Designed & built by Rob McAbee

Building Brands. Creating culture.

BUILDING BRANDS. CREATING CULTURE.

PHOTO CRED : YOSHI AOKI

Great brands
don't happen
by accident.

"RESPECT THE STORY."

They're built

with passion.

They're shaped

by culture.

They're led by

people who care.

And they endure

because they're authentic.

PHOTO CRED : SEAN MURPHY

ROB McABEE

Founder / Brand Builder

Creative Director

Storyteller

I help brands build culture. The rest is easy.

Kind of.

PHOTO CRED : SEAN MURPHY

I never had much of a master plan. I trusted good people, good ideas and the opportunities that felt had a soul.

That trust shaped how I work today. Get close to the business. Understand what makes it different. Build relationships that can handle disagreement. Give talented people room to do great work. And care enough to push past the easy answer.

The best work I've been part of has always come from that kind of environment. Different brands. Different challenges. Same foundation.

It was built on trust.

In their words.

“Rob made a tremendous impact on our business. He was an integral part of crafting our mission and setting forth the momentum we have today. He is a dedicated leader and a great communicator that invests his talents to develop people, business and a great business environment.”

Mike Pereyo

Co-Founder, oobe

“Rob is among the rare creative and design specialists that understands the process of surpassing ‘good’ to achieve excellence. He’s experienced in the internal workings of a creative team as well as garnering and maintaining the trust and confidence of a client.”

JAY WILSON

CO-FOUNDER, HINGEPOINT PRODUCTIONS

THE STORY

It still starts
with trust.

THE WORK SHOULD
LEAVE A MARK.

THE WORK

Make It Disruptive.

I specialize in helping indifferent, ambitious brands figure out who they are, what makes them different, and how to turn that into something people are attracted to. From brand and product to creative direction and culture, the objective is simple: build something people want to create a community around.

CHAPTER | 01

oobĒ

Creative Director

Creative Direction | Brand Strategy | Product | Storytelling

Seasonal Catalogs | Photography | Packaging

Where focus
became direction.

OOBĒ was a young company finding its place in the outdoor market when I joined as Creative Director. Working directly with founders Tom Merritt and Mike Pereyo, I helped sharpen the brand’s focus and build its creative foundation across apparel, photography, seasonal catalogs, packaging and brand collateral.

More importantly, I learned what happens when creative has a seat at the table. Not simply making the work, but helping determine where the brand should go.

THE WORK | 01

Selected
Work

Design became the product’s first impression.

Each season became an opportunity to develop OOBE’s visual language and build a more consistent experience around the brand.

The goal was never simply to make the product. It was to create a product-based lifestyle people recognized and wanted to become part of.

FALL / WINTER 2000

CREATIVE DIRECTION CATALOG DESIGN

ART DIRECTION PHOTOGRAPHY

Creative Direction | Brand IDENTITY | SEASONAL CATALOGS | Photography

Packaging | RETAIL PACKAGING | GRAPHICS

THE IMPACT | 01

A brand finds its voice one season at a time.

Brands aren't built through a single season. They're built through consistent decisions across product, photography, packaging, retail and customer experience.

Protect the brand's foundation. Carry it through every touchpoint. That's how a brand becomes recognizable, relevant and worth caring about.

Rob possesses a generous talent for distilling a company’s essence and helping drive the creative narrative in which a brand communicates with their customers.

MIKE PEREYO

CO-FOUNDER, OOBE

McAbee Provisions, a named conference room in recognition of my contribution during the company’s formative years.

Years later, OOBE named a conference room in recognition of my contribution during the company’s formative years.

PHOTO CRED : SEAN MURPHY

CHAPTER | 02

~$2.5M ~$116M

COMPANY VALUATION DURING MY TENURE

Creative Brand Director

BOTE

Stand Apart

I joined BOTE when it was still a young paddle board company with an ambitious idea of what the brand could become. I helped shape the brand, product, creative direction and visual culture as the business grew into one of the most recognizable names in the outdoor industry.

BRAND DIRECTION

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

CREATIVE DIRECTION

CAMPAIGNS + CONTENT

RETAIL + DTC

PHOTO CRED : SEAN MURPHY

WE WEREN'T BUILDING PADDLE BOARDS.
WE WERE BUILDING A WORLD AROUND THEM.

Rob has an instinct for recognizing what makes a brand different, then making sure every touchpoint reinforces it.

He gave BOTE a vision, and made damn sure we stood apart.

COREY COOPER

CO-FOUNDER, BOTE

PHOTO CRED : SEAN MURPHY

Bug Slinger fly fishing apparel and graphic design inspired by art, music and surf culture.

CHAPTER | 03

Founder | Creative Director

Built from the culture I lived.

I came into fly fishing through surf, skate and music culture, and didn't see much of myself reflected back.

Bug Slinger® was the alternative: less traditional, more irreverent, and rooted in the cultures I already knew.

What began with T-shirts and graphics grew into a complete brand spanning apparel, headwear, accessories, technical gear and collaborations.

It's proof that a rebellious point of view can form a business.

THE WORK | 03

MADE FOR MISFITS.

FLY FISHING DIDN'T NEED ANOTHER UNIFORM.

FROM ART TO GEAR

Bug Slinger® grew into a complete visual language, one that could live across apparel, headwear, accessories, patterns and technical gear without losing its identity.

ART | MUSIC | SURF | FLY FISHING

VISION

FLY FISHING.
LIFE. STYLE.

The Bug Slinger® visual language eventually crossed into BOTE as a sub-brand, moving from apparel and accessories into boards, bags and hard goods.

BRANDS COLLIDE

$12M+

IN BRAND SALES

What started as something I wanted to wear became a brand, a community and a business. It proves something that I carry with me: culture isn't something you manufacture. You earn your way into it.

CHAPTER | 04

WARBIRD
COLLECTIVE

We won't stay in our lane.

Brand strategy | Creative direction |

Identity | Product | Culture

CLICK FOR SITE

WARBIRD COLLECTIVE

Building brands.
Defining culture.

Tigre Island Room identity and event design for the Fernandina Beach music venue.

LEFTOVER SALMON / TIGRE ISLAND ROOM

STRATEGY | STORY | PRODUCT | CULTURE

Cayce and I built Warbird around a simple idea: understand what makes a brand different before deciding what it should look like. We work across strategy, identity, product, apparel and storytelling, helping founders and teams sharpen their point of view and turn it into something unmistakably their own.

RICKY G / TIGRE ISLAND ROOM

Warbird developed the identity and visual language for Tigre Island Room, then extended it across an evolving calendar of artists, events and community programming.