Ave Forchetta
An Italian neo-bistro brand for the post-pandemic table
Coming out of the pandemic, casual dining was being reinvented, and a new Italian restaurant set out to claim a space that did not quite exist yet — not the formal trattoria, not the fast-casual chain, but something in between: an Italian neo-bistro for a younger crowd that wanted the food and the conviviality of Italy without the starched-tablecloth formality. Brandient was asked to create the brand from the ground up — positioning, name, voice and visual identity.
The strategic task was to plant the restaurant firmly in that new category and make it stand for more than a good Italian menu — for coolness, novelty and an easy, unforced atmosphere. Everything followed from positioning it as an Italian neo-bistro: a place with the pedigree of Italian cooking and the attitude of a contemporary lifestyle brand.
The name carried the idea. Ave Forchetta — a playful mash-up of a Latin salute and the Italian for "fork" — breaks the category’s conventions in a way that is smart but unpretentious, and quietly funny. The identity mirrored the wit of the name: a vivid visual world of pop-art, humor and color, built as an expansive graphic territory rather than a logo alone.
That territory did the work across every surface a diner meets — signage, interiors, staff uniforms, menus, website, social and outdoor — and, just as importantly, briefed the architects and interior designers, so the whole place reads as one coherent brand experience rather than a restaurant with a logo on the door. The result was a brand distinctive enough to make Ave Forchetta a destination in its own right, not just another Italian address.
Client:
Ave Forchetta
Industry:
Hospitality and HoReCa
Project type:
New brand creation
Date:
2022
Services:
Brand Positioning · Brand Name, Narratives and Voice · Logo and Visual Identity Program · Communication Design · Branded Environments
Other featured projects
News radar
Join the Brandient community! Stay in the loop with innovative branding insights, exclusive design content, and inspiring case studies.
Stay in touch with Aneta's latest opinions — articles, interviews, and podcasts — on entrepreneurship, marketing, branding pioneering, leadership, and culturally meaningful current events.
Brandient Radar is a select and non-intrusive, low-volume newsletter.
Follow our flight path — sign up for our Radar newsletter today!
get in touch
Client? contact us
5 Mendeleev Street, 3rd floor,
Bucharest 010361
Expert? Join Us
Are you brimming with talent and unshaken by challenges? Then, consider this your invitation to join our elite team, dive into complex problems, and have the opportunity to see your work make a mark far and wide.
Please submit your cover letter and relevant credentials:
Click to e-mail Brandient Careers.
friend? follow us
Copyright © Brandient 2002–2026. All Rights Reserved.