The Peace Symbol

Definition
"Peace is a state of harmony, the absence of hostility. This term is applied to describe a cessation of or lapse in violent international conflict; in this international context, peace is the opposite of war." (Google, Definitions)
Context
"This forked symbol was adopted as its badge by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Britain, and originally, its use was confined to supporters of that organization. It was later generalized to become an icon of the 1960s anti-war movement, and was also adopted by the counterculture of the time. It was designed and completed February 21, 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a commercial designer and artist in Britain. He had been commissioned by the CND to design a symbol for use at an Easter march to Canterbury Cathedral in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in England." (Wikipedia)

My understanding of this piece is that it has been created to bring a symbol to a current affair that was happening during the time of its creation. It was basically a brand to the "Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament." I think that the symbol is a distinctive shape and works well as a logo for the branding of this campaign.

As for the design of the symbol it was inspired from the language of semaphore. This being communication with two flags. That similar to how an air traffic controller flags a plane down to land. The upside down 'V' in the symbol represents an 'N,' and the straight line down the middle represents a 'D.' Therefore producing Nuclear Disarmament. (Paraphrase, Wikipedia - Semaphore and Peace symbol)


Now understanding how the symbol was created I think that it is clear that the way in which to communicate its message has been well thought out. Flags give a worldwide communicative message. They do not speak so it is a visual language, same as that of a symbol. The use of the language of Semaphore understates within the symbol providing worldwide meaning.

This actual peace symbol has been digitally rendered however I would have thought that the original design will have been hand drawn. I cannot find any source material giving evidence of this.
However it had been designed, it needed to be reproduced onto different materials and documents therefore the simplicity of it would have made this a lot easier.

To conclude, my understanding of this symbol has become very clear in that the design has been well thought out to the extent that what needs to be communicated has been achieved. The symbol is now recognized worldwide for 'Peace.' I think this proves that visually the symbol is communicating its purpose very well. Overall this is a well constructed piece of design.

My Response
In response to the peace sign I wanted to re-create it but with a more updated and specific message. I decided to create a symbol in the same style as that of the peace sign however representing Anti Gun Crime. I thought that the use of semaphore worked well in the peace symbol so I wanted to use this same method in my symbol.

In the peace symbol the semaphore letters used were 'N' and 'D.' However, in my piece I don't want to use the same letters however use 'A,' 'G' & 'C' spelling Anti Gun Crime.
I found this worked well creating a symbol close to that of 'peace' however the connotations behind it are different representing a different message. Anti Gun Crime.

The material I used to produce this symbol was purely Photoshop. I thought that creating it digitally would be the best way of making a nice solid looking symbol. I would then be able to reproduce it very easily for different documents and situations.

Finally, I feel the concept behind the symbol works very well. The use of the semaphore system is very interesting and can produce lots of different symbols depending on what letters are used.