On Good Friday 1958, thousands of people gathered in the Trafalgar Square in London to protest nuclear weapons. They responded to a series of trials carried out by the UK, the third nation that joined the US and the USSR at the Nuclear Club.
For the next four days, the bravest among them in Aldermaston, a small town of 50 miles west of London, marched, where British nuclear weapons were designed and stored, According to CNN.
On the posters and the banners of the protesters, a new symbol made its first appearance.
Gerald Holtom, a designer and pacifist, developed it specifically for the course a few weeks ago. He believed that a symbol would make the message more powerful.
He was right: The symbol was adopted shortly after the nuclear disarmament campaign (CND) and became one of the most recognized plans in history.
“It’s a small masterpiece with a big submissive force,” Stephen Bayley said in ‘Ne -mail. “He talks very clearly about a time and a sensitivity.
“It’s just an excellent seasonal work: the usual thing that does very well.”
Alphabet semaphor
The plan is intended to represent the letters “n” and “d” – meaning “nuclear disarmament” – as it appears in the alphabet semaphor, which is used by seafarers to communicate remotely with flags.
But there is another meaning according to its creator. In a letter to Hugh Brock, author of the British Magazine Peace News, Holtom wrote: “I painted myself: the representative of a person in despair, with his hands with the palm out and down, as the villager of Goya before the executive. I put the design in a line and put a circle around.”
The symbol has been the subject of different interpretations since its establishment. “All good graphic creations must be clear and able to apply different media,” Bayley said. “But it has the advantage of a nice semantic ambiguity: it can be read in different ways.” A rocket during take -off? A person who is desperately greeting? ” A Dryidian report? But bypassing the interpretation: It’s one thing in itself. ‘
The story of the symbol of peace
Ken Kolsbun, a historian of the peace symbol, believes that the simplicity of the plan played a role in his timeless success. “You can set a 5 -year -old person to design it,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s such a powerful symbol with a kind of hypnotic attraction.”
Kolsbun spent decades photographing the symbol, which began in the 1960s in California. “It came at the right time,” he said. “He also continued to adapt as a chameleon, and took many different meanings for peace and justice.
“It’s an incredible plan. The big companies will die for it – see just how much logo has their logo in the circle. It’s not surprising that some people design it wrong without designing the Mercedes logo.”
In the US, the symbol was first used by political rights movements. It was probably introduced by Bayard Rustin, a close employee of Martin Luther King Jr. Who participated in the London course in 1958.
The symbol crossed the Atlantic and lost its connection to nuclear disarmament and eventually meant peace in general: “In the 1960s in the US, it was mainly anti -war,” Kolsbun said. “I didn’t even know that it meant nuclear disarmament.”
When the Vietnam War escalated in the middle of the sixties, the symbol of peace by anti-war protesters and the anti-culture movement was adopted, which found the stereotypical position on Volkswagen buses and in the sour wax T-shirts.
He retained the intentional free copyright and he traveled away and appeared widely in the former Czechoslovakia as a symbol of the Soviet invasion and South Africa to oppose apartheid.
The heritage of the symbol
As the symbol became more popular, it also had reactions. “Some really hated it, like the right -wing team John Birch Society,” Kolsbun said. “They made a monthly magazine and made a story in 1969 that exposed the symbol and said it was a sign of the devil. He ended up all over America and the New York Times took it in their hands. It got so much publicity that some people considered it a satanic sign after so many years. “
The symbol was used to support environmental movements and for the rights of women and homosexual people, and occur in all kinds of things. It appeared in Moschino T -Shirts, Tiffany Pendants, American stamps and even in Lucky Strike Sitharetpacks.
But one thing may have been lost according to Kolsbun: the original meaning.
“Many people still don’t know what it really means: not core. Most simply believe it means ‘peace’. But I think it’s important to know the true meaning, because the core threat hasn’t disappeared. In fact, it’s stronger than ever.”