Dutch Design Week: designer Anke Weiss has created a series of lights from used food and drink packaging.

Weiss traces the patterns and text on the packaging with hundreds of pin-pricks, which allow the light to shine through.

The lights were exhibited at Eat Drink Design in Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week last month.

Update 20/11/07: Weiss has just sent us some further information about the project. Here it is:

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The packaging lights show the transformation of a mass-product into a unique item. Through individual adaptation, the packaging of products like juice, cookies or soap gain a new purpose. The packaging (the purpose of which is to support the sale of its contents) becomes a product itself. It survives the point where it usually turns into garbage.

Elements used in the layout of the packaging which call upon the emotions and desires of the consumer are isolated, and selected parts of the graphics are highlighted. Symbols, words and the structure of the designs make use of deeply rooted spiritual feelings and subconscious longings. The packaging exceeds its original context and gains the radiance of a shrine or icon.

For me making something equals thinking about something. I not only see my pieces as being functional but also as a medium for critical exploration and analysis – a visual form of communication.

I wish to challenge the perception of today’s products and technologies, exploring how I as a visual communicator can be part of a political, environmental and social debate.