AREPI Venezuelan Eats

AREPI Venezuelan EatsBaltimore, MD

From the market
to their own place.

AREPI was born in 2021 at a stand in the Fells Point Farmers Market, started by brothers Harold and Luis Dams and their mother, Emma. We built them a brand ready to grow with them. Scroll down and follow the road.

01 Fells Point Farmers Market · 2021

A stand, a family recipe and no brand yet.

Venezuelan street food in Baltimore. Before the boxes, the menu and the restaurant, it needed an identity: we created it from scratch.

Baltimore, MDEst2021

02 Logo and symbol

A logo stamped like a seal.

Worn texture, city and founding year: the logo reads like a vintage seal. The symbol is a round arepa, ready to mark every box, bag and sign.

03 Creative concept

Modern meets traditional: a vintage logo with a contemporary palette that stirs nostalgia in Venezuelans far from home.

03 Palette

Four colors, hand-cut like an arepa.

#FFD327

PrimaryYellowCorn, the flour behind every arepa.

#2A2A2A

PrimaryDark grayThe budare, the griddle where arepas have always been cooked.

#939597

SecondaryCool grayA neutral for backgrounds that gives the yellow room to breathe.

#585350

SecondaryWarm grayIts warmth plays against the cool gray.

All of it is set down in brand guidelines, with versions, colors and usage.

04 Typography

Three families, one rounded finish.

The three typefaces in the guidelines share rounded terminals that suit the brand's vintage feel. Each has its job: titles, subtitles and body text.

TitlesWildborn · Clean and Press
SubtitlesHeubeul · Rough, lowercase only
Body textGotham Rounded · Light, Book, Medium and Bold

05 Applications

The brand puts on its apron.

From the guidelines to the street: paper bags with the seal, aprons and every piece a customer takes home.

06 Menu and stationery

Everything that reaches the table.

The menu, takeout boxes, wrapping paper and the “Coming soon #Baltimore” teaser that kicked off its social media.

AREPI Coming soon #Baltimore teaser cards — Launch teaser

AREPI menu in yellow and dark gray — Menu

07 Thames Street · 2024

Their own place.

In 2024 AREPI opened its own restaurant on Thames Street, with the brand applied throughout the space. Its story has appeared in The Baltimore Sun and Baltimore Magazine.

Store concept we designed for AREPI · 3D render

When AREPI got its own place, we designed the concept for the space: the yellow counter, grids carrying the symbol, light-box signs and a floor of colored stripes.

Render of the AREPI store concept: yellow counter — 01 Counter

Render of the AREPI store concept: dining room — 02 Dining room

Render of the AREPI store concept: dining room (gray wall) — 02 Dining room

Render of the AREPI store concept: aisle with a striped floor — 03 Aisle and windows

Render of the AREPI store concept: aisle with a striped floor (gray wall) — 03 Aisle and windows

Render of the AREPI store concept: lit menu above the counter — 04 Menu above the counter

01 / 04 Wall color

See their Instagram@eatarepi

The project

AREPI is a Venezuelan street-food concept founded in Baltimore in 2021 by brothers Harold and Luis Dams and their mother, Emma. We built its identity from scratch: a vintage-inspired logo with a contemporary palette, corn yellow and the dark gray of the budare griddle, designed to evoke nostalgia in Venezuelans living abroad. We set it down in brand guidelines and carried it to the point of sale: the menu, takeout boxes, wrapping paper and the brand applied inside the restaurant.