A method of forming a colored shade band having a relatively wide portion of essentially uniform intensity and a relatively narrow boundary portion of graded intensity by spraying a dye composition along a longitudinally extending edge portion of a non-electroconductive substrate such as a glass sheet or a sheet of plastic. In one embodiment of this invention, the substrate is sprayed to form the graded band and then laminated to a layer of plastic interlayer material to produce a laminated window having a shade band having a desired transverse pattern of graded intensity along a longitudinally extending edge portion thereof. After the dye composition is applied to a sheet of rigid transparent material to form the band, the coated sheet is assembled with the band facing a layer of interlayer material to form a sandwich to be laminated, the band is transferred from the sheet to the layer during lamination and forms a continuous looking band free of any disturbing features such as mottled appearance and having a boundary along a smooth line and a pattern of intensity similar to that of the colored shade band initially developed. In another aspect of this invention, the graded band is applied electrostatically to either the interlayer sheet or to the rigid transparent layer under special conditions that results in a gradation of the coating.