The Age of Aquarius during the 60s was a time when peace and love were incredibly in style. It was impossible to live through a day of that era and not see visual symbols of those qualities…hearts, flowers and, most prevalent, the peace symbol.
Although the peace symbol is one of the most recognized logos on the planet, few people know its origins or what its design represents. Fortunately, its designer has explained his inspirations.
In 1958, a British graphic artist and ardent pacifist named Gerald Holtom was asked to design signs and banners for a nuclear disarmament march in London. Holton used the code signals of naval semaphore flags as the basis for his design… “N” for nuclear (two flags angled down at 45 degrees) and “D” for disarmament (one flag pointed straight up and one pointed straight down).
Simultaneously, Mr. Holton saw a personal, darker meaning to the symbol he created. As he explains in a letter to the editor of Peace News, the design was also “representative of an individual in despair with palms stretched outward and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad”.
Soon after the Good Friday disarmament march where the design was debuted, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament adopted it as their official sign. To this day it remains uncopyrighted.
Crossing the Atlantic to America, the peace sign was used by the civil rights movement. Bayard Rustin, an associate of Martin Luther King, was at that famous Good Friday march and is credited with suggesting its use for justice as well as peace. The Vietnam War was also raging at that time, and the versatile peace sign became the signature graphic of the anti-war and counterculture movements as well.
Down through the decades and around the globe, Mr. Holtom’s simple design holds its power. After the 2015 French terror attacks, artist Jean Jillien recreated the design in the shape of the Eiffel tower. And as Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine rages, the peace sign is again used to convey the universal wish…that good will triumph over evil.
Very interesting. I did not know how the design came to be.
Thank you for this.
pax