Lemoncheese Press is a letterpress and design studio based in Berkeley, California where Li Jiang designs, prints and binds custom letterpress ephemera, invitations, stationery and books. After earning a Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design Li fell in love with the hands on and tactile aspects of letterpress printing process and has been printing for the past 15 years.
To combine all the advantages of digital design with handcrafted perfection, Lemoncheese Press offers printing from photopolymer plates. In this process any digital file, be it image or type, is transferred to a polymer plate with raised surfaces suitable for applying ink. The plate is pressed into the paper creating a crisp impression pleasingly tactile and visibly different from other printing methods.
Metal type has a beauty all its own — a slight irregularity and character not often seen in the digital age. Very little new metal type is manufactured presently, but Lemoncheese Press has several fonts of antique type cast in metal for the job that demands it.
An artist book eight years in the making, 36 Views of the Golden Gate Bridge features a new technique of image creation with polymer plates. Images are created by directly scratching into the film which is used to make the polymer plates for letterpress printing, bypassing the computer to create hand-drawn images, resulting in a unique look that is a marriage of color wood engraving and etching. The book comprises 36 prints capturing life in the Bay Area under the ever present Golden Gate Bridge. Produced in 2023 in an edition of 50.
12”x 9”, 40 pages, 36 color prints
Hand bound in a decorative stab binding
Thin boards covered in Japanese book cloth
Decorative stab binding
Printed on Gruppo Cordenons Wild 150 gsm text
Letterpress printed from polymer plates
With hand drawn illustrations
The digital typeface is Diotima Classic by Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse and Akira Kobayashi.
The iconic San Francisco
Images are created by directly scratching into the film which is used to make the polymer plates for letterpress printing
Double Crested Comorant
Detail of multiple color passes, eight press runs in total.
During the process of creating the book, longtime locations have become inaccessible.
eight press runs
The California version of The Great Wave, because why not.
Much like Hokusai's Waves, this view is not a physical possibility.
The Golden Gate Bridge appears in unlikely places
Cups of Gold
The Deluxe edition includes a set of progressives of this print.
Summer fog from Fort Baker
Fort Baker, ten press runs
China Town
Postcards
Progressive 1
Progressive 2
Progressive 3
Progressive 4
Progressive 5
Progressive 6
Progressive 7
Letterpress printing is the printing of raised type onto a surface. At Lemoncheese Press, the same principles that Johannes Gutenberg applied to the first mechanical printing system over 500 years ago are combined with the precision of modern technology and the practiced eye of an artist to create beautiful and memorable pieces.
Hand set type 36pt to 6pt Centaur.
Curves are, un-surprisingly, hard to set by hand.
Love those alternates in Parsons.
Proof!
Shakespeare in lead.
24pt 16th Century Roman with long s's and alternate characters.
Three colors printed from polymer plates
Three colors printed from polymer plates
Printed with a mix of Polymer plates and lead type
Printed on the Club's Columbian iron hand-press
Printed on the Club's Columbian iron hand-press
Hand drawn illustration printed from polymer plate , and poem in hand set type
Printed at the SF Center for the Book on a Reliance Midget with hand set type and zinc blocks.
Hand drawn press illustrations were made into zinc blocks
A companion piece to David Lance Goines' Summer of Love poster for the Book Club of California
Printed from polymer plates
Celebrating the year of the rat
Bilingual broadside printed from polymer plate and lino block
Printed on the Club's Columbian iron hand-press
Bilingual broadside printed from polymer plate and lino block
Commissioned by John Windle (antiquarian book seller) for a joint meeting of the Roxburghe Club and Zamorano Club.
Hand drawn illustration
9x12, 12 pages, booklet printed from polymer plates.
Blind impression border
Two signatures, hand sewn in red thread
A different border accompanied each article
Printed from hand set type
Hand drawn images printed with polymer plates.
9x12
Printed from 3 hand carved lino blocks.
9x12
Printed from 3 hand carved lino blocks.
Two color anoucement with hand drawn image.
A6 flat card
Printed from polymer plates in three colors.
A6 flat card
Printed from hand-set type and lino block.
A10 double-sided invitation.
A6 flat card invitation printed from hand-set type.
Two color flat card invite printed from polymer plates.
Two color flat card invite.
Two color folded invite printed from polymer plates.
Three color talk invite printed from polymer plates.
Two color invite printed from polymer plates.
Multi-purpose holiday card with pop-out ornament.
Hand set type
Hand set piece border.
Illustration by Lemoncheese Press
Business card double duty as product tags.
Double sided egg shape cards
Double sided
Letterpress re-interpretation of a full color offset card design
Logo design also by Lemoncheese Press
Logo design also by Lemoncheese Press
Incorporation of artist drawings
A few years ago, Li started experimenting with using film as a drawing medium. The idea of using new technology in a traditional way was appealing. All the prints you see here are hand drawn directly on the film which is used to expose polymer plates, and then hand printed. Li continues to explore new techniques in this hand crafted method.
7 color circular print
7 color circular print
6 Color print
8 color print, polymer plates and hand set type
5 press run, 6 color A7 blank card.
Printed from polymer plates
Printed from lino cut
Wild orchid
Chrysanthemum
Persimmon
Ginko
Plum blossom
Bamboo
Typography is a subtle art. When executed correctly, the reader shouldn't notice it – it should be in harmony with your work and help convey it to the reader.
Childrens book, small edition for the family of the author
Illustrated, printed and bound by Lemoncheese Press
Printed from hand carved lino blocks, and hand-set lead type
Printed from hand carved lino blocks, and hand-set lead type
Printed from hand carved lino blocks, and hand-set lead type
I have the pleasure of working for Havilah Press where I've been involved with several book projects
A loose leaf specimens book, 9x12, 2012
Total of 43 pages of specimens
All pages printed from hand-set type
7x9 bound in green cloth
Printed damp on a Columbian iron hand-press.
Pochoir flower illustrations by Li Jiang were tipped in
Text is an English translation of Jean Saude's Traite d'Enluminure d'Art au Pochoir.
Mylar stencils were cut by laser
Printed from polymer plates
Illustrations are from the original book
The progressives for one illustration
6x9 two signature booklet
A facsimile and transcription of a letter from Samuel Lloyd Osbourne (Robert Louis Stevenson's step son) to RLS's mother Margaret Stevenson.
RLS had gifted to SLO a small table top press, the letter is about his adventures in printing.
Facsimile of the letter
Transcription of letter