Industry: Design

Ionic Modern

One skeleton, two centuries of type history

Ionic Modern, designed by Greg Gazdowicz and Paul Barnes, unifies two nineteenth-century type traditions: Caslon's robust Ionic and the high-contrast Modern descended from late-eighteenth-century models. Despite differing surface details, both share the same underlying skeleton, allowing them to form a single family. Organized along axes of contrast and weight, the family spans from sturdy text workhorse to modulated headline style.

Set in Ionic Modern

Insights

The design premise rests on the observation that Ionic and high-contrast Modern styles share an identical skeleton despite differing surface contrast.
Contrast and weight are the organizing axes, enabling transformation from a text-weight Ionic through to a highly modulated headline style.
The project is part of Commercial Type's Classics program, focused on recreating historical typeface models.