CND badge

New Zealand designers created localised versions of the iconic Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) symbol. In this design, Gavin Patterson reinterpreted the peace symbol with miha fern fronds uncurling inside the CND symbol, symbolising hope and growth. He won a national Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament competition in 1985 for best design.

The CND symbol was originally created by British graphic artist Gerald Holtom in 1958, and immediately became a significant visual element of anti-nuclear protest marches worldwide. The symbol can be read in different ways: it can symbolise a man with outstretched arms against the circle of the world, and it can be interpreted as combining the semaphore signals for the letters N and D (‘nuclear’ and ‘disarmament’).

The symbol became an emblem of the counterculture and the anti-Vietnam War movement in the 1960s–70s. Since then it has been used to express the desire and determination for universal peace, and is often called the ‘peace symbol’.