The Edmondson Blog

An interesting note on the video below. On display is what many people consider to be the international sign for peace. In fact, it is the logo of CND, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. During the 1960s the circle with the upwards facing arrow became ubiquitous and having been adopted as a sign for peace its origins have become a little overlooked.

The logo was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom and is based upon the international semaphore symbols for N and D (for Nuclear Disarmament) enclosed within a circle

Semaphore is a signalling system using two hand held flags to spell out letters of the alphabet:


The next run of letters are signaled by moving the static flag 45 degrees (inexplicably the letter J is omitted and appears later in the sequencing):

So the two diagonal lines in the logo represent N and the vertical, D.

Thought you would like to know.