By Melissa Donovan
The Look Company is a global force in designing, planning, printing, and installing visual graphics for retail and sporting events. High-profile clients include FIFA, Formula 1, Jaguar Land Rover, Lululemon, Mattress Firm, MLB, NHL, and Walmart. In business since 1998, when it was first known as The Fabric Communication Network, today The Look Company operates out of Barrie, ON, Canada, with additional offices in Seattle, WA; Tampa, FL; Doha, Qatar; and Saint Pierre en Faucigny, France—a total global manufacturing space of 380,000 square feet.
Above: The Look Company printed graphics for the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series using its proprietary wide format dye-sub fabric printer that offers eight-color printing at 600 dpi resolution.
Updated Abilities
The large-scale visual branding company has never shied away from technological advancement, continually investing in the latest and greatest print hardware to meet its clients’ needs. One of those goals, according to Jacob Burke, global CEO, The Look Company, is creating large-scale graphics at a higher visual quality.
“There’s no reason that the large-scale graphics seen on game day or while shopping in store should be lower quality based on existing industry standards,” notes Burke.
Over the years key staff members’ collective knowledge of the printing process, particularly textile dye-sublimation (dye-sub), led to the realization that The Look Company team was capable of designing and implementing its own printing device that could yield large-scale graphics at high visual quality.
It’s spent the last decade perfecting a wide format dye-sub fabric printer that offers eight-color printing at 600 dpi resolution. According to the company, this means that graphics are printed at twice the color gamut achieved by standard industry printing, while decreasing printing times and increasing energy efficiency.
“It’s a balance between quality and speed. We fine tuned the eight-color printer and resolution, in line with the speed. It makes it so we are comfortable turning things around quickly but offering quality at that speed,” says Burke.
All of The Look Company’s locations are outfitted with these new printing capabilities, allowing the print provider to operate globally and ensure consistency. This is especially important when hitting brand colors.
Printing at Scale
One of the first jobs that benefited from the updated dye-sub fabric printer was for the NHL 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series, which took place on February 1, 2026 in Tampa, FL with the Boston Bruins playing against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The NHL is a repeat client, with The Look Company creating signage for such events like the 2022 Heritage Classic.
The Stadium Series is a great example of what The Look Company accomplishes on a frequent basis, as Burke cites sporting events take up about half of its business—and probably the part that gets the most publicity because of the fandom attached to it.
Fandom is important because team colors must be just right, with no room for error. This is where the dye-sub printer’s capabilities shine. “You have to consider the team’s logos—those are tried and true, have been around for decades in some instances. It’s very personal at that point and the fans notice,” points out Burke.
Then there is the added level of ensuring the colors are correct for whichever new logo the NHL designs for the Stadium Series that year. Between that new design and the two teams’ branding, expectations are high. The NHL expects The Look Company to match every color.
Traditionally, sporting event graphics include PVC-based materials, which according to Burke can be challenging. “Sometimes there is terrible glare. Especially with events that take place outdoors—there’s the sunset, sunrise, and clouds to contend with.”
Working with a fabric instead, these issues almost disappear. The Look Company engineers its own polyester-based materials. Using a natural fiber, once printed the fabrics are bright, vibrant, and feature colors that stay true at all times, at all angles, without glare.
Combine the fabric with the print provider’s updated dye-sub printer and the result is flawless. “With our experience in dye-sub we get these really deep, vibrant, punchy colors that are also very camera friendly,” explains Burke.
For the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series, The Look Company produced all of the stadium branding found throughout Raymond James Stadium—banners around the rink, wayfinding signage, soft signage, media interview backdrops, graphics on the exterior of the stadium, and more. A total of 200,000 square feet of graphics were printed.
Planning for events of this scope usually starts a year in advance, strategizing with the selected city and venue, and engineering concepts based on direction from the NHL. From initial design through production and installation, the full process for the 2026 Stadium Series took around six months.
Quality and Speed
The Look Company’s work for the NHL is a visual representation of its updated printer’s capabilities. Seeing the final product come to fruition—on a global scale—is a fantastic achievement for this nearly 30 year old company.
Mar2026, Digital Output
