These graphic-design images from North Korea are glorious to behold

A collection of hermit kingdom ephemera brings Juche style to the enemy

A 3D lenticular postcard extolling a plethora of beauty products aimed at women containing Kaesong Ginseng. (Nicholas Bonner via Phaidon)

If you’ve never stopped to consider the cultural value of a candy bar wrapper, do it now. For in that most disposable of items—and the packages of countless others we consume on a daily basis—are volumes of insight into the particulars and priorities of a society. Material, colors, shape, and lettering all contribute to our experience with a product. And though consumers’ wants and needs may vary from country to country and culture to culture, design is employed to access the same essential urges drawing people to things—be it in service of selling cigarettes or consolidating nationalism in the name of political hegemony.

In his new book, Made in North Korea: Graphics From Everyday Life in the DPRK, Nicholas Bonner presents examples of graphic ephemera from north of the DMZ, in an effort to normalize the reclusive country’s unique design heritage. Bonner, a Brit who’s been leading group tours in the DPRK since the mid 1990s, has amassed a sprawling collection of printed matter, from ticket stubs and postage stamps to wrapping paper and canned food labels.

Tinned food label (squid). (Nicholas Bonner via Phaidon)

“I was charmed and simply taken by the graphic design elements of the products there…. So I would buy Korean sweets and keep the wrappers and the hoarding eventually became several large boxes stuffed with what others might, justifiably, call junk,” Bonner writes in the book.

But there’s a catch: in North Korea, all business is state run. As opposed to packaging elsewhere, which necessarily doubles as advertisement, consumer products in the DPRK ostensibly have no competition. Labels, then, are designed more as a reference to what’s inside, using simple illustrations and bold color palettes to convey messages to buyers. Of course, politics are visible too, in flairs of patriotism reiterating DPRK’s military grandeur, and allusions to the historical underpinnings of cultural identity.

The box for a toy gun features the Korean Army slogan ‘Il Tang Paek’ meaning ‘one is the match for one hundred.’ The hedgehog, a popular cartoon character representing the Korean hero, is fighting the American enemy wolf. (Nicholas Bonner via Phaidon)

(left) Ticket for the 1996 Mass Games entitled ‘Down with Imperialism Union’ — an organization established by Kim Il Sung in 1926 and considered to be the precursor of the Worker’s Party, the ruling party since 1945. | (right) Card from a souvenir set of Pyongyang Metro postcards. (Nicholas Bonner via Phaidon)

Pyongyang brand cigarette carton. (Nicholas Bonner via Phaidon)

A commemorative stamp sheet issued in 1996 to mark the ‘Fifth Anniversary of the Acclamation of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il as the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army.’ (Nicholas Bonner via Phaidon)

An Air Koryo paper fan from the 1990s. (Nicholas Bonner via Phaidon)

A New Year’s postcard from 2004 (Juche year 93) for use by members of the DPRK military services. The Supreme Commander emblem is printed on top with depictions of various eras of military service. In the foreground is a contemporary soldier with members of the public—a farmer, an intellectual, and a worker—in unity. (Nicholas Bonner via Phaidon)

(left) A box of candies that emulates Western-style packaging associated in North Korea with luxury. The candies are filled with red ginseng-infused alcohol. | (right) Wrapping paper, featuring some of Pyongyang’s architectural highlights. (Nicholas Bonner via Phaidon)

Commemorative stamp sets featuring the British Royal Family. Images of North Korean leaders are venerated and would never be shown on any products other than books they have penned themselves. (Nicholas Bonner via Phaidon)

Made in North Korea: Graphics From Everyday Life in the DPRK, by Nicholas Bonner, is published by Phaidon. All images courtesy the publisher.