Some projects are remembered for their scale. Others for the technical complexity they conceal. And some — the ones that truly leave a mark — because they manage to make both coexist without the visitor ever perceiving the effort. Cooke Inc.’s stand at Seafood Expo Global 2025 was one of those.
This is the case study of how TARS Design, in collaboration with Canadian firm Displayco, conceived, designed and built the most ambitious exhibition space in Cooke’s history: 450 m² at Fira Barcelona Gran Via, across two floors, with 44.5 m² of audiovisual surface, a live tasting area and an interactive system that connected visitors to the company’s operations in 15 countries.
2. Context: who Cooke Inc. is and why Seafood Expo Global matters
Cooke Inc. is the world’s largest privately owned seafood company. With operations in 15 countries and a range spanning farmed salmon to wild-caught species and processed products, the company operates in a market where trust, traceability and brand narrative carry as much weight as price.
Seafood Expo Global is that sector’s reference showcase: more than 29,000 industry professionals from around the world gather in Barcelona each year to close deals, discover suppliers and gauge where the market is heading. In that context, physical presence is not a marketing expense — it is a first-rate commercial tool.
For Cooke, 2025 also carried particular symbolic weight. The company was turning 40, having been founded in 1985. This was not just another year. It was the moment to make a statement.
3. The brief and its real constraints
The commission arrived with a set of requirements that, taken together, made it one of the most demanding projects we have tackled at a food fair.
The client wanted the largest stand Cooke had ever had, at 450 m². But size was not the only challenge. The brief included:
- Integrating Cooke’s newly refreshed global brand identity into every element of the space.
- Incorporating interactive technology that explained the company’s international footprint experientially, not just informationally.
- Building a mezzanine with private meeting rooms so the commercial team could work in parallel with stand activity.
- Creating an operational culinary area for live tastings with real products.
- Replicating a real retail environment inside the stand, with functioning refrigerators and freezers.
- Guaranteeing omnidirectional visibility from every point in the hall.
All of this within a fair venue, with the logistical constraints inherent to a build at Fira Barcelona: tight timelines, coordination with the organiser, and the added complexity of working in close collaboration with Displayco from Canada.
Professional tip: When the brief includes interactive technology, two-storey structures and simultaneous operational zones (kitchen, meetings, retail), the most common mistake is treating each element as an independent module. The key is defining the visitor flow from the outset and establishing a clear hierarchy of spaces: what does the visitor see first, where do they stop, where do they move next. Everything else flows from that.
4. Design decisions: the reasoning behind each choice
Interactive technology as the narrative axis
The first major design debate was how to tell Cooke’s story without falling back on a catalogue. A company with a presence in 15 countries has a great deal to show, but a trade fair stand is not a corporate presentation. Visitors pass by, stop if something catches them, and move on.
The solution was to concentrate the narrative in a tactile interactive world map. The visitor could select any of the countries where Cooke operates and, at that moment, the touchscreen displayed detailed information while a large-format video wall played audiovisual content specific to that operation. The visitor stopped being a spectator and became an explorer.
For that interaction to work, it needed to be anchored in a powerful audiovisual architecture. That is why the decision was made to install 44.5 m² of LED surface: a 9 x 2.5 m video wall, an 8 x 2.5 m video wall, a screen integrated into the main counter and an additional interactive display. The scale of the installation was not an aesthetic indulgence. It was what made the experience credible.
The mezzanine: separating without isolating
The request for meeting rooms presented a tension that is common in trade fair stands: how do you create private spaces without making the stand feel closed off? A stand that turns its back on the hall loses footfall. One without private zones forces the commercial team to work in full view of everyone.
The mezzanine was the answer. Three standard meeting rooms and one premium room — carpeted and equipped with a presentation monitor — on the upper floor. Cooke’s team could hold high-level meetings with international buyers while, on the ground floor, the stand continued to receive visitors with all its activity fully visible. Two parallel commercial dynamics, without interference.
The dual bar system
The hospitality zone also followed a dual logic. One bar was dedicated to live preparation: chefs working with Cooke products, active tastings, real product moments. The other functioned as an informal café, a more relaxed meeting point where conversations could begin without the pressure of a formal meeting.
This distinction is not minor. At food fairs, well-designed hospitality is a commercial qualification tool. The visitor who accepts a tasting has already taken a first step. The one who sits at the café bar is available for a conversation.
The Cooke Marketplace
One of the most distinctive elements of the stand was the marketplace zone: a lateral space styled as a real point of sale, with functioning freezers and refrigerators displaying fresh and frozen products from the brand. The objective was not simply to show the catalogue. It was to demonstrate how Cooke’s products look and are presented in the environment where the buyer will actually find them: a supermarket shelf or a gourmet fishmonger’s display.
Something to consider: At B2B food fairs, the buyer is not only evaluating the product. They are evaluating how that product will work for them. Showing the product in its real sales context answers that question before it is even asked.
Visual identity: bold but disciplined
The final major axis was the graphics. Cooke had just refreshed its global brand identity and the stand had to be the first major expression of that new brand in an international setting. Three 3.4-metre-tall totems at the stand’s corners marked the perimeter and functioned as visibility beacons from every point in the hall. A 4-metre-wide hanging sign above the space completed the aerial presence. The 25 m² of backlit images on the side panels rounded out the visual narrative: sustainability, global nutrition, community.
All the graphic vinyl cladding on the bars and front-facing zones reinforced that language without repeating it. The identity was present on every surface without saturating.
5. The technical solution: concrete figures
| Element | Specification |
|---|---|
| Total surface area | 450 m² |
| Main video wall | 9 m x 2.5 m (22.5 m²) |
| Secondary video wall | 8 m x 2.5 m (20 m²) |
| Counter screen | 2 m² integrated LED |
| Total audiovisual surface | 44.5 m² |
| Meeting rooms (mezzanine) | 3 standard + 1 carpeted premium |
| Identity totems | 3 units, 3.4 m tall |
| Hanging sign | 4 m x 1.25 m |
| Backlit graphics | 25 m² (side panels) |
| Bar zones | 2 (live tasting + café) |
| Marketplace | Zone with functioning freezers and refrigerators |
| Countries on interactive map | 15 |
6. Execution: what does not appear in the render
Executing a 450 m² stand with two floors, complex audiovisual installation and active operational zones requires coordination that goes far beyond design. In this project, the added variable was the transatlantic collaboration with Displayco.
Working with a Canadian partner on a stand in Barcelona means managing time zone differences, aligning technical criteria between different construction systems and ensuring that every design decision made in Canada is executable with the resources and suppliers available in Spain. Constant communication and a clear definition of responsibilities between both companies was what allowed the final build to be completed within Fira Barcelona’s calendar.
Installing 44.5 m² of LED surface in a fair venue has its own logistical complexity: support structure, cabling, content synchronisation, functionality testing before opening. The map’s interactive system also required specific technical integration so that the touchscreen, the content server and the video walls could function as a single unified system.
Professional tip: In projects with complex technological components (large-format LED installations, interactive systems, real-time content management), the testing time before the fair opens is non-negotiable. Any technical problem identified during the build has a solution. The same problem identified once the hall is already open does not.
7. Results and client assessment
The Cooke stand at Seafood Expo Global 2025 became one of the reference spaces at the fair. Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Inc., highlighted the importance of physical presence at Seafood as a direct commercial tool: “It is where we connect directly with customers, showcase our innovative products and demonstrate our commitment to culinary excellence.”
Internally, the stand was recognised by the Cooke team as a milestone in the company’s history: the largest to date, and the first to fully and coherently reflect the new global brand identity.
Displayco, for its part, described the project as an epic journey from the first sketch to the final installation, highlighting the attention to detail in every element of the space.
For TARS Design, this project confirms something we know from every Seafood edition: the stands that perform commercially are not the biggest or the most expensive. They are the ones with a clear logic, a well-considered flow and a narrative the visitor understands without anyone having to explain it.
8. Three lessons for anyone designing stands at international food fairs
Interactive technology justifies its cost when it is part of the narrative, not an add-on. Cooke’s interactive map was not a gadget. It was the primary mechanism for explaining the company’s global footprint. If the technology does not answer a question the visitor already has, it adds nothing.
Retail in context is more persuasive than a catalogue. Showing products in a simulated real point-of-sale environment (with shelving, refrigerators and product presentation) communicates immediately how that product works for the buyer. It is a sales tool, not a decorative one.
In large-surface stands, a double floor resolves a real tension. Ground floor for footfall, upper floor for meetings. When the commercial team has its own working space, it can manage the fair’s pipeline in real time, without waiting to get back to the office.
9. Are you preparing your next stand at an international fair?
If your company needs an exhibition space that combines brand presence, technology and commercial functionality, at TARS Design we have spent years designing and building stands for top-tier international fairs.
Tell us about your project and we will help you define the concept from the first sketch to the last screen lit up.
And if you want to see more projects like this, browse our international trade fair stand portfolio.
Seafood Expo Global 2025. Fira Barcelona Gran Via, 6–8 May 2025. 450 m² stand for Cooke Inc. Design and build: TARS Design + Displayco.
