As he explains the origin and purpose of this design, it becomes clear that Cyrus Highsmith undertook Ibis as a real typographic adventure.

Studying the Font Bureau library, he found openings that were filled elsewhere by Justus Erich Walbaum’s 1819 Walbaum and Hermann Zapf’s 1952 Melior. Combining these two diverse influences may be far from obvious, but Highsmith found the result to be truly inspirational.