The iconic Ocean Beach seagull logo has been sold.
\nWhat that means remains to be seen, but new logo “steward” John McCoy, owner of Ocean Gifts & Shells at 4934 Newport Ave., is open for suggestions.
\n“I purchased the hand-drawn logo created back in the ’60s by Bob Sorben about three months ago,” said McCoy. “I carried it (seagull logo) in my store for 21 years.”
\nMcCoy, who sells T-shirts as well as seashells and other ocean-oriented merchandise, said he\u2019s “talked to people about carrying products (with the logo),” which he produces in quantity, since he purchased it.
\n“I\u2019m willing to talk to people about licensing it (logo),” McCoy said, noting, “I paid a lot of money to get a copyright for it.”
\nThe story of the OB seagull logo is interesting.
\nIts originator, Bob Sorben, still owns and runs Peninsula Graphics in Point Loma.
\nAccording to a recently released history of the OB seagull logo, Sorben, who was born and raised in OB\/Point Loma, always liked to draw. Growing up, he and his friends, all of whom surfed, used to hang out at the foot of Newport Avenue. In the ’60s, Sorben and his friends would buy OB stickers and letters to put on their cars to personalize them.
\nSorben\u2019s OB seagull decal was created in 1973 out of his love of Ocean Beach. In an interview with The Beacon, Sorben said he created the logo \u2014 and has since sold it \u2014 with the community strictly in mind.
\nDiscussing the origin of the symbol he chose for the beach community, Sorben said the idea was “to come up with something that wasn\u2019t too common.”
\nAdmitting the seagull is common, he nonetheless said that experimenting with the size, position and details of the bird is what ultimately made it so unforgettable.
\n“A friend of mine and I came up with the (seagull) idea and we toyed with it, placed and sized it just right,” Sorben said adding they tried other ideas for symbols that simply didn\u2019t work.
\n“We tried a lot of different things, like a fireball with flames with an O and a B, and everything just seemed too trendy, and not the perfect, classic thing we wanted,” he said.
\nIs Sorben satisfied with the end result?
\n“We were amazed,” he answered but was quick to point out, “We thought it might last maybe five years. You just never know.”
\nIt\u2019s been 44 years now since the seagull became OB\u2019s logo. Sorben said he was willing to sell it “at the right price to the right person.” McCoy turned out to be that individual.
\n“He was capable of handling it,” Sorben said. “He\u2019s got a store right on Newport. He\u2019s one of the few people that I had talked to about it. He was willing to keep the logo\u2019s history intact and actually promote the history.”
\nSorben added that, from the beginning, his intention was that the seagull logo “should be kept from getting too commercial. We could have gone up and down the coast in the ’70s and sold it, but we just wanted to keep it for the people of OB. I think we\u2019ve been successful with that over time.”
\nAccording to the OB logo\u2019s history, the design is copyrighted for 95 years. The decal first appeared at a time when Ocean Beach society was close knit, almost tribal. It has been seen around the world ever since.
\nSorben went back to City College in 1995 to learn computer graphics. While there he entered a nationwide design contest with the seagull logo and won first place. The Anheuser-Busch Design contest awarded a prize of $10,000, which was split between the school and Sorben.
\nIn 1997, Sorben was awarded the Landmark Award in recognition for the OB seagull logo. The etched wooden plaque was given by the Ocean Beach Merchants Association.
\nToday, Sorben and his wife Sue operate Peninsula Graphics on the corner of Ca\u00f1on and Scott streets in Point Loma Village. They continue to produce the “OB Seagull” and “Tunaville Fisherman” shirts and other products, decals, hats and other local apparel.
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The iconic Ocean Beach seagull logo has been sold. What that means remains to be seen, but new logo “steward” John McCoy, owner of Ocean Gifts & Shells at 4934 Newport Ave., is open for suggestions. “I purchased the hand-drawn logo created back in the ’60s by Bob Sorben about three months ago,” said McCoy. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":270466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"OB seagull logo sold to local businessman","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}