The Common Thread —
Yelp API Heritage Month

BRAND IDENTITY | LOGO DESIGN | COPYWRITING

Client: Yelp Reno
Agency: Leah Chew Creative

In 2021, I collaborated with Yelp Reno to celebrate API Heritage Month, showcase twenty API-owned restaurants in Reno-Sparks, and highlight the common thread that unites us all — food, family, community, resilience, and America as our chosen home. Last year brought so much pain and anger to the API community and to myself. I felt helpless and furious while watching the news filled with senseless attacks, playing back the racism my family has experienced, and seeing hard-working businesses suffer because of hatred and ignorance. So what started out as our Yelp Reno reaching out for a restaurant contact led to hours of excited brainstorming to a full-on creative collaboration on the month-long event. It was therapeutic to channel all these overwhelming emotions into something good—to refuse to feel put down by lifting our API community up. Partnering with Yelp Reno and photographer Mark Talavera, The Common Thread put faces, stories, and legacy to these restaurants and honored these amazing members of our community.