series of large windows of

design in

Favrile Favrile glass is a type of iridescent art glass developed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. He patented this process in 1894 and first produced the glass for manufacture in 1896 in Queens, New York. It differs from most iridescent glasses because the col ...

and

, with the state's floral emblem, the

waratah Waratah (''Telopea'') is an Australian-endemic genus of five species of large shrubs or small trees, native to the southeastern parts of Australia (New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania). The best-known species in this genus is ''Telopea speci ...

, Sydney Central Station, NSW, Australia. Despite the complexity, the execution was classed as "leadlighting". File:Art Deco Stained Glass in a Melbourne House.jpg, An

domestic casement window,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia, shows a wide variety of textured glass with some streaky glass in muted colours. File:Romania 002 Rimnica Valcia 20thC Pub window crop.JPG , This abstract design in a hotel in Romania demonstrates the blurring of the definitions of leadlight and stained glass windows in the 20th century. File:Karlstads domkyrka window straight.JPG , Post-Modern leadlighting combining traditional diamond pane form with the squareness of an iron armature and the arch of a church window in a design of great precision and subtlety. Karlstad Cathedral, Sweden.

Late 20th century

The late 20th century has seen a popular revival of the craft, which is now widely taught in technical colleges and practised by many artists, both commercial and hobbyists. With a revival of the craft, both abstract design and formalised pictorial motifs have flourished, as has the use of irregularly textured and patterned glass. Many leadlight artists employ simple pictorial forms that can be achieved without recourse to painting and firing. Recent formalised motifs have included butterflies, yachts on the ocean and a wide range of flora. Whereas in the early 20th century the product of a small leadlighting studio generally reflected trends in modern architecture and was produced with great competence by professional craftsmen fully trained through

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

ship, modern leadighting is increasingly the province of amateurs. The resultant product often demonstrates a lack of formal design training on behalf of the craftsperson, and a lack of awareness of stylistic trends. The finer products of late 20th and 21st century leadlighting continue to display a mastery of the traditional technical skills, an awareness of design trends and original creative artistry.

Artificial leadlight

A commercially produced product, often referred to as "stained glass" or "leadlight", is made of single sheets of glass with self-adhesive lead placed on both sides to replicate lead cames, and either a film or stain placed on the surface to replicate coloured glass. This product has wide domestic application and may be mistaken for genuine stained glass or leadlight. Another method now available is the use of coloured resins that are floated onto the glass, with the different colours divided by a line of resin that emulates the lead came which is used in traditional pieces.

Important artists

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

Daniel Cottier Daniel Cottier (1838–1891) was a British artist and designer born in Anderston, Glasgow, Scotland. His work was said to be influenced by the writing of John Ruskin, the paintings of the Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the work of William Morris. H ...

Charles Rennie MacIntosh Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macd ...

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

– this American architect was also a proponent and designer of stained glass *Arthur Clarke - Head

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

of Stained glass and Leadlight windows for Barnett Bros of

East Perth East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

Significant Suburbs

Subiaco,

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

contains one of the most well preserved

collections Collection or Collections may refer to: * Cash collection, the function of an accounts receivable department * Collection (church), money donated by the congregation during a church service * Collection agency, agency to collect cash * Collection ...

in the world, because Subiaco's early residents were predominantly working class and as they moved into middle class prosperity they expressed their wealth through home adornment such as leadlights, many with

Flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

and

Fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

motifs.

Significant Historic Homes

An example is Fairview Historic Home of Subiaco. Built for Scottish Ice

Engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

- John Kennedy. Owned for 40 years by heritage

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

Polly Willis. Current owner Thomas Murrell. Hall and Entry leadlights of

Bearded Iris ''Iris'' is a flowering plant genus of 310 accepted species with showy flowers. As well as being the scientific name, ''iris'' is also widely used as a common name for all ''Iris'' species, as well as some belonging to other closely related gen ...

and

Roses A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...

attributed to Arthur Clarke of Barnett Bros

Significant Studios

Barnett Bros in

was one of the most prolific and Arthur Clarke was their head

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...