Gil. Bakery and Pastry shop

Branding & Packaging

Gerard Gil and Esther Real have taken on the generational legacy of Forn Gil, a classic bakery in Barcelona’s Clot neighbourhood with over 100 years of history. Together, they have revolutionised the long-standing family business, modernising their product offering and establishing themselves as a benchmark in sourdough bread and high-end pastry making, earning them several national awards.

For the corporate identity, we have designed a system that conveys tradition while also embracing modernity—an identity that feels approachable, authentic, original, and rooted in its local community.

Although they sell exceptional products, the goal wasn’t to create an elitist or distant brand. Instead, we designed a brand that ensures long-standing customers feel comfortable while also connecting with new generations.

The typography, an serif-style typeface, bold and striking in the logo, harmonises with the lighter variant of the same font. When using the lighter version, we randomly combine italics and non-italics to add movement and energy to the product names. This typographic behaviour, introducing italics randomly, reflects Gil’s philosophy of eschewing perfection in form—they craft everything by hand, making each piece unique, with the focus always on product quality, turning what could seem like a flaw into a virtue.

As a typographic contrast, we use a calligraphic typeface reminiscent of the traditional “Congratulations” messages that pastry chefs write on cakes with chocolate.

We decided to create an identity that works exclusively in black and white. The primary reason behind this decision is to allow the product to stand out over the design. Furthermore, the absence of colour lends a more classic and authentic touch to the identity.

Building on this, we developed a graphic system inspired by the wrapping papers of traditional bakeries. Some designs feature only the logo, others list product names, and others combine the logo with text. Some are presented in positive, others in negative. This creates a dynamic graphic system that is easily adaptable to various formats.