• notes

    • Born in Baltimore Maryland around the time a few fellas decided to have a walk on the moon, while another group of fellas decided to have a music festival in upstate new york, and did their own version of "walking on the moon".

      Moved to NYC in 1992, looking like I just walked on the moon, and now live in Williamsburg Brooklyn since 2000.

      This portfolio contains selected works from the past 20 yrs as a Graphic Designer, Art Director, Interactive Producer, Sound Designer, Composer, Photographer, and Developer.

      All Creative Briefs, Scopes, Schedules, UX/IA documents, etc, within this site, where written / created by me.

      I've coded and designed this site using ExpressionEngine, and bespoke CSS/HTML. It best viewed in an HTML 5 compliant browsers like Google Chrome, Safari and even Mr. Thick Fontypants, Firefox. The Flash player is also needed for the Audio and Video content (html5 A/V updates coming soon).

      Please feel free to contact me for any and all inquires at

      jason.merenda @ gmail.com
      tel +1 646 472 4284

    • influences & inspirations in flux

    • Not an exhaustive list, but a few highlights to better understand my general headspace. I'm influenced by and see sparks and tangents of ideas in everything from film, architecture, mathematics games, science, fashion, food, toys, video games, music, sounds, and the odd happenstance of life... just everything. I like telling stories and conveying moods with subtle minimalism in design, music, art and photography. I enjoy the control of minimilsm, but also have a need for chance and chaos. for I also find technology has often played a significant role in the interplay of these two ideas as well.

      Ideologically speaking i am inspired by people who put forth new ideas that challenge our understanding of things.

      I feel great kinship with people like Alexandr Rodchenko, el lissitzky, Bruno Munari, Nam Jun Paik, Otl Aicher, Richard Feynman, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Eduard Tufte, Marvin Minsky, Charles and Ray Eames, Al Jarnow, Ferran Adria, Hunter Thompson, Oscar Wilde, Douglas Adams, Raymond Scott, Bob Moog, Julius Von Bismarck, Daido Moriyama, Yohji Yamamoto, and Raoul Vaneigem. All of these characters in the game of life understood what the Japanese call "Mono No Aware" or the essence of things great and small in their work.

      With regards to Graphic Design, I am often inspired by the works of Franco Grignani, Giovanni Pintori, Anton Stankowski, Ladislav Sutnar, Armin Hoffman, Otl Aicher, el lissitzky, AG Fronzoni, Karl Gerstner, Wim Crouwel / Total Design, Yusaku Kamekura, Roger Excoffon, and studio Boggeri, many works of Modern and Brutalist Architecture, the fluid

    •   
    • shape and symmetry of Graffiti tags, Reid Miles who's album covers started my design curiosity as a tyke, and tDR and factory/saville record covers which later inspired me in my twenties, The Zurich and Basil schools, the whimsical work of THA / Yugo Nakamura, Vectorpark / Patrick Smith and so on. On Sound Design, I would need to mention influences such as the work of Alan Splet, Walter Murch, and Ben Burtt. As for Music, there just isn't enough time in the day, but for starters early sixties modal jazz, psychadelic, and exotica, 70's electro funk and brasilian funk, 80's post punk, minimal synth / minimal wave, and most importantly anything with mood over all else.

      Also thrown into this minimalist sensibility melee are Industrial Designers Richard Sapper, Mario Bellini, Dieter Rams, Kurt Naef, Artemy Lebedev, Eero Aarnio, Konstantin Grcic, Naoto Fukasawa ... Typographic Designers Weingart, Frutiger, Wim Crouwel / Total Design, Oded Ezer, Arabic Typography ... the Color Theory of Franco Grignani, Arnaud Mercier, Wim Crouwel / Total Design ... Films and Productions of Georges Méliès, Jeunet et Caro, Guillermo del Toro, Henry Selick, Wes Anderson, Tarkovsky, Gilliam, Wenders, Jarmusch, Kubrick, Gondry, French & Czech New Wave, the beautiful & subtle lighting of Henri Alekan, the childhood grandiosity of the sets of Ken Adam, the lighting exhibits of Olafur Eliasson, and Architectural works of Earo Saarinen, Zaha Hadid, Oscar Neimeyer, Terunobu Fujimori and many, many others...

      Hope that gives you a look inside. Thank you for visiting, and have a curiously wonderful day.

  • Art Direction for Print

 

project title

Japan Relief

client

Japan Tsunami Relief

date

2011

categories

Art Direction for Print

primary role(s) for this project

  • Design / Art Direction

project links

View this link  Donate via Red Cross
View this link  Donate via iTunes
View this link  UNICEF
View this link  International Fund for Animal Welfare


project notes

A Limited Edition Poster for Japan Tsunami Relief which donated to the relief fund. (Currently Sold Out)

Additionally you can also continue to donate to help the relief effort for our friends in Japan.

The Red Cross also has set up $10 donations to its relief efforts in Japan online (link below) or by texting REDCROSS to 90999 to donate from your phone.

UNICEF is also coordinating efforts to help the children of Japan. Use this form on UNICEF's website to donate 100 percent of your desired amount to their fund designated for victims of the earthquake or text JAPAN to 864233 to donate $10.

You can also donate via iTunes (link below opens iTunes).



 

project title

StartUp Holiday Party Invite

client

Silver & Co

date

2009

categories

Invites

primary role(s) for this project

  • Art Direction + Design

project notes

An fun little non-denominational invite for the 2009 StartUp Holiday Party



 

project title

Center Labels

client

Svetlana Records

date

2009

categories

Art Direction for Print

primary role(s) for this project

  • Art Direction + Design

project notes

Svetlana contacted me to do a few record centers based on a few of our grey scale processing experiments from a few years back. It was a good bit of fun to tray out a few ideas that will not only look interesting as a label, but also ones that will be interesting while spinning.



 

project title

Various Logos

client

Various Clients / Personal

date

1995 - 2010

categories

Corporate Identity

primary role(s) for this project

  • Art Direction + Design

project notes

Various logos and logo explorations from over the past several years, and few examples of their use.



 

project title

Logo + Collateral

client

tiqlish

date

2006

categories

Font + Logo + Collateral

primary role(s) for this project

  • Art Direction + Design

project notes

Created a custom font, designed a logo and collateral for an independent clothing and accessories label.



 

project title

Hijacked by MTV Logo

client

MTV / Motorola

date

2005

categories

Art Direction for Print

primary role(s) for this project

  • Art Direction + Design for Print + Web

project notes

Logo for the Motorola / MTV Partnership that was used globally on outdoor billboards, promotional items, websites and packaging for the special edition phones.



 

project title

Various Flyers

client

Personal

date

1990 - 1996

categories

Art Direction for Print

primary role(s) for this project

  • Art Direction + Design

additional team members

Michael Eringis - Art Direction

project notes

A flew flyers from over the years, some of which were originally designed on a Windows 3.1 machine that used dot matrix fonts (and a 300 ft roll of paper) and later updated in Photoshop 2 on a Mac Plus!

Some of these were just band promos and posters while others were flyers for various events.

More coming soon as I find them !