A Life Beyond Boundaries is set in Monotype Fournier, a typeface based on the designs of the eighteenth-century printer and typefounder Pierre Simon Fournier. He in turn was influenced by the constructed type designs of the Romain du Roi, commissioned by Louis XIV in 1692, which eschewed the calligraphic influence of prior typefaces in favour of scientific precision and adherence to a grid.
With its vertical axis, pronounced contrast and unbracketed serifs, the Fournier face is an archetype of the ‘transitional’ style in the evolution of Latin printing types – situated between the ‘old style’ fonts such as Bembo and Garamond and the ‘modern’ faces of Bodoni and Didot. Other distinguishing features include the proportionally low height of the capitals and the lowercase ‘f’, with its tapered and declining crossbar.
The italics, which were designed independently, have an exaggerated slope with sharp terminals that retain the squared serifs in the descenders.
The Fournier design was commissioned as part of the Monotype Corporation’s type revival programme under the supervision of Stanley Morison in the 1920s. Two designs were cut based on the ‘St Augustin Ordinaire’ design shown in Fournier’s Manuel Typographique. In Morison’s absence, the wrong design was approved, resulting in the typeface now known as Fournier.