
Renee Innis’ design career spans 25 plus years in the areas of branding, publication, campaigns, and a plethora of other design specialties. Over the last decade she has insatiably researched her own ancestral history and several lineages with prodigious discoveries — some leading her to the 16th century and beyond. This experience inspired her to launch Akin in 2022 — a design studio that commemorates family stories and ancestral histories through thoughtful retrospectives, expert research, and curated design.
From 2017-2021, she was the Design & Communications Manager for the Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI)— where she elevated SFAI’s brand by designing advertising campaigns, communications materials, their Tilt Podcast branding, and their new website in 2020.
Formerly the Co-Owner and Creative Director of Rinse Design— she developed branding projects for San Francisco’s International Art Fair, FOG, to award-winning Kansas City restaurants, Justus Drugstore and Black Dirt, to local brands such as Verde, Horizons Sustainable Financial Services, New Mexico Health Equity Partnership, and UpSpring Associates. She was the Senior Designer for the ReBrand 100 Award Winner, Lovelace Health System Campaign, at Kilmer Kilmer Marshall Duran in Albuquerque and held the Art Director position at Cisneros Design in Santa Fe for 6 years.
She has collaborated on such projects as the Immigration Impact Project, a partnership with the Santa Fe Dreamers, Design Corps of Santa Fe, and SFAI, and the inaugural SFAI Works by providing Design Corps’ professional expertise to entrepreneurs.