![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778505498_738_Nichols_Paula-e1667487272716.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\tKim Bellavance\/COC<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMay 11, 2026\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Sharing](\"https:\/\/olympic.ca\/wp-content\/themes\/canadianolympiccommittee\/img\/team-canada-icons\/team-canada-profile-share-red.svg\")
<\/p>\n
When Team Canada athletes arrive at the Olympic Village, they recognize almost immediately that it is their home away from home.<\/p>\n
Plain, generic buildings and rooms have been transformed into a celebration of Canadian pride through the magic of pageantry and branding.<\/p>\n
But of course, it\u2019s not magic. It\u2019s the result of great collaboration between several Canadian Olympic Committee teams and the organization\u2019s Official Digital and Printing Production Partner<\/a> since 2023, ICON Digital Productions Inc<\/a>.<\/p>\n From small maple leaf stickers that marked the Canadian floors on elevator directories to large banners strung across outdoor balconies to the posters and backdrops that livened up indoor spaces, ICON printed it all.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s great about working with ICON is we have this vision and we\u2019re like \u2018okay we think we want to do this\u2019 and then they can help direct us,\u201d said V\u00e9ronique Labrosse, who was Team Canada\u2019s Village Lead in Milan during the recent 2026 Olympic Winter Games.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t just the Olympic Village (make that Villages plural) for which ICON had a hand in making a location in Italy feel very Canadian. There was also the Canada Olympic House Celebration Series.<\/p>\n Milano Cortina 2026<\/a> had a uniquely large footprint, with athletes living in one of six clusters\u2014Milan, Livigno, Cortina, Predazzo, Bormio, Anterselva\u2014across northern Italy. The widespread nature of the Games meant there wouldn\u2019t be one Canada Olympic House location, as is typical, but rather a series of Canada Olympic House Celebration Series events that would take place in Cortina, Livigno, and Milan.<\/p>\n Multiple short-term Canada Olympic House sites meant that it was crucial for ICON to be engaged early on, a big learning for their second Olympic Games as a Team Canada partner.<\/p>\n \u201cVisiting the sites and venues in person allowed us to fully understand each space, visualize opportunities, and gather critical details,\u201d said Neil Faulkner, Account Executive at ICON. \u201cBy being on the ground in Italy, we were able to assess site conditions firsthand and recommend appropriate substrates and solutions based on environmental, logistical, and installation considerations.<\/p>\n \u201cGetting involved from the very beginning of the planning stage enabled us to offer strategic expertise, identify areas of opportunity, and ensure the execution was both efficient and impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n But those weren\u2019t the only considerations.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething we\u2019ve been trying to play around with for the last couple Games is how do we maximize impact but also [\u2026] how do we be sustainable with the things we\u2019re putting in?\u201d said Yena Kim, a Project Manager with the COC\u2019s Games team.<\/p>\n To that end, there is a desire that the materials used in the printing of pageantry elements be of high quality and therefore able to be used beyond just one Games. One example of that is the balcony banners initially produced for the Paris 2024<\/a> Olympic Village were repurposed for some of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Villages.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s something we really appreciate, especially when sometimes we don\u2019t exactly know how things can be installed or where we\u2019re allowed to go. So to have that flexibility is extremely important,\u201d added Kim.<\/p>\n Sustainability is also a major focus for ICON, which has operated as a zero-waste-to-landfill facility since 2024. That means that \u201cover 90 per cent of the waste generated across our projects is diverted from landfill through recycling, reuse, and energy recovery streams,\u201d said Roshna Jesuthasan, HR coordinator at ICON, noting that ICON diverted approximately 93.6 metric tons of waste from landfills in 2025. \u201cThis approach not only reduces environmental impact but also supports more circular production practices across large-scale programs like the Olympic Games.\u201d<\/p>\n Paris 2024 marked the first Olympic Games for which Team Canada was partnered with ICON, who delivered hundreds of branded elements such as interior and exterior vinyl graphics, window graphics, floor graphics, fabric backdrops, custom locker elements, and interactive display installations for the Olympic Village, a Canada Olympic House that was open to fans for the duration of the Games, and multiple Team Canada FanFest weekend events.<\/p>\n For Milano Cortina 2026, the first meeting between the COC and ICON about branded elements took place about 10 months before the Games. The COC\u2019s own design team was responsible for the inspiration and concepts. Once designs were finalized, they were sent to ICON for production that had to be completed by September to meet the deadline for shipping everything from Montreal to Italy via sea freight.<\/p>\n For the Italy-based activations, ICON produced 150 balcony banners, 450 posters (across 10 versions), 18 QuickStand display systems with accompanying prints, nine step-and-repeat backdrops, and three custom medal walls that could be updated to reflect Team Canada\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n As one can imagine, the logistics for shipping that many elements to so many locations could be a nightmare. ICON made it a dream for COC staff.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have such a good relationship with them that they were open and understanding that we had six different Villages that we had to split up for. They were able to label every single piece. It was very well organized,\u201d said Labrosse.<\/p>\n Each package sent by ICON had a detailed production docket that included a unique identifier, quantity, item description, and destination. Shipments were organized by location, with each destination receiving its own dedicated skid. This allowed on-site teams to quickly allocate materials without needing to re-sort.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-6.jpg\")
Banners decorate Team Canada balconies at the Olympic Village during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (Canadian Olympic Committee photo)![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Image_67d93e.jpg\")
Those same banners were repurposed for the Team Canada balconies in the Milan Olympic Village during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games (Canadian Olympic Committee photo)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FINAL-PARIS2024-26-07-24__002.jpg\")
Signage to direct fans to Canada Olympic House at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (Bernard Brault\/COC)![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FINAL-PARIS2024-26-07-24__005.jpg\")
Welcome desk at Canada Olympic House during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (Bernard Brault\/COC)![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FINAL-PARIS2024-30-07-24__045.jpg\")
Pillows in the Canadian Tire Celebration Arena at Canada Olympic House during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (Bernard Brault\/COC)<\/p>\n