It is one of those Santa Fe mornings so lovely it makes your eyes hurt. There is snow in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The sky is the color of turquoise. Sunlight hugs the morning chill. Fred Cisneros pulls up in a mint condition, fire-engine red, ’55 Ford F-100 pickup with 8-in. white walls. Perfection.

Cisneros grins broadly. “Thought you might like to see Santa Fe sitting in the front seat of this thing. I usually don’t get her out this time of year, at the end of winter. Mud season. But this is a special occasion.” It’s easy to get the sense that Fred Cisneros has a way of making every occasion special—of making every visitor feel like his first and only. His consideration, attentiveness and generosity are legend here. He loves Santa Fe. Santa Fe loves Fred.

FOR THE PEOPLE
Fred Cisneros, 43, is large, friendly and gentle. He is the life force and leader of Cisneros Design, but not its only talent. The firm—with a staff of 10—is a business built kindness by kindness, handshake by handshake. With its motto “graphic design for the people,” you understand where Cisneros’ heart is: with the locals, the guys making ends meet.

He gets credit for his talent, generosity and kindness, but he shares that credit, too, with his family, staff, friends and clients. For example, in an act of both magnanimity and good sense, Cisneros recently announced that staff veterans Allane Holman (operations) and Brian Hurshman (creative director) would become partners in the company—a move rewarding loyalty and performance while ensuring continuity. “We deserve it,” says Holman, only half joking, “and we appreciate it.” New partner Hurshman agrees, adding, “I can now look at Fred as a peer. That means that we can now truly be friends.”

COMMUNITY GIVING
Cisneros’ success is due to his deep love for his community. With annual revenues exceeding $2.5 million, his business is one anyone can admire. That he has done it in a place as beautiful—and, in some respects, remote—as Santa Fe merely makes his success story sweeter. Mostly, his accounts are of modest size and local or regional in nature. They include financial institutions, real estate businesses, hotels, restaurants, art galleries as well as municipal and state arts organizations. That means a lot of projects and efficient work habits.

Santa Fe is a place where traditions in the visual arts and the prevalence of commercial and fine arts businesses raise expectations and standards, according to Cisneros client Doug Svetnicka, communications director at the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. “Because of its rich history, tradition as an arts center and ongoing role as a major tourist destination, Santa Fe is loaded with arts and cultural organizations, a greater-than-average number of hotels and restaurants and more specialty shops than you can visit in a week.”

The result, Svetnicka says, is an environment in which capturing attention is not easy. “If you use traditional media tools, such as printed materials, display advertising and websites, your design company better be effective. Ours [Cisneros Design] is.”

UNGLAMOROUS SANTA FE
The son of a man who had to work the fields at the age of 12 to support his mother and sisters after the sudden death of his own father, Fred Cisneros was not born to means. “My dad and mom came to Santa Fe in the early ’50s. Dad was a mechanic and a tow truck operator. We lived in the same small house my entire childhood, growing up with the same friends, their parents and neighbors. We helped each other when asked. On weekends, my dad would dive under the hood for any neighbor or friend who pulled up in the yard—for free.”

The truck is homage to his dad, “Mr. C,” as folks around town called him. He helped Fred find this one, but never lived to see it before cancer claimed his life. Fred pulls the F-100 in front of The Flying Tortilla, a popular if well-worn restaurant near a long-in-the- tooth La Quinta Motor Inn at the end of Cerrillos Road. This end of Santa Fe is unglamorous. Trucks in the parking lot speak of working men and women. Their dusty, battered beds are littered with lunch trash and mud-caked tools. Two crusty old Anglos with day-beards leave the restaurant burping and chewing on tooth- picks. They see the truck and whistle through clinched teeth. They nod and leave. No words are spoken. Cisneros is home.

“INNOVATE AS A LAST RESORT” (CHARLES EAMES)
He owns one-third of The Flying Tortilla. His two partners own another Santa Fe dining spot, The Pantry. Both diners are humble and packed. At the Flying Tortilla, portions are huge, hearty, good and cheap. Chili comes in green, red or “Christmas”—half red, half green, ladled copiously over everything but chocolate cake. Fans rattle. The floor is worn. A former salad bar is an odd-looking lunch counter, populated by regulars. Naugahyde booths look 1980—because they are. A stylized boomerang logo is the only hint that a graphic designer has anything to do with this place.

THE COLLEGE OF SANTA FE'S mark incorporates a graphic taken from the stylized facade of the campus library.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Cisneros says. “The place is a wreck, right? Well, when we opened this restaurant, I had great plans to change it—make it hip and cool. Instead, it changed me. It took me back to my parents, my sisters and my youth. So I started covering the walls with photos and memorabilia from my past. That then took on a life of its own. Customers started putting their own memories on the walls. Now it’s their restaurant, too, not just mine.”

As we sit down in booth 2o under a black-and-white photo of his four older sisters, Cisneros talks about his love for the place. “I am very social, so this place is the perfect extension of my home and office. I listen and chat with guests. I relax. I gain insights into our community, its politics, its needs, its tragedies and its dreams. And I love the tortillas—they’re made by a local lady, the desserts by a local guy who cooks out of his house.” It’s all an extended family of friends and neighbors. Everything—from the tortillas to the chocolate cake—is linked.

Conversation turns to family. Fred and his wife Suzanne have three children in total: Amanda, 12, from Fred’s first marriage; Ferbie, 18, and Jade, 15, from Suzanne’s first marriage. Suzanne and Fred have known each other since high school. They became reacquainted years later when Fred went to her office seeking financial planning advice. They fell in love. “I don’t know where one family stops and the other begins anymore,” says Fred. “The kids all care about each other and get along. I am grateful for that.”

GIVE LIBERALLY
Back at Cisneros Design, we look over the work: Santa Fe Film Festival, Railyard Park, Jakalope, Hotel Santa Fe, Santa Fe Community Foundation, Niman Fine Art, Davis Selected Advisors (New York), Santa Fe School of Cooking, Santa Fe Children’s Museum, the New Mexico Community Fund, many others. The office is colorful and bright, peppered with Fred’s oddball purchases and collections. The building is Northern New Mexico style, a ranch-like structure with wide eaves, a little porch and a whiff of Victorian woodwork. Cisneros owns it—a choice too few creative professionals make when they are able.

Conversation turns to his colleagues. He feels strongly about their respective roles in making the firm a success. “The value my staff brings is huge. Allane’s organizational skills. Brian’s design talent. Carmela’s humanity and compassion. The many designers, past and present, whose work has made Cisneros Design respected for originality and ideas that work. They are why Cisneros Design is good and consistent. Allane minds the store while Brian maintains the standards. This allows me and others to do what we do best. I am proud of and grateful to them.”

Chip Chippeaux, chairman of Century Bank, says Cisneros’ reputation for community knowledge and involvement was critical in his selection of the firm. “Santa Fe is a community which appreciates creativity and values relationships,” he says. “Fred’s willingness to give liberally of himself is highly valued around Santa Fe. His quality of heart is unusual.”

Brian Hurshman says Fred “never made it all about himself. He believes that sharing one’s good fortune and respecting people is critical to the success of any organization, be it your business, home or community. People are attracted to that. I am.”

Cisneros client Dottie Indyke agrees: “It should be noted how generous Fred Cisneros is to nonprofits. Northern New Mexico is an area with a lot of poverty and other challenges that are addressed by more than 600 nonprofit groups. These organizations never have the resources they need to achieve all of their goals. When Fred donates his considerable resources and talents, as he did for us at the Santa Fe Community Foundation, he and his colleagues are making a direct, positive impact on these communities.”

NOT JUST THE CHILI
Over dinner later that evening, joined by Cisneros’ attractive, energetic wife Suzanne, we meet up with Joel Nakamura, the well-known illustrator and one of Fred’s best friends. “I met Joel after I hammered one of his slow-pitch softballs over the fence for a homerun,” claims Fred. “Not,” interrupts Nakamura. “He managed to dribble a weak grounder through for a single.” Their relationship is easy and fun. They collaborate often. The evening is filled with warmth and affection. We totter into the night, sated by one of Santa Fe’s legendary kitchens, Geronimo on Canyon Road. I think about something Cisneros said about his father, how Mr. C never had much but gave what he had to family and friends.

A photo of Mr. C has a place of honor next to the reception desk watched over by Carmela, the widest smile in Santa Fe. His spirit looms over many of our conversations. Although I never met him, riding around with his son made me feel as though I had.

“After he retired, my father would meet up with old friends for coffee each morning. I wondered what they talked about day after day,” Cisneros recalls. “As I grew, I realized that talking wasn’t the point. Listening was. If you don’t listen, you miss so much.

After dad died, I went to sit and talk with his coffee group. They spoke warmly of my father. After a while I quit going. My loss was diminishing. I was moving on. I found my own coffee group at the Tortilla, a bunch of sweet old ladies who always save me a seat.” Relationships. Respect. Community. Healing. Ingredients that can propel a person to great success. Sure, most anyone can get their hands on the ingredients—or some of them. But remember, it’s not just the chili, it’s the measure. That takes skill. Skill takes practice. Practice takes friends.

Speaking of chili, try the mix at the Flying Tortilla next time you’re in Santa Fe. And while you’re at it, sit down and chat with Fred Cisneros. He’ll be there nearly every Saturday morning in booth 20, under the loving gaze of his four sisters.

TOP PHOTO, LEFT TO RIGHT: Bernadette Bielaski, Nicole Rassmuson, Carmela Segura, Brittany Sweeney (front), Marissa Roybal-Moya, Allane Holman, Robert Innis, Fred Cisneros, Brian Hurshman, Renée Innis. Photograph by Ben Tremper.