Painted Tongue Studios

I highly, highly recommend Painted Tongue Press. The studio’s letterpress work is absolutely gorgeous, in general, and we could not have been happier with our wedding invitations. Kim was a pleasure to work with and our invitations were even completed ahead of schedule. Now, post-​wedding, I will continue to purchase her lovely cards — I love the botanical themes — for every sort of card-​giving occasion.

We had a wonderful experience with Kim and the staff at Painted Tongue for our wedding invitations. She worked around our schedules for the consultation, gave great advice on coloring, design, etc. We actually had our invitations complete and printed within a couple of weeks because she knew we had a firm deadline. And to top it off, one of her staff actually hand-​delivered the invitations to my office in SF!!! Who does that?! They are amazing and worth every penny!

I had my wedding invitations done at Painted Tongue Studios and absolutely love them! Kim and her staff are amazing to work with. I knew I wanted the invitations to be nice but I did not think I would be able to afford letterpress and Kim was able to work with my budget and gave fair prices. I was initially interested in her prix-​fixe sets because of their value but ended up choosing a different design.
I set up a consultation with Kim during which we got to see a whole array of past invitations they have done, and really see how much creativity is at the studio. Kim was flexible and listened to what we wanted, and whenever I had trouble expressing what I wanted I knew I could trust her to produce something beautiful. As the other reviews say she sends proofs without charging each time and just wants you to be happy with the end product. We hit a few unexpected bumps during production but I was never worried because Kim always had solutions and was determined to get us what we wanted. Kim was patient and receptive of many of my very specific edit requests, and she always responded to emails in a timely manner.
My invitation suite is gorgeous and I am so happy we found Painted Tongue for our invitations! I highly recommend them!

I had my invitation set printed at Painted Tongue and was very happy with the results. Kim and her team seem to be experts about all things letterpress and I think her pricing is very fair for the time she spends with you. We wanted a more modern look for our invitations which took many iterations to communicate but Kim was infinitely patient with all our revisions and I’ve had so many compliments on our invitation set.
I’d recommend working with Kim, particularly if you want something more traditional as she is very experienced with these types of invitation sets. If you’re looking for edgy design, she’ll definitely work with you to get there but based on her portfolio, I think she works on these types of projects less frequently.

My wife and I used Painted Tongue for our letterpress wedding invitations and thank-​you cards, and we couldn’t be happier with the result. Kim was a pleasure to work with, she was very accommodating of our various change requests during the design process, and she got everything to us on time. Highly recommended!

We just got our wedding invitations from Painted Tongue. They are absolutely gorgeous! I could not believe how perfect they are. I loved working with Kim — she made it very easy to get exactly what we wanted. I never thought I would be able to afford custom letterpress for my wedding invitations, but I was able to because of Kim! I love, love, love my invitations!

I’ve always just glossed over anything letter press because I assume that it’s just going to be way too expensive. In the home stretch (and I mean in the last 2 weeks prior) preparing for our wedding, our attention turned to ceremony programs. I discovered Painted Tongue through the Japanese paper store on Union Street (name escapes me now) and was pleasantly surprised that we if we got letter press programs from Painted, it would be much, much nicer and a better value. (For comparison, Union St. Papery charges almost $ 3 a piece for in-​house printing — and it’s only laser on index card stock.) Working with Kim has been great so far. I went to her studio to pick out paper, ink and talk about design. They can match ink color with pretty much anything. We don’t have the final product yet, but I’ve been so impressed thus far in the process that I had to Unilocal about it. She’s been super accommodating despite our short time frame. We laid out some text in a word file and she re-​arranged it to make it flow better, and visually appealing. They also work with you on the proofs until your happy. Just for perspective, on our invites, we worked with
, which charged us $ 50 per proof after the first two. Also, Painted customizes each design for you. Our project with the ceremony programs has been on a tight timeline and very execution focused — but I can only imagine what would have been possible if I planned ahead… The studio is in Oakland — a quick drive out of the city in non-​peak traffic times. It’s in a garage of a beautiful old brick building that used to be a laundry facility, which really stands out in the neighborhood. It’s a fun experience to go, look through their previous work, see these old machines… If you’re just starting to look into a wedding invitation suite, or looking for components (Save the date, programs, etc.) I’d definitely look in to Painted Tongue, even if you’re working within a budget.

Unbelievable!!! I went to Painted Tongue for my wedding invitations and I have gotten so many compliments about them. The entire staff at Painted Tongue is professional and friendly. I was very impressed with how flexible they were with their schedule. They worked with my fiancée and I the whole step of the way. Beautiful art and unmistakable creativity. Thanks.

Letterpress is the musthave of the year, it seems. If you want beautifully designed and unique letterpress, check out Painted Tongue Press in Oakland (great samples on their website). You honestly never knew there were so many options for letterpress – business cards and menus, as well as your typical wedding/​birth/​etc. announcements and accompanying components. Kim created our framed wedding vows using the chrysanthemum design off my dress and the color of Mr. B’s aloha shirt. I’ve been unable to top that anniversary gift…
Kim also teaches at the Center for the Book and offers classes at her studio. I would not recommend stopping by the studio without calling first – if you check a map, it’s not the kind of area for an afternoon stroll. However, she or Bill are often there on the weekends and can always arrange a late afternoon appointment.