50 years of symbolism

I was in despair. Deep despair. 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 formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it. Gerald Holtom, conscientious objector and creator of the peace symbol.


The peace symbol, originally created for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, is 50 years old. Unveiled at a march against nuclear weapons proliferation in Britain on Easter weekend, 1958, the symbol, created by professional designer and artist, Gerald Holtom, was a transliteration of the semaphore letters for N(uclear) D(isarmament).

Unlike the smiley face logo of Harvey Ball, it quickly became an iconic symbol, but like the smiley face, the peace symbol was not copyrighted. Holtom's intent was always to encourage free distribution for the cause of peace. Ball just didn't know better, although Walmart has successfully copyrighted a rip-off of the smiley face that it uses to promote price reductions on goods imported from China.

Although Mr. Holtom never received financial compensation for his work, he may have considered worldwide acceptance gratitude enough. Now if we could only get folks to stop building nuclear weapons and shooting down satellites to prove it can be done we might have a chance. Let's at least give ourselves that as my old friend John used to say.

sources:
history of the peace symbol