The Peace Sign, originally created to protest the bomb, quickly grew to become an iconic symbol of peace worldwide. Feeling despair over the testing and building of bombs, a textile designer, Gerald Holtom, decided that a tidy symbol was needed for their disarmament campaign. Designing an “N” for nuclear and a “D” for disarmament finished off with a circle enclosing the letters, it was indeed the simple sign that people sought.
Many critics laughed and said it would never catch on but like all things iconic, the symbol has stood the test of time. And what is even more interesting is that the creator did not copyright the design. Having deliberately not registered it, he allowed the world to own it. But it holds its rightful place on Holtom’s headstone on his grave.
