Design

Gilroy Font: Where It's Used and What It's Paired With

Gilroy Font: Where It's Used and What It's Paired With

Try 4 top design professions. Free ➞ In 5 days, you'll get acquainted with illustration, UX/UI, web, and graphic design. Add 4 cool case studies to your portfolio and decide which direction to take next.

Learn more

Creating effective typography for a website, document, poster, or advertisement is a complex task. Choosing the right fonts is crucial, as they significantly impact the perception of both text and images. Fonts can both attract attention and repel users. It's important to remember that font selection isn't limited to the primary font for a project; often, additional fonts are needed to achieve harmony and legibility. Consider your style and target audience to create attractive and functional typography that effectively communicates information and emotion.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at one of the most popular typefaces, Gilroy, and share recommendations for pairing it with other fonts and design elements. Gilroy boasts a modern and stylish design, making it an ideal choice for a variety of projects, from web design to print. To maximize this typeface's potential, it's important to understand which fonts and styles it will pair harmoniously with. Use Gilroy in headings and body copy, pairing it with more neutral fonts to create contrast and improve readability. Pay attention to font sizes and weights: combining different Gilroy weights will add depth to your design. Choose colors and backgrounds that highlight the font style to draw attention to your content. The Gilroy typeface is an excellent choice for those seeking a modern and professional look in their projects.

Gilroy - What is this font?

The Gilroy grotesque typeface was designed in 2016 by Bulgarian graphic designer Radomir Tinkov. This font became the little sister in the Quanelas family, maintaining modern, geometric and minimalistic features. Gilroy stands out for its recognizable character thanks to the characteristic roundness of the letters a, G, g and the "clipped" tail of the letter r. This font is ideal for a variety of design projects, providing a stylish and modern look to text. Gilroy is actively used in web design and print products, making it a popular choice among designers.

Gilroy was created as a universal font for print and web design. It supports OpenType features and includes 20 styles, consisting of ten weights from Thin to Heavy, as well as ten corresponding italics. This font is ideal for creating modern and stylish designs, providing excellent legibility and aesthetics in both digital and print materials. Gilroy is becoming a popular choice among designers due to its versatility and wide range of formats. The Gilroy font offers full Cyrillic support and includes various font features, such as ligatures, arrows, and mathematical symbols. This sans serif supports 63 languages, making it a versatile tool for creating high-quality content in different languages. Gilroy is ideal for typographic design, providing excellent legibility and a stylish appearance.

Several Gilroy weights. The letterforms in the upright and italic styles are the same. Screenshot: Monotype / Skillbox Media website.

The Gilroy font evokes associations with good behavior and straightforwardness. These qualities make it particularly popular in website design for technology companies, investment companies, and fintech startups, for whom building trust is key. Using Gilroy helps emphasize the brand's professionalism and modernity, which is especially important in a competitive environment. Therefore, many companies choose this font for the design of their web pages, seeking to attract and retain the attention of customers.

Website design for an app that helps learn English and Spanish using memes and TikToksScreenshot: Memo / Skillbox Media website

Lack of open information about Gilroy graphics and Radomir Tinkov's inspiration gives rise to many theories. The designer may have drawn inspiration from contemporary typographic trends, exploring the harmony between traditional and modern forms. It's also possible that minimalism and functionality, which strive to create a clean and clear visual language, were influential. Elements such as clear lines and balanced proportions may also be a result of analyzing successful typefaces of the past, allowing Gilroy to stand out from other modern typographic designs. Discussing these aspects deepens our understanding of typeface design and its significance in contemporary visual art.

  • Gilroy is a small city in San Francisco County. It's known as the garlic capital of the world: it hosts an annual garlic festival, and the tuber even features in the city's official identity. Perhaps this is the reason behind the geometric shapes and varying letter widths: the segments may be of varying sizes, but together they always create a perfect shape.
  • In the 20th century, commercial illustrator John Gilroy lived and worked in England, whose most famous legacy was a series of advertising posters for Guinness. Gilroy created not only poster illustrations but also minimalist, striking typography. Maybe Radomir was inspired by these vintage letters?
A John Gilroy advertising poster with recognizable typography. Image: 1stDibs.com

Gilroy, with its support for Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, is ideal for international Brand design. A striking example of this font's use is the placeholder message on the HBO Max website, where Gilroy fonts play a prominent role. The site's primary font is the custom corporate typeface HBO Street Sans, but Gilroy, which serves as the company's second brand font, was chosen for the text about the service's unavailability. Gilroy provides high readability and a stylish appearance, making it an excellent choice for creating attractive and functional content.

"HBO Max is not yet available in your region" Screenshot: HBO Max / Skillbox Media website

Gilroy in interface

Gilroy and Lato font pairScreenshot: TU/e ​​/ Skillbox Media website

The typography of the Eindhoven University of Technology website uses a combination of Gilroy in super bold for headings and harmonious Lato for the main text. This combination ensures excellent readability and visual appeal on the screen, which contributes to better perception of information by visitors.

Gilroy in the design of the personal account of a student of Moscow Polytechnic University Image: Vova Vova / Behance

The Gilroy font is used in the application project for Moscow Polytechnic University. This choice helps create a uniform and professional interface, which includes a large amount of text, buttons, and sections. The app's design is welcoming and neat, creating a comfortable user experience and emphasizing its business-like style. Gilroy is ideal for educational applications, helping to improve readability and comprehension.

Gilroy in corporate style

Gilroy and Lora font pair. Screenshot: Pinchman's website / Skillbox Media

The menu design for a modern bakery cafe combines the Gilroy and Lora fonts. Gilroy is used for the logo and headings, giving them a modern feel. Paired with the calligraphic serif Lora, these fonts create a harmonious blend of traditional and modern elements. Both fonts, designed in the 2010s, are ideal for menu design, emphasizing the style of the establishment and attracting customers' attention.

Gilroy in the poster

Font pair Rainer and Gilroy. The HBO logo is ITC Avant Garde Gothic. Image: HBO.

The poster design for the series about vogue balls and dance competitions at the Houses harmoniously combines the Rainer and Gilroy typefaces. Rainer evokes associations with New York street posters and signs, creating an atmosphere of urban culture. At the same time, Gilroy provides clarity and clarity, effectively conveying the essence of the show to viewers. This design approach emphasizes the uniqueness and energy of the world of dance and fashion, making the poster attractive and informative.

Gilroy in the logo

Image: Yoola

Logo of the media company, The logo of the company, which specializes in promoting influencers and brands on YouTube, is designed using the clean, vertical lines of the Gilroy font. These lines symbolize the company's professionalism and its commitment to continuous growth and development. The use of this font emphasizes the serious approach to work, as well as the reliability and quality of services offered by the media company in the field of digital marketing.

Gilroy in print

Font pair Gilroy Extra Bold and Noto Sans RegularImage: Angela Ermachkova / Behance

The design festival ticket features the expressive Gilroy typeface for the event title and Noto Sans for the explanatory text and technical information. These sans-serif typefaces create a harmonious combination, sharing common features such as the similar design of the letters g, r, and l, as well as differences in the width-to-height ratio and x-height. This approach to typeface selection ensures readability and visual appeal, emphasizing the importance of design in the modern world.

Where to download or buy Gilroy

The creator of these fonts has created a unique distribution that attracts users' attention. Each font face has its own distinct character, allowing designers to use them in a variety of projects, from web design to print. With a variety of styles and weights, these fonts are ideal for creating expressive headlines and readable text. This unique distribution also provides flexibility in using the fonts, allowing them to be adapted to various visual concepts and branding strategies.

  • The Light and ExtraBold upright styles are freely available, including for commercial use. They are suitable for typesetting small texts, logos, or display items.
  • The others — Thin, UltraLight, Regular, Medium, SemiBold, Bold, Black, and Heavy — require a license purchase.
Paid Gilroy Medium and Gilroy Regular Screenshot: Alexander Druz's website / Skillbox Media

You can download the Gilroy font and purchase other versions on various platforms.

  • on the designer's own website;
  • in the Paratype library, where you can pay in rubles using a Russian card;
  • in the MyFonts store. Please note that it is blocked for Russian IP addresses.

If you come across a site offering a free download of the complete Gilroy font family, be aware that this is illegal. Using such resources may lead to legal consequences, as the fonts are protected by copyright. It is recommended to purchase fonts only from official platforms or licensed distributors to avoid violating intellectual property laws.

Gilroy Alternatives

If you cannot use the Gilroy font but are looking for similar sans-serif fonts with geometric elements, consider the following alternatives. These typefaces have a modern design and are perfect for creating stylish and readable text.

  • free Poppins;
  • Mont, which has two free styles;
  • free Moon;
  • Mulish from the Google Fonts library;
  • Inter;
  • Euclid Square or Circular.
Minimalist Euclid typeface in the identity for a knitwear brand. Image: My Creative / Ewan Leckie / Behance.

Learn more about design by subscribing to our Telegram channel. We share the latest news, tips, and inspiration from the world of design. Join our community to stay up to date with the latest trends and helpful tips.

Read also:

  • Raleway font: where to use it and what to combine it with
  • Font pairs: 7 services to help a designer
  • What are font pairs and how to choose them
  • Typography trends - 2023

Graphic Designer PRO Profession

You'll learn how to create branding elements and graphics for your business. You'll build a portfolio that reflects your style and demonstrates your design skills. You can start a career in a studio or as a freelancer.

Find out more