Raising awareness about plastic pollution in the marine environment is one of the essential steps towards a future devoid of single-use plastics. Aware of this, design studio Heliograf decided to bring the problem to people’s attention in a fun way, by creating something that’s both aesthetically pleasing and functional: an adorable fish lamp

Dubbed the Soy Light lamp, the idea behind the concept came to designers Jeffrey Simpson and Angus Ware after they realized just how many single-use soy sauce packets went into a single sushi meal.

In Japan, a packet containing one single serving of soy sauce often comes in the shape of a small fish made of polyethylene. Similar to plastic straws and other single-use plastics, the packets are too small to be easily recycled. The irony that these single-use plastic containers created to look like fish would later become ocean pollution with the potential to harm marine life was not lost on the designers.

Looking for a creative way to highlight the issue, the designers took about three years to develop the model, including two years that the designers spent learning to perfect the glass-blowing technique.

Light Soy is a borosilicate glass lamp in the same shape as the iconic, fish-shaped soy sauce packets that have been used in Japan since the 1950s. There are two models available: The Light Soy Table Lamp and the Light Soy Pendant Light. The modular components in the lamp make it simple to either repair or replace individual parts as needed.