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Chill, man…
If You Think The Peace Sign Was Created By Hippies In The 60's, You’re Tripping
Originally conceived in 1958, this iconic symbol was only peripherally related to the anti-war, flower child era
As a baby boomer who grew up in the age of Vietnam War protests and Woodstock, I’ve always liked the iconic peace symbol. I even have it tattooed on my arm. But it wasn’t until very recently that I learned it was not conceived by hippies in tie dye, marijuana joint between their lips, humming along to Joan Baez.
In 1958, the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), an organization that still exists, commissioned the graphic designer Gerald Holtom to develop a logo for a march in Trafalgar Square, London. It was adopted immediately and turned into ceramic lapel badges for CND marchers campaigning for their pacifist cause.
Holtom was in despair over the state of the world when he conceived the image, and said he was initially drawing himself in supplication “with palms outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad.”
But he decided instead to use the flag semaphore signals for the letters “N” and “D” (below, N on the left, D on the right), standing for…
