Groovy, man: the peace sign turns 50 1

According to his nephew, Tim Holtom, the designer would come to regret the symbol's attitude of despair. During the Aldermaston march, Holtom asked a shop girl what she thought of the symbol. She liked it, Tim Holtom remembers his uncle saying, but wondered whether its drooping arms weren'...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inCanWest News p. 1
Main Author Atherton, Tony
Format Newsletter
LanguageEnglish
Published Don Mills, Ont Postmedia Network Inc 19.02.2008
Subjects
Holtom, Gerald
Kolsbun, Ken
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:According to his nephew, Tim Holtom, the designer would come to regret the symbol's attitude of despair. During the Aldermaston march, Holtom asked a shop girl what she thought of the symbol. She liked it, Tim Holtom remembers his uncle saying, but wondered whether its drooping arms weren't "a bit depressing. Shouldn't peace be something to celebrate?" "He sort of altered his view in that moment," his nephew recalls. An inverted peace symbol would become Holtom's personal talisman, though a miscommunication resulted in the peace symbol appearing on Holtom's gravestone. "Ultimately, visual symbols become more emotionally persuasive when they are basic, unembellished, and abstract," says Ryerson's Pedersen. "The peace symbol's utter simplicity is its most powerful feature."