Five minutes with Rob Hubbert

Transform magazine editor Jack Cousins sat down with Rob Hubbert, partner and managing director of Super Okay, at the House of Brand Transformation in Cannes. The pair discussed Hubbert’s previous work at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, how his current agency Super Okay approaches brand design and its work for cannabis company THC Design.

You’ve had an interesting career having previously worked for Cannes Lions. How do you think that experience teed you up for working at a creative studio?

My time at Cannes Lions really exposed me to the workings of the creative industry from the inside. One thing that stood out was that a lot of agency work was focused on solving communications challenges, rather than bigger brand problems. But there was also this whole part of the industry doing incredible work in brand design and creativity – work that could have a long-term impact and really stay with people when done well.

I also spent a lot of time with CMOs and saw there was often a gap between what brands needed and how agencies were connecting with them. When I started thinking about what I wanted to do next, I felt I understood both worlds and saw an opportunity to bridge that gap.

When my now business partner Anthony called about starting a brand design studio, it felt like everything aligned. It was a chance to work in a space I was passionate about while bringing that understanding of clients and marketers into the studio.

A big part of what we do is building long-term partnerships. Brands aren’t static – they evolve, need refining, and require ongoing thinking. For me, it was about creating a studio that could be a better partner to clients and help bridge the gap between great creative ideas and making them work in the real world.

 

Tell me about Super Okay. What’s the philosophy that drives the agency?

At Super Okay, there isn’t a single branded framework or a one-size-fits-all approach to how we work. What we fundamentally believe is that great design starts with strong brand strategy.

That means understanding where a brand has been, what its core equities are – whether fully real or partly perceived – and what customers and employees actually experience and believe about it. We spend a lot of time at the start of projects doing research, both qualitative and quantitative, talking to customers and teams, and building an honest picture of what the brand truly is today.

From there, we develop a design and creative strategy that responds to that reality. Sometimes the work is about protection – respecting heritage and recognising that a brand is already powerful and beloved, and that changing it too aggressively would be a mistake. Other times it’s about acknowledging that what exists isn’t working, doesn’t resonate, or isn’t aligned with where the brand needs to go.

So a key part of the work is understanding both where a brand has been and where it wants to move next. For some clients, that means careful evolution and refinement. For others, it’s a more radical shift or even revolution.

But everything has to be grounded in strategy. We never start by simply jumping into design. Even on small engagements, the thinking and context come first, ensuring the work is always tied to real brand and business needs.

One of your most interesting projects was for THC Design – the California-based cannabis company. Does Super Okay have to shift its creative mindset when working with ‘sin’ companies?

It’s less about a shift in mindset for so-called ‘sin’ categories and more about what we find interesting from a branding perspective. With cannabis in particular, the category itself is still quite immature from a brand and design point of view.

In the US market, there are a number of structural challenges that make brand building difficult. Because cannabis is still illegal at a federal level but legal at a state level, there’s a disconnect that affects everything from supply chain to brand consistency. It’s very hard for brands to operate across states or scale in a coherent way, and building long-term brand equity becomes complicated. The industry also requires significant capital to scale properly, which isn’t always available.

So when we worked with THC Design, it was less about the category and more about the opportunity. We were intentional in saying yes for a few reasons.

First, we already had an existing relationship with people in the business, which gave us confidence in the partnership. Second, they were vertically integrated, meaning they controlled their supply chain, which is a major advantage in a fragmented market. Third, they already had a legacy brand with real recognition and a reputation for quality product.

The opportunity was really to bring the brand up to the level of the product and create something more coherent and scalable in a very challenging category.

Would you say this was an instance of refining the brand, rather than a wholesale evolution?

I think it sits somewhere in the middle. THC Design was interesting because there was a lot of untapped potential in the brand, and some existing equities that were worth building on. In some areas it was clearly evolutionary. They had a mark that was already well known, but it needed refining to feel more ownable and distinctive. Previously it was a very literal representation of the chemical symbol for THC, and we made it more expressive and considered.

Colour was another key element. Purple had been used consistently throughout the brand’s history, so we wanted to retain it, but expand it into a more structured system, giving it different meanings in different contexts.

There were also clear gaps in the system. Typography wasn’t being used strategically at all, so we introduced a proper type system. From there, we built packaging that people would actually want to pick up – something that felt desirable and distinctive, not just functional.

A big part of the work was also pushing the packaging itself. We worked closely with the team and manufacturers in China to refine it and make it stand out on shelf. Ultimately, the identity was refined while the packaging became the more revolutionary element. The rebrand also helped support their expansion into Nevada, where new partners actively preferred the updated system over the old California packaging.

And finally, it feels like everyone here in Cannes this week is talking about AI. What’s your stance on it at Super Okay, and how do you, as an agency, stay up to date with the rapid changes we’re seeing?

At Super Okay, we try to separate what is genuinely valuable from what is just distraction. In recent years, industries have chased things like the metaverse, crypto and NFTs, often without clear relevance to clients or customers. We focus instead on fundamentals and how technology can genuinely improve our work.

AI fits into that thinking. It’s a broad shift that will affect every business, but our approach is pragmatic: we use it to augment our teams, improve client communication and remove unnecessary admin so we can focus more on relationships and problem solving.

Creatively, it can extend ideas and speed up execution, but not replace core thinking. Strong ideas still need human authorship, judgment and craft.