Daniel Lanz

After completing an apprenticeship as an engraver, Daniel Lanz – who was born in 1958 in Schaffhausen (Switzerland) – spent 20 years carving letterforms and contours into metal. A second apprenticeship in typographic design – with intensive study of works by Gill, Meier, and Frutiger – considerably depend his interest in the forms and effects of typography.

Digitizing hand-drawn sketches into the skeletal forms of the alphabet, Lanz began developing various ideas for broader typeface designs. His work on Diverda began in the beginning of 2002. An initial sans serif design developed into a full-fledged family over the next two years. During this time, it became even clearer to Lanz that engraving and type design both serve the same goals: they both strive to depict the ideal forms of lines and contours.