Empreinte is above all a human adventure. Fabrice Tregou, an entrepreneur convinced of the future of enamelled lava, decided to launch into heritage signage in 2002 when he took over the company. The gamble was a good one, but a little crazy: lava is a well-known product in France, but it suffers from an outdated image, coupled with a slow, complicated and expensive process.

That's all it took for Fabrice to rise to the challenge: he set up in the heart of the Lauragais hills, a stone's throw from Toulouse, and surrounded himself with a first and then a second screen printer.

A small team of pioneers came together and the Empreinte machine was launched. Cahin-caha sometimes, they modernised the methods, tested the colours and ensured flawless follow-up. Coulommiers, Villeneuve d'Ascq and Lavernay were among the first customers. 

In 2006, Empreinte went abroad and screen-printed its first plaques for a UNESCO site. They were installed in Tanzania. In 2007, the enamel was also sold on sandstone. The towns of Montpellier and Nîmes were among the first to choose this material. The team was further expanded with the arrival of graphic designers, and new challenges were taken up with the award of ISO 9001 and 14001 certifications.

Designing and screen-printing plates was soon no longer enough. Why not come up with a design for the surface on which they will be printed? First sketched on a corner of the table or inspired by the moment.

Furniture appeared in the workshops. The Artcorps was born. A bestseller in the range, it was installed all over Europe. Buoyed by this success, a design office was set up, tasked with designing and dreaming up ever more original made-to-measure furniture.

Soon, Empreinte was looking forward to new adventures. In 2014, the team took up residence in beautiful new premises near Toulouse. A long and methodical path was mapped out to open the doors of museums. The Musée de l'Homme in Paris was the first.

The revolution was cultural: we moved from outdoor to indoor. The products and the customers changed, but the mindset remained the same: give the best, strive for excellence, leave no stone unturned.

If you're going to develop media, you might as well make them. So in 2015, Empreinte designed a little sister: Empreinte Métal. All the furniture is cut, welded, bent and painted here. A second workshop will join Ste-Foy in September 2019.

Today, the pioneers of Empreinte are almost all still here. Everything else has changed: we print on everything, using different techniques, even 3D. We model, we draw, we design, we research. We manufacture, assemble and install. We pack, we ship, we make sure everything's right. Empreinte is doing well and moving forward. The path of its customers, the path of its projects, the path of its dreams.