Renée Stevens is a multidisciplinary designer working across art direction, immersive design, and system design. She turns complex information into experiences that are approachable, accessible, and built for what’s next. For 20+ years she has built visual systems, motion language, and design identities for editorial, video, emerging media, and spatial experiences.

For more than 15 years she has run her own independent design practice. She collaborates on projects from first concept to final execution for global brands, publishers, researchers and creative teams, including Forbes, Google, DreamWorks Animation, Suave Kids, West Elm, and Minted. When Forbes partnered with Google to help launch Web Stories, she designed the format’s motion language and visual system from the ground up, then produced 700+ stories against it. The stories drew 25 million story starts, and Google featured the work as the model for the format in its 2020 global launch. She also designs guidebooks and information graphics for national research programs, including the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP), the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), and the U.S. Department of Energy, translating dense technical research into clear, usable visual systems.

She works across 2D and 3D with equal fluency and has spent years working hands-on in AR/XR. She created tagAR, a startup AR platform, which helps people never forget a name and is the basis of her research into how augmented reality can support learners overcome learning disabilities such as dyslexia. She also founded and directs Pixels & Print, an annual 48-hour workshop that pairs 60+ students with nonprofits to solve real creative problems under real constraints.

As Associate Professor and Chair of Visual Communications at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, she has spent a decade building curriculum around AI, AR/XR, and immersive media, and she serves on Figma’s Educator Advisory Board. That work keeps her close to where design tools and workflows are heading, and to what the next generation of designers is making.

She speaks internationally on the future of motion design, immersive media, and accessible storytelling. Highlights include a TEDx talk at Syracuse University, SXSW, the Sundance Film Festival, VR/AR Association, AIGA, Beijing Normal University (keynote), and the U.S. Department of Defense. Watch her TEDx talk: Never Forget a Name Again.

She is the author of two published books, Powered by Design (Rocky Nook, 2020), named one of the Best Graphic Design Books of All Time by BookAuthority, and Designing Immersive 3D Experiences (Pearson, 2021), part of the Voices That Matter series, on designing spatial and interactive experiences for XR.

Stevens has been recognized nationally and internationally with 80+ awards including Graphis Gold, GDUSA Person to Watch 2022, GDUSA American Web Design Award, AEJMC Creative Research Award, 66+ Minted design awards, and the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorship at Syracuse University, awarded to faculty who demonstrate extraordinary dedication to teaching and creative practice.

Currently available for contract multidisciplinary design engagements.

Adobe Certified Professional

SKILLS

Design Skills

Motion Design, Augmented Reality Design, 3D Animation, Gaussian Splatting, User Interface Design, User Experience Research, Data Visualization, Typography, Identity Design, System Design, Publication Design, Advertising, Project Management, Art Direction, Social Media Marketing, Digital Illustration, Storytelling, and AI-Assisted & Generative Product Design

Photography + Video Skills  

DSLR for video and stills, Audio Recording and Editing, Studio Lighting, Non-Linear Editing, Storyboarding, Still and Video Color Correction, Image Stabilization and Tracking, Post Production Retouching, Visual Effects, and Motion Graphics

Computer + Development Skills  

Design & Prototyping: Figma, FigJam, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere Pro
3D: After Effects, Cinema 4D, Blender
AI: Claude, ChatGPT, Midjourney, Adobe Firefly
Web: HTML5, CSS3, PHP, JavaScript
iOS: Xcode, Swift