Cedric Kraynak

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The Omnivore’s Dilemma

TITAL: The Omnivore’s Dilemma 
YEAR: 2024
DESIGNED BY: Cedric Kraynak
SOFTWARE: Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, The Penguin Press wanted a special edition cover design to be created to commemorate Pollan’s literary work that has withstood the test of time. Drawing upon Pollan’s insightful writing of modern-day food systems and ethical dilemmas, this new design visually portrays key elements of the book not yet seen on previous covers. While the original cover depicts a pleasant scene of unprocessed natural food representative of back half of the book, my redesign shifts the focus to the initial sections, which delve into the complexities of industrialized agriculture and its unnatural processes.








Version 1: Concept Test

Version 2: Revised & Finalized  
 The overall design centers around a key theme illustrated in the first segment of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. In this segment, Pollan traces the journey of a fast-food meal back to its origins, revealing that much of it is derived from corn. Pollan explores the ubiquity of corn in the American diet, from the corn-fed beef in burgers to the high fructose corn syrup in soft drinks. He ends this segment by enjoying a meal from McDonalds with his family which becomes the image featured on the cover. 

The pictured food is wrapped in cellophane to convey the prepackaged and highly processed nature of the food. Product labels accompany the design to further illustrate this idea, whilst imagery portraying good health and wellness of plants and animals hides the true narrative of the unnatural process and unsustainable practices of industrialized agriculture. 

On a shelf, the spine of the book upholds this false narrative at it appears picturesque and welcoming. But as the viewer picks up and turns the book over, they see the hidden truth.