In 1993, Nicholas Bonner visited Pyongyang, North Korea, for the first time. Seeing an insular and enigmatic country with his own eyes and experiencing its culture was exhilarating. But one thing in particular really stoked his curiosity: Its product packaging.
“I was charmed and simply taken by the graphic design elements of the products there,” Bonner writes in Made In North Korea, a new book from Phaidon that includes photographs of candy wrappers, beer bottle labels, food-can labels, cigarette boxes, postcards, cosmetics, and more. He squirreled all of it away for more than a decade, between 1993 and 2005, during his frequent travels to the country. (Bonner runs Koryo, one of the most high-profile tourism companies that operates in North Korea.)
In capitalist countries, consumption is closely linked to personal identity. Bonner’s book illustrates that something similar holds true in Communist countries — yet instead of the product representing the individual, in North Korea the products represent the collective country. Nearly everything in North Korea is stagecraft, from its architecture to its rituals and how it portrays itself internationally. Likewise, its products and how they’re marketed reveal a nuanced view of the national identity.
The goods in the book themselves will be familiar to most people–alcohol, candy, canned products–but the packaging is entirely different. As Bonner points out, western products rely on evocative branding and marketing to appeal to our emotions when we choose what to buy. North Korea’s labeling is simpler in comparison, with hand-drawn illustrations of the product inside emblazoned on labels and boxes.
Additionally, since all of the graphic designers are trained and employed by the state and all factories are government-owned, there is little variation in style from product to product and manufacturer to manufacturer.
While non-North Koreans will never truly understand what it’s like to live in that culture, the products do tell a story about the everyday objects that make up daily life. Activist artist Barbara Kruger said it best: “I shop therefore I am.” That’s true regardless of where you are. Find Made In North Korea on phaidon.com for $40.