Originally published by Collins in 1967, The Owl Service is a low fantasy novel for young adults. It won author Alan Garner (b. 1934) the annual Carnegie Medal and was made into a TV series in 1969.

The shown hardback edition from the Folio Society was published in 2013, with a preface by Susan Cooper. The illustrations are by Darren Hopes, with endpapers and title-page decoration by Garner’s wife, Griselda Greaves. It’s housed in a custom-made slipcase with green buckram ends and pale-green Clairefontaine Ingres papered sides.

The display typeface used on the spine and the title page is Ambicase Modern. In the first release by Teeline Fonts from 2011, type designer Craig Eliason explored the combination of upper- and lowercase forms – not side by side, but within the same letters. While the individual components look familiar, the combination exudes a strange and mysterious aura, not unlike the cover illustration of the girl with the owl face composed of plant parts.

Founded in 2011, Kashida is a Lebanese product design & furniture line inspired entirely by Arabic letterforms.  Embracing the various calligraphic and typographic styles of Arabic, Kashida aims to bring out a distinct perspective of Middle Eastern culture through modern design pieces. — kashidadesign.com/

The Latin part of the logo uses Ambicase Modern by Craig Eliason. The bilingual website in English and Arabic lets us compare how the opposite reading directions affect not only the text, but also the general layout. For some strange reason, both Linotype’s DIN Next (which supports Arabic, but also Latin) and Albert-Jan Pool’s earlier and slightly different FF DIN are used as webfonts here.

via @JamesToddDesign

The January issue of Sky, the in-flight magazine of Delta Airlines, features a photo-essay on the remarkable Persian Gulf metropolis Dubai. Designer Ted Rossiter needed a feature typeface to accompany the striking photographs of Roberto Frankenberg. He turned to Ambicase Modern from Teeline Fonts, which I designed in 2010.

Ambicase Modern is a type design that grew out of a conceptual challenge: could both the traditional upper- and lowercase forms be merged into single glyphs for each letter of the alphabet? The consequent letterforms are, in some cases, rather strange.

Rossiter's choice of Ambicase Modern was a canny one. While Middle Eastern design played no role in the typeface's origin, the signature peculiarity of Ambicase Modern's letters can effectively signify cultural difference. (Interestingly, a Lebanese firm that takes inspiration from Arabic letterforms, Kashida, had previously also landed on Ambicase Modern for its logo.) Exoticism can thus be suggested without resorting to cheesy fonts that superficially emulate the visual features of Arabic calligraphy. And the hybrid nature of the ambicase concept fits the picture that we get of Dubai from Frankenberg's photographs: we see spice vendors, camels, and prayer rugs, but also skyscrapers and shopping malls.

Not only the choice but also the usage of Ambicase Modern is noteworthy in this photo-essay. This showy typeface is best in small doses, as here where it is employed for only nine words in the six-page feature. The longer pull-quotes and decks appear in ITC Officina Sans, the comfortable sobriety of which serves well as a foil. The designer has also been smartly selective in his use of Ambicase Modern's many swash glyphs, which add curlicue ornaments to the letters. The enormous letters used across the binding on the title spread might have been an opportunity to use the finer-detailed "Poster" cut of Ambicase Modern, but given that they are reversed out and given a gradient, the more substantial regular cut letters work well. Additional ornaments, mostly designed by Rossiter himself, take inspiration from Arabic culture and work with the typography to enliven the pages.

FC FIVE were a Japanese hardcore band. The words The Anthems use Ambicase Fatface by Teeline Fonts, set with OpenType swashes active.