FROM TIDE TO TRADE (SHOW):
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF COOKE
Cooke by DisplayCO at Seafood Barcelona 2025
THE CHALLENGE
For the 2025 edition of Seafood Expo Global, one of the world’s largest seafood trade events, Cooke Inc. sought to make a statement. Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the global seafood leader needed more than just a stand. They needed an immersive brand experience that would communicate the company’s international presence, culinary innovation, and deep-rooted commitment to sustainability and community.
The challenge was multifaceted: design and build Cooke’s largest stand to date: an expansive 450 m², with double-decker meeting spaces, interactive digital content, and a culinary area capable of delivering live tastings. All of this had to be executed to perfection, with visibility from all angles of the exhibition hall and in full alignment with a recently refreshed global brand identity.
There are moments when a space must speak louder than words. When design becomes narrative, and presence becomes identity. For Cooke Inc., 2025 marked not only another year at Seafood Expo Global but a celebration of four decades cultivating the ocean with care. This milestone called for more than a booth. It called for a landmark.
OUR APPROACH
At TARS Design, we embraced the challenge with our usual mindset: collaborate, innovate, and build to inspire. Working closely with our Canadian partners at Displayco, we developed a concept that was equal parts functional, experiential, and emotionally resonant.
We placed digital storytelling at the heart of the stand. Visitors were welcomed by 44.5 m² of LED displays and videowalls, including a striking 9 m-wide and 8 m-wide pair of screens that anchored the visual identity. A touchscreen world map allowed guests to explore Cooke’s operations across 15 countries, triggering videos and information that brought the company’s global impact to life. This interactive system created a multisensory experience that invited visitors to learn, interact, and remember.
Above the main floor, we built a mezzanine with four meeting rooms, including one premium private lounge fully carpeted and equipped for business presentations. This upper tier provided a quiet yet elevated space for Cooke’s team to connect with clients and partners.
To embody Cooke’s culinary excellence, we created a dual-bar system: one for live show cooking using Cooke’s seafood products, and another styled as a café for informal chats. Nearby, the “Cooke Marketplace” replicated a retail setting complete with real refrigerated displays, making the product range tangible and immediate.
Every visual element, from giant backlit imagery to branded totems and a floating 4-meter-wide logo, was designed to be bold, elegant, and unmistakably Cooke. We wrapped surfaces in global-themed vinyl, reinforcing the company’s reach and vision.
“We envisioned the stand as a living organism, one that would breathe with the rhythm of the islands, immerse the visitor in nature, and interact with them on an emotional and technological level. We built an island inside the fair.”
José Vicente Gascó, Project Manager
THE RESULT
The result was a showstopping stand that not only met the client’s expectations, it amplified them. Cooke’s 450 m² booth became a magnet at Seafood Expo Global, drawing visitors in through its vibrant visuals, interactive storytelling, and warm hospitality.
Internally, the stand was hailed as a milestone: the largest in Cooke’s history and a fitting tribute to its 40th year. The team leveraged the space to build commercial relationships, showcase its product range in real retail and culinary contexts, and tell the story of its mission “to cultivate the ocean with care and nourish the world” through every detail of the space.
At TARS Design, was an honor to bring this ambitious vision to life, not just building a booth, but crafting an experience that mirrored the values and vitality of one of the most important seafood companies on the planet.
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