Oberheim Electronics is an American synthesizer manufacturer founded by Tom Oberheim in Los Angeles in 1969. The company became one of the most recorded makers of polyphonic analog synthesizers during the 1970s and 1980s, and its visual identity has remained closely tied to its founder’s personal history with the brand name.
Design and History
The original Oberheim logo was first introduced in 1970, the same year Tom Oberheim started Oberheim Electronics. The logo features a musical note motif that has come to be known as “Obie,” a friendly emblem that has remained associated with the brand across decades of ownership changes. [1]
Tom Oberheim has described the logo’s origin in his own words. When he started the company in 1969, he went to a design firm in the traditional way and commissioned a logo. The designer was prominent in the Los Angeles advertising art scene at a time when comics and comic art were popular in advertising. Oberheim has noted that the design was inspired by a character from a Rolling Stone column by cartoonist Robert Crumb, whose main character had a big foot sticking out, and the design was called the “Trucking Note.” Oberheim has called it “one of the all-time great logos.” [2]
The logo’s history is intertwined with the brand’s legal ownership. Oberheim Electronics filed for bankruptcy in May 1985, and all of Oberheim’s trademarks and other assets were sold off by the bank. In 1988, Gibson acquired the rights to the Oberheim name and produced Oberheim-brand products independent of Tom Oberheim for about twenty years. [3]
During the years when Tom Oberheim could not use the Oberheim brand, he sold his instruments under his own signature as a brand instead. Marcus Ryle, who worked at Oberheim and later co-founded Line 6, has noted that throughout this period Tom “couldn’t directly use the Oberheim brand and logo” and instead used his “Tom Oberheim” signature, which many musicians felt was a shame given how revered the original name and logo were. [4]
In 2019, Tom Oberheim was able to bring all of the Oberheim trademarks in the USA and several countries back into his name. In August 2021, Music Tribe Global Brands Ltd. transferred its remaining Oberheim trademark registrations back to him, giving him worldwide rights to the name for the first time since 1985. Tom Oberheim described it as “a wonderful homecoming” and “a thrill to once again be able to have the Oberheim name and logo placed on my products.” [3]
Meaning and Symbolism
The Oberheim logo’s musical note motif is directly tied to the brand’s identity as a synthesizer manufacturer. The emblem, nicknamed “Obie,” has been described as a friendly mark that has endured across the brand’s history. [1] The design’s connection to Robert Crumb’s “Trucking Note” character, as described by Tom Oberheim himself, gives the logo a distinct lineage rooted in the late-1960s comic art movement that influenced advertising design of the era. [2]
Logo Index is an independent educational archive covering logos, visual identities and graphic design history. All trademarks and brand assets remain the property of their respective owners.
