A method of forming a light-emitting device comprises: forming patterned portions of precursor material over a substrate, the edges of the patterned portions defining sidewalls; performing a shaping control process on the patterned portions of precursor material to control the sidewall profile to reduce the angle the sidewalls of the precursor material make with the substrate to less than 15 degrees; selectively applying from solution a conductive coating onto the portions of shaped precursor material so as to form a plurality of first conducting contacts such that an upper surface of said conductive coating follows the sidewall profile of the precursor material; forming a light-emitting layer over the conductive contacts and substrate, and forming a plurality of second conducting contacts over the light-emitting layer. The precursor material may comprises an activator catalyst and the conductive coating comprises a metal selectively applied to the shaped precursor material by electroless plating.