The peace sign was created in 1958 by British graphic designer and Christian pacifist Gerald Holtom. Holtom was tasked with creating the banners and signs for a nuclear disarmament march in London, and he wanted a visual that would stick in the public's mind.
The design is, in part, modeled after naval semaphore flags that sailors use to communicate. Holtom combined the codes for "N" (two flags angled down at a 45 degrees) for "nuclear" and "D" (one flag pointed straight up and one flag pointed straight down) for "disarmament."
But in a 1973 letter to the editor of Peace News, Holtom suggested the inspiration was also darker and more personal.
"I was in despair. Deep despair," he wrote, according to the book TM: The Untold Stories Behind 29 Classic Logos. "I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad. I formalized the drawing into a line and put a circle round it. It was ridiculous at first and such a puny thing."
The symbol was adopted by the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, of which Holtom was a member, and made its public debut Easter weekend, 1958.
Just two years later, the symbol migrated across the pond, appearing in the corner of a 1960 pamphlet for the Committee for Nonviolent Action — an American anti-nuclear group. By the mid-1960s, the peace symbol was popping up on pins, Vietnam protest posters, and T-shirts.
the british party line:
https://archive.is/qnOU0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Holtom
The peace sign was created in 1958 by British graphic designer and Christian pacifist Gerald Holtom. Holtom was tasked with creating the banners and signs for a nuclear disarmament march in London, and he wanted a visual that would stick in the public's mind.
The design is, in part, modeled after naval semaphore flags that sailors use to communicate. Holtom combined the codes for "N" (two flags angled down at a 45 degrees) for "nuclear" and "D" (one flag pointed straight up and one flag pointed straight down) for "disarmament."
But in a 1973 letter to the editor of Peace News, Holtom suggested the inspiration was also darker and more personal.
"I was in despair. Deep despair," he wrote, according to the book TM: The Untold Stories Behind 29 Classic Logos. "I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad. I formalized the drawing into a line and put a circle round it. It was ridiculous at first and such a puny thing."
The symbol was adopted by the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, of which Holtom was a member, and made its public debut Easter weekend, 1958.
Just two years later, the symbol migrated across the pond, appearing in the corner of a 1960 pamphlet for the Committee for Nonviolent Action — an American anti-nuclear group. By the mid-1960s, the peace symbol was popping up on pins, Vietnam protest posters, and T-shirts.
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