BUILDING BRANDS. CREATING CULTURE.
PHOTO CRED : YOSHI AOKI
They're led by
people who care.
And they endure
because they're authentic.
Great brands
don't happen
by accident.
"RESPECT THE STORY.
BUILD SOMETHING THAT LASTS."
They're built
with passion.
They're shaped
by culture.
PHOTO CRED : SEAN MURPHY
Kind of.
ROB McABEE
Founder / Brand Builder
Creative Director
Storyteller
"
I've spent my career helping brands build culture. The rest is easy.
PHOTO CRED : SEAN MURPHY
I never had much of a master plan. One relationship simply led to another.
OOBE taught me that creative could have a seat much closer to the business. That experience led to Jay Wilson and Thomas Sakey at Hingepoint, where collaboration, craft and client trust became just as important as the work itself.
Along the way, I built Nomad Design, my freelance business, and created Bug Slinger as something entirely my own. Both taught me how to turn ideas into brands, build lasting relationships and be responsible for the whole thing.
Then came BOTE. For more than a decade, everything I'd learned along the way came together: brand, product, storytelling, culture and business.
After BOTE, Cayce and I reimagined Nomad as Warbird Collective, bringing those experiences together and putting them back to work.
Now I'm looking for the next opportunity. The next group of people, the next challenge and the next thing worth building.
Looking back, none of it was really planned.
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 all started with trust.
THE WORK SHOULD
LEAVE A MARK.
THE WORK
The Journey.
For more than three decades I've helped organizations, from ambitious, disruptive startups to established global brands, clarify who they are, develop products people connect with, and create experiences that resonate. Every challenge has been different. The objective has always been the same: build something someone wants to be a part of.
CHAPTER | 01
oobe
Creative Director
1997–2000
Creative Direction | Brand Strategy | Product | Storytelling
Seasonal Catalogs | Photography | Packaging
Where focus
became direction.
I joined OOBE in 1997 as the company’s third employee, working directly with founders Tom Merritt and Mike Pereyo during the brand’s earliest years. As Creative Director, I helped sharpen the company’s focus around the outdoor market and built the creative foundation across apparel, photography, seasonal catalogs, packaging, and brand collateral.
It was the first time I was trusted not simply to make the work, but to help determine where the brand should go. That experience became the foundation for everything that followed.
THE WORK | 01
Selected
Work
Design became the product’s first impression.
Before websites and social media, brands lived through catalogs, packaging, photography, retail environments and the products themselves.
Each season became an opportunity to sharpen OOBE’s visual language and build a more consistent experience around the brand.
The goal was never simply to present the product. It was to create a point of view people recognized and wanted to become part of.
FALL / WINTER 2000
CREATIVE DIRECTION CATALOG DESIGN
ART DIRECTION PHOTOGRAPHY
IDENTITY | EDITORIAL | PHOTOGRAPHY | RETAIL | PACKAGING | PRODUCT
Creative Direction | Brand IDENTITY | SEASONAL CATALOGS | Photography
Packaging | RETAIL PACKAGING | GRAPHICS
THE IMPACT | 01
A brand finds its voice one decision at a time.
OOBE taught me that brands are not built through a single season. They are built through consistent decisions across product, photography, catalogs, packaging, retail and customer experience.
That discipline, protecting a clear point of view while expressing it across every touchpoint, became a foundation for everything that followed.
"
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
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
2013–2024
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. Over the next eleven years, I helped shape the brand, products, 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.
PHOTO CRED : SEAN MURPHY
"
In retrospect, I learned more about true brand building from Rob than if I had taken a masters course on the subject.
COREY COOPER
CO-FOUNDER, BOTE
"
The guy has flat-out seen and experienced it all.
CHAPTER | 03
Founder | Creative Director
1998–2026
®
BRAND CREATION | CREATIVE DIRECTION | IDENTITY | APPAREL | PRODUCT | COLLABORATION
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® started as an alternative: a little less traditional, a little more irreverent, and built around 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 became proof that a point of view could become 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
LEGACY
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 SALES OVER TEN YEARS
What started as something I wanted to wear became a brand, a community and a business. It proved something I've carried with me ever since: culture isn't something you manufacture. You earn your way into it.
X
CHAPTER | 04
WARBIRD
COLLECTIVE
Everything learned along the way,
put into a practice.
Brand strategy | Creative direction |
Identity | Product | Culture
CLICK FOR SITE
WARBIRD COLLECTIVE
Building brands.
Defining culture.
LEFTOVER SALMON / TIGRE ISLAND ROOM
STRATEGY | STORY | PRODUCT | CULTURE
Warbird is where experience became practice. Cayce and I built the studio around a simple idea: understand what makes a brand worth caring about before deciding what it should look like. We work across strategy, identity, product, apparel and storytelling; helping founders and teams turn good ideas into brands people seek out.
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.
TIGRE ISLAND ROOM
identity + cultural/event work
Building a brand for a venue
created for music.
PROGRAMMING | EVENTS | COMMUNITY
The identity became
a platform.
Recurring events, cultural moments and one-offs developed their own voices while remaining part of the same world.
SELECT WORK
Different challenges.
Different solutions.
APPAREL | ILLUSTRATION
GILBERTO '77
Art becomes advertising.
MOCAMA BEER COMPANY
Making the story tangible.
PACKAGING | HOSPITALITY
SELECT IDENTITIES
CAYO FRANCIS FARM & FLY
DESTINATION + OUTDOOR
OPERATION PHOENIX
VETERAN ADVENTURE
INTERNATIONAL FLY FISHING FILM FESTIVAL
EVENT ID
DEUS
BRAND | PRODUCT ID
HOWLER BROTHERS
BRAND GRAPHIC | ILLUSTRATION
ALES & OVERLAND
LIFESTYLE | EVENTS
CHAPTER | 5
What's next?
I’ve spent my career helping founders and teams turn ideas into brands people want to be part of, from early-stage companies finding their identity to established businesses defining how to evolve.
Now I’m looking to tell the next story.
THE WORK | 02
BUILDING
THE BRAND.
Brand Identity | Product | CampaignS | Photography | Retail | Experience
CATALOGS | STORYTELLING | ASPIRATION
PRODUCT | BRAND SYSTEM
CONCEPT • ART DIRECTION • DESIGN
CREATIVE DIRECTION • PRODUCT • GRAPHIC DESIGN
Different products. Different campaigns. Different moments.
One brand. One point of view.
BRAND BUILDING | PRODUCT | STORYTELLING
