Empreinte travels the Impressionists trail

  Last winter, the “Comité Départemental du Tourisme de Seine-Maritime” (Seine-Maritime Departmental Tourist Board) threw down a new challenge to Empreinte: create 22 reproductions of the major works of Impressionist painters. From Rouen to Dieppe via Le Havre and Etretat, the lava stones clad with Normandy’s most beautiful landscapes, as seen through the eyes of the greatest artists of the 19^th century, have been fitted into place.

This was a major project. The Impressionists’ trail already existed, but the “Comité Départemental du tourisme” wanted to renew it for the major "Normandie Impressionniste" festival scheduled from June to September 2010. Six itineraries, each illustrating an Impressionist theme and allowing visitors to discover 15 key sites, had to be redone.  The existing platforms had to be preserved, while giving them a new lease of life.

Pinpoint organisation 

The deadlines were tight, so Empreinte had to create a strict organisational plan. While the customer put the finishing touches to a sober, contemporary layout, designed to highlight the works, the project was launched. The 22 lecterns were displaced and taken to our workshop. The long process of removing the old elements could finally begin. While the platforms underwent their face-lift (dry-blast cleaning, sanding, thermolacquering), our graphic team began the delicate work on the chroma. 

Impressionist works are famous for the purity of their colours and the transparency of the rendering. The objective was to remain faithful to the brushstrokes of Monet, Sisley, Boudin or Pissaro...All the colours, the nuances, the subtleties were analysed and broken down so that we could reproduce the works using enamels baked at very high temperatures.  The whole workshop was involved in the serigraphy for the lava panels (800 mm*1000 mm).

Once the stones were printed and baked, they were reintegrated into the renovated platforms. The re-fitting (in 11 different municipal communes) was accomplished on-time and the trail is already proving a success with the many tourists who love visiting Seine-Maritime. 

Initially used for the cladding of public buildings, the enamelled extruded stoneware used by Empreinte gives excellent results for all your visual features.
Its slimness means it can easily be set into lecterns, benches or wall hanging.

It is unaffected by UV rays, and withstands scratching, corrosion and climatic stress, thus meeting all standards required for outdoor use (10-year guarantee).

 Download : Data sheet "Things you need to know about enamelled stoneware"

A great many applications

Enamelled extruded stoneware can be used for a great many applications, from the most traditional to the most original.  Thanks to the waterjet cutting technique, all shapes are possible.  Less heavy than lava (18 kg/m2), stoneware fits in easily with existing street furniture, in natural areas, parks and gardens.  Empreinte can also make your orientation or interpretation tables in stoneware, as well as your thematic trail signage or commemorative plaques.

Stoneware is also ideal for making very large frescoes.  In this case, plaques can be set side-by-side, ad infinitum.

Stoneware is essential when making pictograms or elements of indoor and/or utilitarian signage.

Empreinte provides a 10 year guarantee for its orientation tables, its tourist itinerary signage, and its signposting plates in enamelled stoneware, with visuals the same as on the day they were delivered.

Lava stone has been used for roadside signage for over a century.  Michelin plaques were to be found throughout towns and villages from the end of the First World War onwards.  Some milestones and many signposts and street signs can still be seen today and are still in good condition.
The Touring club de France also had many enamelled lava orientation tables made as early as 1908.

Thanks to enamelled lava we are now able to produce tourist signage that's beyond compare.  The natural aspect of lava, which is a local product, gives a unique finish to all visual features, and exceptional depth of colour.
Unaffected by the heat, cold, sea air and exceptionally resistant to any form of aggression (graffiti, scratching and boring) enamelled lava gives you long-lasting signage with excellent staying power.

Download : Natural product, ecological manufacturing methods

For you, in its design and production workshops, Empreinte can create orientation tables, totems, lecterns, natural or historical trail waymarks, coats of arms, frescoes...  As a specialist in the reproduction of heritage sites on enamelled lava stone or stoneware, Empreinte guarantees the creation of high-quality, original and long-lasting tourist signage.   Empreinte’s products in enamelled lava stone or stoneware come with a 10 year guarantee, with visuals the same as on the day they were delivered.  Every orientation table and all tourist signage are delivered with a warranty certificate.  

Download : Data sheet "Things you need to know about enamelled lava"

Download : Product Qualities

Empreinte has chosen to give you an objective guarantee on its products: all have been tested by independent laboratory La Société Française de Céramique according to ISO standards in force.  Empreinte guarantees its products will look as good as new for ten years.

Download : Detailed product tests

Empreinte chose to set up a Quality Management System according to ISO 9001 standard. This system has been certified by bureau Veritas Certification.

Downloadable : Quality Certificate (Iso 9001)

Empreinte also pays particular attention to controlling its environmental impact.  For four years now it has been determining and developing a voluntaristic and ambitious environmental policy.

The company was audited for the dual ISO 9001 and ISO 14 001 certification at the end of 2008.

Downloadable : Environment Certificate (Iso 14001)


Furthermore, Empreinte was awarded a prize for dynamic craftsmanship by the Chamber of Trade and Craftsmanship of the Haute-Garonne in 2006.

Download : 2010 Quality/Safety/Environment Policy

A team focussed on your requirements

Your project is at the heart of tourist development in your area.
It will be a reflection of your town and dynamism and a permanent fixture within some of its loveliest landscapes bearing witness to the major stages in its history.


Our first mission is to listen to what you have to say : to understand your requirements and your constraints.  Our second is to offer you our support.  Our sales team is here to provide original solutions that are perfectly suited to your project and budget.

Download : Empreinte - Tourist Signage

As a genuine specialist in the reproduction of natural and historic heritage, Empreinte will work hand in hand with you to establish the different stages for marking out your tourist sites and trails. Drawing on its experience of hundreds of creations in France, Europe and around the world, our team will design original tourist itinerary signage in enamelled lava stone or enamelled stoneware while ensuring its total integration with your natural environment.

A creation in keeping with your image

Empreinte has a fully-equipped graphic design and photoengraving workshop and the latest PC and Macintoch computer equipment.  Our team of graphic designers is able to offer you all types of graphic designs and find a solution in keeping with your image.Hand-painted watercolours or computer-assisted drawings of landscapes will come to life on your orientation tables or on the signage at the different stages of your tourist itinerary.

Our professionals are also here to guide you through the tricky job of drafting your texts and making information readily understandable to the general public.  A clear, comprehensive and accessible message will enable you to perfect your signage

An enamelling and serigraphy workshop

Your project will be printed and enamelled in our own workshops.  Our silk screen printers and enamellers boast exceptional know-how thanks to the lengthy in-house training we give them.

Each enamelled lava or stoneware product is unique.  It is personally supervised by one of our craftsmen, who'll make sure our printing service is irreproachable.  
Meeting your requirements is our objective: we'll carry out every necessary colour test to make sure we obtain a final quality that's as close as possible to "offset" quality despite the constraints imposed by enamelling techniques and lengthy firing at very high temperatures.

Our know-how combines arts and crafts and modern imagery.

Download : Why Empreinte ? 
Download : Certified quality

Download : Press review

Empreinte awarded the "Export Trophy 2010"

At the start of February, Empreinte and its team were awarded “the Midi-Pyrénées export trophy 2010”, in the craft company category. This award, organised by the Region and the members of the Midi-Pyrénées international strategic committee, aims to promote and showcase dynamic export companies.

 Le marais d'Ecluzelles abrite une faune et une flore d'un très grand intérêt pédagogique. Le Conseil général d'Eure et Loir a fait appel à Empreinte pour le jalonnement d'un sentier permettant de découvrir toutes les richesses de ce patrimoine particulier. 

  Empreinte a mobilisé pour ce projet les compétences d'une de nos graphistes, spécialiste des dessins naturalises. Le travail était important : il s'agissait de réaliser 22 illustrations plus vraies que nature. Après un gros travail de recherche sur les espèces animales et végétales à représenter, le délicat travail de peintre a débuté : toutes les illustrations ont été réalisées en nos atelers à l'aquarelle, dans le plus grand respect des postures naturalistes. Les aquarelles terminées, il ne restait plus qu'à imaginer une conception graphique sobre et élégante, capable de s'intégrer parfaitement dans ce milieu naturel presque sauvage.

Le Conseil général  a choisi pour la fabrication de son parcours le grès étiré. Le grès ne nécessite aucun entretien, résiste aux conditions climatiques difficiles (humidité...) et est garanti 10 ans. L'émaillage dans nos ateliers a nécessité un soin tout particulier afin de respecter les nuances et la subtilité des couleurs des aquarelles. Intégrées dans un pupitre "Artcorps", les plaques en grès émailé ont pris tout naturellement leur place aux bords de la Roselière et parmi les canards, grèbes et autres hérons.